A San Francsico federal grand jury has indicted Barry Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction alleging that he “knowingly and willfully” made material false statements regarding his use of performance-enhancing substances during his grand jury testimony in the into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative. Bonds had a grant of immunity during his 2003 testimony with one exception: If he committed perjury or made a false declaration, he could be charged.
Columbia University law professor John C. Coffee Jr., a white-collar crime specialist, said it will be hard to prove that Bonds knowingly made a false statement with the intent of misleading the grand jury. “You can imagine the defense putting on expert witnesses about how Bonds could have believed this was some of exotic” but legal product, Coffee said, reports LATimes.com.