Rusty loses one
Roger Clemens' defense team whiffs: Judge orders a new perjury trial for Mr. CyYoung
Roger Clemens' latest winning streak — arguably the most important one of his life — came to an end Friday afternoon in a Washington D.C. courtroom when a federal judge threw out the Cy Young collector's bid to avoid a retrial on perjury charges.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton set a new trial date of April 17. For Clemens, this is no glancing blow. Many expected this ruling, but a few legal experts were convinced that the former pitching superstar was off the hook after the judge declared a mistrial in the original case. The mistrial was triggered by the prosecution team violating Walton's evidence orders at the first trial by letting the jury see items he declared inadmissible.
Walton says that a retrial will not violate Clemens' constitutional rights of no double jeopardy and that under the law, he couldn't deny the prosecutors a second trial even if he wished to do so.
Clemens' high-powered, high-dollar defense team — headed by Houston's Rusty Hardin — had argued that the prosecutors intentionally botched the case because they felt they were losing it in front of the jury.
But it's back to the courtroom for The Rocket next spring. The case centers around the U.S. prosecutors' charge that Clemens lied under oath when he testified that he never used steroids in a Congressional hearing. The case could come down to whether the jury believes Clemens or his former New York Yankees and Houston Astros' teammate Andy Pettitte, who testified in front of Congress that Clemens told him he turned to steroids.
The mistrial was prompted when testimony from Pettitte's wife Laura (who says that her husband told her that Clemens admitted to him he used steroids) was left on a screen the jury could see. The judge has declared that testimony from Laura Pettitte is inadmissible.
Come back to CultureMap for more details.
