* Inconsistencies in testimony
* Trial ending fourth week
By Ian Simpson
WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – The key witness in
ex-baseball pitching ace Roger Clemens’ federal perjury trial
faces a last day of marathon testimony on Friday, with the
defense likely to hammer anew on his shifting story.
Brian McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, has spent about 20
hours this week in U.S. District Court detailing how he
allegedly injected the pitcher with anabolic steroids and human
growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.
Clemens’s defense lawyer Rusty Hardin, who has grilled
McNamee about inconsistencies in his testimony, has said he
expects to wrap up his cross-examination around noon on Friday.
McNamee, 45, has admitted lying to federal investigators and
to an independent commission headed by former U.S. Senator
George Mitchell that investigated drug use in Major League
Baseball.
But he has remained steadfast in alleging that Clemens, one
of the greatest pitchers to play the game, used drugs.
Clemens, 49, is being tried for a second time on federal
charges of lying in 2008 to the U.S. House of Representatives’
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which was
investigating drug use in baseball. His first trial ended in a
mistrial last year.
Clemens was known as “The Rocket” during a career that ran
from 1984 to 2007. He won the Cy Young Award as best pitcher
seven times and is among the biggest names implicated in drug
use in baseball
McNamee is the only person with first-hand knowledge about
Clemens’ alleged use of drugs.
He worked with Clemens when the right-hander pitched for the
Toronto Blue Jays and later with the New York Yankees. He also
was employed as Clemens’ personal trainer.
The trial is ending its fourth week of slogging courtroom
testimony. Judge Reggie Walton urged both sides on Thursday to
pick up the pace, saying the jury was becoming impatient.
Testimony was scheduled to end on June 1 but Walton moved
back the expected termination date to June 8. Prosecutors said
they had 14 more witnesses and would wrap up their case at the
end of next week at the earliest.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Vicki Allen)
