Legal News

Forensics Emerge in Rocket?s Roid Scandal

By Dan Slater

The last time we checked in on the showdown between Roger Clemens (pictured, as a thin, flamethrowing Texas Longhorn) and his former trainer Brian McNamee — over McNamee’s allegations that he injected the Rocket with steroids — Clemens had launched a PR blitz against McNamee, and then hired a high-powered Beltway-insider to represent him before Congress.

Now, in a Law & Order-like twist, McNamee has thickened the plot by introducing forensic materials that he alleges corroborate his side of the story. Lawyers close to the matter told the NYT and the NY Post that McNamee has turned over bloody gauze pads, vials and syringes allegedly used to inject Clemens in his New York apartment in 2000 and 2001. McNamee, a former police officer, has apparently held on to the materials since then. We think that’s both a little weird and a little gross, but then again, according to this recent article in New York, “McNamee was in awe of Clemens.”

In a statement, Clemens’s lawyer, Lanny Breuer, responded that McNamee “apparently has manufactured evidence” and is “a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens.” Clemens, who contends that McNamee injected him only with the vitamin B12 and the painkiller lidocaine, is flying to Washington today to talk to members of Congress. The trip, says the Clemens camp, was planned prior to McNamee’s disclosure.

All the rhetoric fascinates the Law Blog, of course. But what we really care about here is the evidentiary issue presented by this new twist. Daniel Richman, a Columbia law professor and former federal prosecutor, told the Times, “The fact that these syringes were sitting in the accuser’s basement for years may lead to claims from the defense that they were fabricated. But a judge would probably give the government a chance to use them as evidence.”

Hey, Law Blog readers, any forensic afficionados out there? Assuming testing corroborates McNamee’s story, can Clemens’s lawyers argue that the evidence was somehow tainted in the chain of custody?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).