Wife had role in Clemens’ drug use

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This article was published 16/05/2012 (5242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON — Amid his year-by-year narrative of his complex relationship with Roger Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs, Brian McNamee weaved in a tale of two wives. He said it was his own wife who nagged him into keeping evidence that has become crucial in the trial of the storied pitcher, and it was a request from Clemens’ wife that led to what McNamee called a “creepy” injection scene in a bathroom.

Clemens’ longtime strength coach testified Tuesday for a second day in the perjury trial, which pushed his running total to more than nine hours on the stand, with cross-examination yet to come. The broad outline was familiar from McNamee’s previous statements: He said he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and with steroids in 2001, and he gave Debbie Clemens a shot of HGH in 2003. That was in addition to his testimony Monday, when he spoke of a series of steroids injections he said he gave Clemens in 1998, when he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.

McNamee is far and away the government’s key witness, the only person who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens taking performance-enhancing drugs. The former baseball great is accused of lying when he told Congress in 2008 that he had never used steroids or HGH.

McNamee appeared less nervous than he did on Monday, and his voice rose as he spoke of marital problems that he said developed in part because of his relationship with Clemens. He said his wife was concerned that he would become a fall guy for Clemens.

McNamee said he thought “she might be right,” so he kept the needle, swab and cotton ball from a steroids injection he said took place in Clemens’ New York City apartment in 2001.

McNamee said he kept the evidence a secret — even when he was telling investigators about injections he gave pro baseball players — because he was hoping he could minimize the impact on Clemens.

It wasn’t until 2008, after McNamee was angered by a news conference at which Clemens’ lawyers played a taped phone call that contained medical details about McNamee’s oldest son, that McNamee retrieved his collection of medical waste and turned it in.

— The Associated Press