Clemens’ lawyer has ‘gotcha’ moment

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This article was published 19/05/2012 (5243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON — Roger Clemens’ lawyer Rusty Hardin jabbed his left index finger and hammered away, relentlessly attacking Brian McNamee over his personal life and accusing the government’s chief witness of “making up this stuff on the fly.” The lawyer finally sprung his trap and pointed out what appeared to be a flaw in McNamee’s story about the collection of evidence that turned up in a beer can.

McNamee’s explanations: “I misspoke; I’m sorry” and “It’s never been asked that way to me.”

Clemens’ longtime strength coach endured a fifth day Friday of questioning — he’s now spent some 24 hours in the swivel chair between jury and judge in the perjury trial of the 11-time all-star pitcher.

Clemens is charged with lying to Congress in 2008 when he said he never used steroids or human growth hormone. McNamee is the only witness who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using performance-enhancing drugs, and he never wavered from that central accusation during Hardin’s cross-examination.

Hardin spent three-plus days of cross-examination portraying McNamee as a chronic liar who frequently changes his story. Toward the end, Hardin raised numerous unsavoury personal details: McNamee tampered with a dead body when he was a New York City policeman, he lied to investigators looking into a Florida incident in 2001, he had two driving-under-the-influence arrests in 2002, he got caught up in an Internet fraud investigation after ordering diet pills over the Web in 2004.

“Would you agree that you had a severe drinking problem?” was among the many accusatory questions from Hardin. McNamee answered “No, sir” to that one.

But Hardin also aimed for a classic “gotcha” moment while asking McNamee about the Miller Lite beer can. McNamee says he put the needle and other waste from a 2001 steroids injection of Clemens into the can, but he also says the can contained remnants from injections related to other players.

When Hardin talked McNamee through a timeline of events dealing with the can, it became apparent McNamee had not accounted for the actual moment at which he put the items from the other players into the can.

Hardin angrily demanded to know how materials from other players “flew” or “showed up magically” in the beer can. When prosecutors objected, the lawyer said: “Well, how did they get in there?”

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“I put them in the can that night” after injecting Clemens, McNamee said.

McNamee went on to say “I misspoke; I’m sorry” when explaining the apparent gap in the story. When Hardin asked whether McNamee told investigators he put the other players’ material in the can that night, McNamee said: “It’s never been asked that way before.”

— The Associated Press