SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds‘ attorneys filed a motion Wednesday asking a judge to change Bonds’ obstruction of justice conviction to an acquittal or schedule a new trial.
Bonds was convicted of obstructing a grand jury’s steroids investigation by giving an evasive answer during questioning in 2003. The trial ended in April with a hung jury on three perjury counts along with the conviction on the single obstruction count.
The home run king’s lawyers argue he was unfairly convicted of “unauthorized rambling” in discussing being a celebrity child when asked whether his trainer ever injected him with a syringe. The lawyers insist that Bonds answered the question directly during further questioning.
“Unauthorized rambling is not a federal crime,” Bonds’ lawyers wrote in their brief.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston scheduled a hearing for July 1 on their request.
Serena loses to Zvonareva
EASTBOURNE, England — Serena Williams‘ comeback tournament at Eastbourne ended in the second round with a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 loss to top-seeded Vera Zvonareva.
Zvonareva came through a tense match in 3 hours, 12 minutes for only her second win in eight matches against the 13-time Grand Slam champion.
“I know I can do better,” Williams said. “I can improve and I’m so close to being there, it’s good.”
• Yanina Wickmayer overcame being hit in the face with the ball to defeat Arantxa Parra Santonja 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in the second round of the Unicef Open in Den Bosch, Netherlands.
Also, Svetlana Kuznetsova rallied to beat Sara Errani of Italy 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
MLS: Revolution, Toronto tie
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Toronto FC and the New England Revolution battled to a scoreless tie.
New England (3-7-5) ran its Major League Soccer winless streak to five matches (0-4-1), while Toronto (2-5-9) extended its own winless slump to seven (0-2-5).
Footnotes.
Borut Bozic of Slovenia won the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland and Damiano Cunego of Italy retained the overall lead.
Bozic won the sprint in the last 500 meters to the finish line to beat Oscar Freire of Spain, clocking 4 hours, 44 minutes, 48 seconds for the 130-mile run from Huttwil to Taegerschen.
• Jockey Rajiv Maragh was suspended for seven days for careless riding in the Belmont Stakes, when his horse Isn’t He Perfect started a series of collisions that nearly caused Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom to fall just after the start.
• Field hockey star Sammy Macy of Massachusetts-Lowell and swimming standout Kendra Stern of Amherst have been chosen Honda athletes of the year in Division II and III.
• Ohio State and Michigan are finalizing plans to play each other in hockey at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians in January, 2012.
• The Tulsa Shock waived rookie center Miranda Ayim.
The Associated Press
