WASHINGTON — Prosecutors said Wednesday that needles and cotton balls Roger Clemens’ former trainer said he used to inject the star pitcher tested positive for Clemens’ DNA and anabolic steroids — evidence the defense said was faked.
Assistant U.S. attorney Steven Durham revealed the results during opening arguments in Clemens’ trial on charges of lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin responded that he won’t dispute the needles contain Clemens’ DNA and steroids, but accused the trainer Brian McNamee of “mixing” it up.
“He manufactured this stuff,” Hardin told jurors. “Roger Clemens’ only crime was having the poor judgment to stay connected with Brian McNamee.”
Hardin said steroids would have been so “incredibly inconsistent with his career and beliefs that there’s no way he would have done it.”
Clemens has said that the only things McNamee ever injected him with were the common local anesthetic lidocaine for his joints and vitamin B-12 to ward off flu viruses and stay healthy. But Durham said neither substance was found on the needles or cotton swabbed with his blood stains.
Hardin told the jury that the government is “horribly wrong” in charging his client with perjury, false statements and obstruction of Congress. Clad in a dark suit, Clemens watched silently from the defense table with a clenched jaw.
Durham said that about 45 witnesses, including several of Clemens’ former teammates, will help make the case that Clemens used anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
