Lawyer puts Rogers Clemens accuser on trial

  FREDERIC J. FROMMERWASHINGTON -- Roger Clemens' lawyer 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 attorney 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.

McNamee will return to the stand Monday in a trial moving so slowly that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton - for the first time in more than three decades on the bench - imposed time limits to speed things up: Only 90 minutes per side for witnesses after McNamee and closing arguments limited to two hours apiece.

"I just can't let this case meander on forever," the judge said.

The trial was supposed to last four to six weeks, but it's just wrapping up its fifth week - and the government said Friday it still has nine witnesses to call, down from the 14 it estimated the previous day. If the trial isn't done by June 8, Walton said he may have to call a recess for about a month because of various scheduling conflicts.

"And then we'll have some real unhappy jurors," Walton said.

Clemens' attorney Rusty 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 unsavory 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.

The aim was to take McNamee down little by little, and his weariness showed as he hung his head more than once. During one of many pauses in testimony, a juror reached over and handed McNamee a tissue so the witness could wipe his nose. McNamee also indicated, reluctantly, that he was hypoglycemic, thus explaining why he needed frequent breaks to elevate his low blood sugar.

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 that 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?"

"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 ever told government investigators that he put the other players' material in the beer can that night, McNamee said: "It's never been asked that way before."

"Isn't this," concluded Hardin, "a classic example of you making up this stuff on the fly?"

Even though McNamee never backed down from his core testimony that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2001, but prosecutors have their work cut out for them as they try to rebuild their key witness in front of the jury. The judge said he would allow only 90 minutes of follow-up questioning from prosecutors, and they used up 20 minutes of that allotment before court adjourned for the weekend.

To bolster McNamee's credibility, the government hopes to win an argument to include previously barred evidence that shows McNamee supplied drugs to other players who have since acknowledged that they were users. Hardin claimed that would open up a "bunch of minitrials" over each player associated with McNamee and could extend the trial for months.

The judge said he will rule on the matter Monday morning.

Late Friday afternoon, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, filed a motion to quash Clemens' subpoenas for Issa's testimony and committee documents. That committee held the hearing that Clemens testified before in 2008; Issa, a California Republican, was not chairman at the time.

The motion argues that the subpoenas are barred by the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned in a lawsuit about their legislative work.

"In particular, the subpoena to Chairman Issa should be quashed because high-ranking government officials may not be compelled to testify absent extraordinary circumstances, including that the official is uniquely able to offer that testimony, unlike here," the House general counsel's office said in its motion.

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Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer contributed to this report.

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Clemens accuser admits initially lying about steroids

  FREDERIC J. FROMMERWASHINGTON -- During another seven grueling hours of cross-examination that frustrated all sides, Roger Clemens' accuser explained the evidence he kept in a beer can - and why his story about it has changed.

Brian McNamee was on the stand Thursday for a fourth day in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, holding firm to his testimony that he injected Clemens with steroids from 1998 to 2001 and human growth hormone in 2000.

But Clemens' longtime strength coach again conceded that his memory of some details has evolved over the years, and that he initially told some lies during the drugs-in-baseball investigation conducted by federal agents and former Sen. George Mitchell.

Whether the jurors were still keeping track is another matter: They again expressed concern about the agonizingly slow pace of a trial that still has weeks to go, and the judge opined that Clemens' lawyer was "confusing everybody."

"At this pace," U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said, "I'll guess we'll be here forever."

Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin tried to exploit McNamee's inconsistencies, even if it meant taking the case far afield from the principle issue of whether Clemens actually used performance-enhancing drugs. The former baseball star is accused of lying when he testified to Congress in 2008 that he never used steroids or HGH.

The day's testimony ended at a tantalizing moment. After some 19 hours on the stand, McNamee was being challenged by Hardin over the needle and other waste kept in a Miller Lite can after a steroids injection McNamee said he gave Clemens in 2001. The government is expected to show the waste contains Clemens' DNA.

McNamee indicated to Congress in 2008 that he kept the evidence primarily because he was starting to distrust Clemens, but he told the jury earlier this week he kept it because his wife had starting nagging him to do something to protect himself from being a fall guy in case he ever got caught.

McNamee said Thursday he had hoped to keep his wife out of the story. His change of heart came as he and his wife are going through a contentious divorce.

"Now she's involved," McNamee said, "she's got to take responsibility for her action."

McNamee said the beer can came from the recycling bin in Clemens' apartment, while conceding that he'd never seen Clemens drink a light beer. Hardin insinuated that McNamee manufactured the evidence after Clemens' televised denials of steroids use.

"All of a sudden, the person being accused is fighting back," Hardin said, "and you have to figure out some way to save yourself."

Hardin's aim is to portray McNamee as a serial liar, and he appeared to have some success this day.

"Did you ever tell Sen. Mitchell that you injected Roger Clemens approximately four times in the rear over a two-week period in 1998?" Hardin asked.

"That's possible," McNamee answered.

"If you did tell him ... would that be a lie?" Hardin asked.

"Yes, it would," said McNamee, who testified this week that he injected Clemens about eight to 10 times during Clemens' 1998 season with the Toronto Blue Jays.

McNamee again maintained that he had minimized the number of shots to try to help out Clemens.

"I wanted to make it not look like he was a bigger steroids user than he was. ... I never lied about the usage, just amounts," he said.

There were several similar exchanges. Hardin also displayed a calendar to show that a 1998 pool party at former slugger Jose Canseco's house was on a Tuesday; McNamee has always remembered it taking place on a Saturday. McNamee then went back and forth trying to place the date he gave Clemens' wife an HGH shot at the Clemens' home in Texas - switching from the 2003-04 offseason to the 2002-03 offseason.

"I could be confused," McNamee said. "I'm getting handed a lot of dates."

But it's an open question whether the lawyer's scattershot approach - leapfrogging from topic to topic with complex questions that evoke frequent objections from the government - will pay dividends with the jury. A serious trial that could end up sending one of baseball's all-time greats to prison was peppered with exchanges Thursday that sounded more like a situation comedy.

There was one exchange in which Hardin wanted to know why McNamee didn't tip off Clemens after being contacted by federal authorities. McNamee said Clemens never asked.

Hardin: "How could he ask if he didn't know?"

McNamee: "How could I answer if he didn't ask?"

Hardin: "You're serious?"

At another point, when Hardin was switching topics at a fast and furious pace, McNamee turned his palms up and said: "You're going from articles to emails - I'm trying to keep up, man."

Later, as Hardin was trying to pin another lie on him, McNamee responded: "I'm having a problem with the 'lie' thing."

Then, when explaining why he decided to cooperate with federal authorities, McNamee said: "They would have had an opportunity to lock me up for lying." But Hardin mistook McNamee's thick New York accent, thinking McNamee said "life" instead of "lying." Hardin started to make a big deal of the comment until McNamee corrected him.

The sputtering pace of the trial, now in its fifth week, is taking a noticeable toll on the jury. Two members of the panel already have been dismissed for sleeping, leaving 12 jurors and two alternates. Walton emerged from a morning break and said they've been asking again how long the trial will last.

Walton sounded incredulous when the government responded that it had 14 more witnesses to call, which would bring its total to 26. The judge then told the jury that he expects the trial to last through at least June 8.

With the jury out of earshot, the judge said "someone's going to pay the price" for the slow pace, but Walton said he couldn't tell which side it would be. Then he segued into a critique of Hardin's all-over-the-place questioning.

"It's confusing everybody," Walton said, "but I don't think it's making much of a point."

---
Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer contributed to this report.

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Accuser raises questions about Sandusky's wife

  By GENARO C. ARMAS and MARC LEVYSTATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Grand jury reports alleging child sex abuse by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky are also raising questions about whether his wife knew about his alleged pattern of preying on boys - or how she couldn't have known.

One accuser told the grand jury that Dottie Sandusky was home when he screamed for help while her husband sexually assaulted him in a basement bedroom.

But Dottie Sandusky broke more than a month of silence Thursday, calling the accusations against her husband false and declaring that she continues to believe that he is innocent.

Lawyers not involved in the case say that evidence made public so far does not prove Dottie Sandusky did anything wrong - for instance, there's no proof she heard the alleged screams - although prosecutors almost certainly are interested in talking to her.

"Certainly if the activities are alleged to have occurred in the home, yeah, the prosecutors are going to figure, `Jeez, you were in the house at the time this was going on? You must have known something,"' said Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh and a law professor at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. "I would certainly think there would be interest in talking to her."

Jerry Sandusky, 67, faces criminal accusations from 10 young men who claim he molested them when they were boys in his home, on Penn State property and elsewhere. The scandal has provoked strong criticism that Penn State officials didn't do enough to stop the alleged assaults and prompted the ouster of Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and the school's longtime president, Graham Spanier.

The Sanduskys, who raised six adopted children together, have maintained that they would never do anything to hurt a child. Jerry Sandusky has vowed to fight the case and, in interviews with NBC and The New York Times, he said he showered and horsed around with boys but never sexually abused them.

It is rare that a family member testifies against another in court, Antkowiak and others say. And while many states protect spouses from having to testify against each other, that provision is not in force in Pennsylvania in cases of violence or sex abuse against children.

Prosecutors could ask a court to compel Dottie Sandusky to testify against her husband. But lawyers say that it's unlikely that they would do so, since she's unlikely to incriminate him, and in any case prosecutors may feel that they don't need her testimony to prove their case.

It is also possible, others say, that all of this may have played out in secret: She may already have asked for a grant of immunity or she may have already testified before the grand jury.

A spokesman for the state attorney general's office, which is prosecuting Sandusky, declined to comment.

Still, Dottie Sandusky almost certainly is facing lawsuits that lawyers say are likely to bankrupt her if she doesn't seek a divorce.

"Make no mistake, Dottie has a financial interest in this because once these criminal cases are decided, there will be civil suits by each and every victim, and those victims' suits will go after all the (Sanduskys') assets," said Susan Moss, a New York City-based family and divorce lawyer.

So far, at least one lawsuit has been filed. It names Jerry Sandusky, Penn State and the nonprofit that Sandusky founded for troubled youth, The Second Mile, through which he is said to have met his alleged victims, but not Sandusky's wife.

Dottie Sandusky, 68, had kept largely out of sight since the first charges were filed against her husband Nov. 5.

She spoke out in a statement released through her husband's lawyer a day after a Wednesday grand jury report detailed the claims of two new accusers, among them the testimony of one who said he cried out for her help while Sandusky assaulted him in a basement bedroom.

"I am so sad anyone would make such a terrible accusation which is absolutely untrue," she said.

The alleged victim testified Jerry Sandusky kept him in a basement bedroom during overnight visits to the home, fed him there, forced him to perform oral sex and attempted on at least 16 occasions to anally penetrate him, sometimes successfully.

"The victim testified that on at least one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that Sandusky's wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him," the grand jury report said.

He described a pattern of sexual assaults by Sandusky over a period of years, but testified that he had "barely any" contact with Sandusky's wife during his numerous visits in which he stayed in the basement, the grand jury said.

Dottie Sandusky disputed his claims.

"No child who ever visited our home was ever forced to stay in our basement and fed there," she said in her statement. "All the kids who visited us ate with us and our kids and other guests when they were at our home."

One civil litigation lawyer who read Wednesday's grand jury report, Joseph T. Musso in Alexandria, Va., said he saw nothing in the victim's statement that on its face would give rise to criminal or civil liability for Dottie Sandusky.

But, Musso said, "ordinary people will likely ask themselves, `How does she not know what's going on?"' The explanation may be complicated.

It is not unusual for family members to shut out or deny the abuse of others at the hands of a family member, analysts say.

For instance, they can do it out of fear, hopelessness, helplessness or psychosis, said Harold J. Bursztajn, co-founder of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School.

"You have a variety of flavors of denial," Bursztajn said.

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Lawyer: Another Sandusky accuser steps forward

In this Aug. 6, 1999 file photo, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky during Penn State Media Day at State College, Pa. ((Paul Vathis/AP Photo ))

  By MARYCLAIRE DALE and GENARO C. ARMASSTATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A 19-year-old man has filed a complaint with state police alleging he was sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky after the former coach gave him liquor on the Penn State campus in 2004, the accuser's lawyer said Tuesday.

Charles Schmidt said the client, whom he did not identify, went to his law firm about three weeks ago, after Sandusky was charged with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period.

"He suffered one incident of abuse, to use the legal term - involuntary deviate sexual intercourse - allegedly at the hands of Mr. Sandusky," Schmidt said. "That occurred on the Penn State campus, we believe in the area of the football facilities."

Sandusky's lawyer, Joseph Amendola, said he was unfamiliar with the allegations Schmidt was making.

The new claim came the day a lawyer for another young man who accused Sandusky of sexual abuse said he expects his client and at least five other accusers to testify at a preliminary hearing next week.

The lawyer said he has information that the six young men whose testimony before a grand jury contributed to a report detailing allegations against Sandusky will be called to testify next Tuesday. The attorney spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he said he is trying to ensure his client's identity isn't revealed publicly.

Sandusky is charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse, and prosecutors allege he met his victims through a charity he founded in 1977 to help at-risk children, The Second Mile. Sandusky, 67, denies being a pedophile and has vowed to fight the charges. In interviews with NBC and The New York Times, he has said he showered and horsed around with boys but never sexually abused them.

The existence of Schmidt's client was first reported by WHP-TV in Harrisburg.

Schmidt told the AP that his client was 12 years old, dealing with the death of his mother and suffering emotional issues at the time of the campus incident. The lawyer said the two met through The Second Mile and his client claims Sandusky gave him liquor while in the office on campus. The grand jury report did not allege any instances of Sandusky giving boys alcohol.

Schmidt said his law firm is conducting its own investigation into the client's claims.

"We hope to have it wrapped up within another week. We believe him to be credible," Schmidt said. "Everything that we've been able to unearth since has corroborated what he told us, but we'll continue to do our due diligence."

The preliminary hearing, at which a judge would determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to take the case to trial, could last a day or more since the defense has the right to cross-examine the state's witnesses.

The state attorney general's office would not comment on the evidence authorities plan to offer to show probable cause the crimes occurred.

Amendola said Tuesday that a police officer witness should not be able to testify in the place of the accusers, based on evidentiary rules that pertain to hearsay.

"Our position would be that these people have to testify," Amendola said. "And one isn't sufficient, because you have eight separate incidents ... with eight separate alleged victims or accusers."

Prosecutors listed eight victims in the grand jury report but didn't know the identities of two of them when they issued the report in early November. The report said one of those two was a boy seen being sodomized by Sandusky in a Penn State football complex shower in 2002.

Amendola has said he believes he knows the identity of the boy in the shower and that the person dined with Sandusky this past summer.

Amendola said he's looking forward to questioning the prosecution witnesses - including any accusers.

"We will, for the very first time, have the opportunity to face Jerry's accusers and question them under oath about their allegations," he said in a statement Monday. "We look forward to this opportunity."

Former sex crimes prosecutor Richard DeSipio said prosecutors may have to call the six known accusers for the judge to uphold the 40 counts. Defense lawyers sometimes waive preliminary hearings if they are worried about publicity for their clients, but DeSipio said he is not surprised Amendola is demanding the hearing.

"This is their first and only opportunity before trial to actually see the witnesses ... to hear their tone and demeanor and to question them and see how they respond to questions and also to flush out details," said DeSipio, who is now a criminal defense lawyer in Philadelphia.

Assistant football coach Mike McQueary, who has been identified as the witness to the 2002 shower encounter, could also be called to testify. McQueary's account wasn't immediately brought to the attention of authorities even though high-level people at Penn State apparently were told about an incident in the showers.

In the wake of the scandal, the university last month fired coach Joe Paterno and accepted President Graham Spanier's resignation. Paterno has said he wishes he had done more about allegations against Sandusky.

Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has stepped down. Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to the grand jury and failure to report to police. They maintain their innocence.

Also Tuesday, Penn State President Rodney Erickson told skeptical faculty members not to worry that school trustees would "whitewash" their own investigation. Erickson pledged to the University Faculty Senate that investigators will have unfettered access to and cooperation from the school. He said the leadership of a committee checking into the allegations should lend confidence "that there will be no whitewash ... no sweeping under the rug."

Trustees have appointed former FBI director Louis Freeh to lead the probe for a committee spearheaded by trustee Kenneth Frazier.

Erickson said he would urge trustees to have the committee members meet with faculty.

Since taking over for Spanier, Erickson has vowed to make Penn State a leader in raising awareness of issues related to child abuse following the scandal that has tarnished the school's image. The effort includes using football bowl revenue that typically goes back to the athletic department to causes related to such issues.

The total revenue, Erickson said Tuesday, will reach at least $2 million, $500,000 more than the amount the school promised last week would be donated for programs at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

The additional revenue will now go toward helping to establish a Penn State institute that would work in the treatment and prevention, as well as research into, child abuse. The first piece to the institute would be a Center for the Protection of Children to be based at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Erickson said.

"We're taking both steps to (create) change immediately as well as a longer-term goal in which our faculty can be very much involved," Erickson said.

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Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo in State College contributed to this report.

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Strauss-Kahn's French accuser speaks out on TV

  By ELAINE GANLEY and PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARDPARIS -- The French woman who alleges that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 said Wednesday she finally took legal action because the New York case against the former IMF chief reawakened painful memories.

"I thought you could forget, put things in a box, put it away and in fact this isn't possible," Tristane Banon said on France-2 TV.

It was the first TV interview the 32-year-old has given since filing a criminal complaint against Strauss-Kahn on July 5, just as a New York judge lifted his $6 million bail in the sexual assault case there. That decision came after New York prosecutors cast down on the credibility of the victim who had lied about her past.

The Guinean immigrant alleges Strauss-Kahn, 62, attacked her May 14 in his suite at the Manhattan Sofitel. He denies any wrongdoing.

That case, and now the one brought by Banon, put Strauss-Kahn's political career on hold, just as his Socialist Party hoped to see him as their candidate in next year's French presidential race. The deadline for candidacies for the primary was Wednesday.

Banon, 32, claims Strauss-Kahn attacked her in an empty apartment during an interview she was conducting for a book.

Strauss-Kahn's French attorneys have filed a complaint for slander against Banon. She claimed Wednesday that Strauss-Kahn has a faulty memory. Her lawyer, David Koubbi, has said he has evidence, including text messages related to the incident.

A preliminary investigation for attempted rape was launched, but it was not immediately known whether her complaint would survive the scrutiny of investigators. The case could be dropped or pursued. There is a three-year statute of limitations for sexual assault, a misdemeanor in France, but 10 years for attempted rape.

Banon's interview was aired after police questioned her mother as part of the probe into the case. Banon was questioned at length on Monday.

The woman repeated that she had not filed a complaint at the time because she had been dissuaded - by her mother, a Socialist Party politician, by journalists and legal counselors.

"Its because of the Sofitel incident that this problem is posed (for me) once again ...," she said. "Once more, I'm faced with this incident. It made me think of it again." But now, she said, she has a lawyer who "will see this to the end with me."

She denied claims by some here that she was seeking publicity or had been manipulated.

Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press that she had dissuaded her daughter from taking action because "I thought at the time my daughter had more to lose than to gain."

"What I underestimated ... is that this would have such a considerable impact on her behavior, on her life," she said.

Mansouret said she met for more than six hours with police, but disclosed nothing.

In Washington, meanwhile, a lead lawyer for Strauss-Kahn said at a news conference exclusively for French-speaking reporters that there was no real significance to be read into the postponing of his client's next court date, which was moved from July 18 to Aug. 1.

The July 18 date was not an audience during which either his team or the prosecution expected to tell the judge "anything definitive," William W. Taylor III was heard saying as France-2 aired a portion of the news conference.

He also reiterated that Strauss-Kahn will not plead guilty to any of the charges he faces.

It was not clear whether the session was called to prep French reporters on the vastly different U.S. justice system or aimed at assuring they do not somehow damage Strauss-Kahn's case in the public eye.

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