Bonds sentenced to house arrest, probation

Barry Bonds, US baseball's all-time home run king, was sentenced Friday to 30 days of house arrest and two years probation for giving misleading testimony in connection with the BALCO probe. US federal judge Susan Illston also ordered that Bonds perform 250 hours of community service and slapped him with a modest $4,000 fine for his conviction on the obstruction of justice charge. Prosecutors had asked for a 15-month jail term for Bonds, arguing that the former San Francisco Giants slugger's actions were part of "a calculated plan to obfuscate and distract the grand jury from getting to the truth." They also argued that Bonds' claims he never "knowingly" took steroids are "patently false." The 47-year-old Bonds, who lives in a luxury two-acre mansion in Beverly Hills, California, will be free, pending his appeal, with his sentence stayed. Matthew Parrella, the assistant US attorney, told the court that house arrest would not be sufficient "for a man with a 15,000-square-foot house with all the advantages." Parrella said Bonds made hundreds of millions of dollars during his professional career rendering the fine "almost laughable." He also described the sentence as "a slap on the wrist." In December 2003, Bonds was accused of lying in testimony to a grand jury investigating Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative's (BALCO) role in providing steroids to world-class athletes. Bonds is the probe's highest-profile catch. In April, a jury convicted Bonds of obstruction of justice. The jury of eight women and four men found Bonds had misled the grand jury investigating a steroids ring by giving an evasive answer to a question about injectable drugs. Asked by a prosecutor whether his trainer had ever given him anything that required a syringe, Bonds launched into a rambling response in which he talked about being "a celebrity child" among other random statements. While jurors deadlocked on three other perjury counts after nearly four days of deliberations, they unanimously agreed Bonds had been intentionally evasive and misleading. Bonds, who wore a dark suit and a tie during his sentencing hearing, appeared slimmer than during his playing days with the Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates. He owns American baseball's single season record for home runs with 73 and a separate record for career home runs at 762. While he didn't receive jail time, the sentence leaves Bonds' induction into American baseball's hall of fame in doubt. Illston has dealt with sentencing before in connection with the BALCO steroids scandal. She gave US cyclist Tammy Thomas six months of home confinement and athletics coach Trevor Graham 12 months of home confinement. In the Bonds case, Illston cited her previous sentences and said she had to stay "consistent" with similar convictions for crimes in the BALCO probe. Disgraced American track and field star Marion Jones, sentenced by a different federal judge, is the only athlete to receive prison time for lying during the probe. Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his involvement with BALCO. Bonds was one of two ex-baseball All-Stars to stand trial in doping-related cases in 2011. After just two days, the trial of superstar pitcher Roger Clemens was halted because prosecutors used inadmissible evidence. Federal Judge Reggie Walton has set a new trial date of April 17.