Return to main website

Prosecution, defense show strategy as Clemens perjury trial begins

July 13, 2011

Washington (CNN) — Prosecutors in Roger Clemens’ perjury trial wasted no time Wednesday telling the jury what they plan to show them.

During opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Durham said prosecutors plan to introduce physical evidence in the form of needles and used cotton swabs — evidence they say contains the former baseball star’s DNA as well as residue from anabolic steroids.

Clemens is facing charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of Congress about his alleged use of steroids and human growth hormone. The former all-star pitcher testified under oath before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2008 that he never used illegal performance-enhancing substances during his career.

Prosecutors say Clemens was never pressured to testify.

“This man was not subpoenaed, not forced… he was invited,” said Durham.

Clemens’ defense team took issue with that assertion. Lead defense counsel Rusty Hardin said Clemens’ lawyers at that time tried to convince Congress not to call Clemens to testify. Hardin said Clemens was effectively cornered when he was told he would be subpoenaed if he refused to testify.

Article: CNN

Newly released videos were taken by Dugard’s captors

(CNN) — In a shaky videotape released Tuesday, the couple who kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard can be heard discussing how to operate their new camera as they zoom in to capture images of children in a playground.

In another, taken some years later, Phillip Garrido accompanies a parole agent who is searching their home as his wife, Nancy Garrido, films the search, mere yards from the outbuildings where Dugard is hidden.

The videotapes were released Tuesday by the El Dorado County, California, district attorney’s office in response to media inquiries under open-records laws, and “to highlight the gravity and severity of the mistakes made” by law enforcement in the 18 years the Garridos held Dugard captive, during which time she gave birth to two children by Phillip Garrido.

Dugard and her children do not appear in the videos released Tuesday.

Dugard was just 11 years old when she was abducted in 1991 from the street in front of her South Lake Tahoe, California, home by Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender who had served 11 years for rape. Despite the fact that as a parolee he was regularly visited by police, he and his wife held Dugard and her daughters in a hidden compound of sheds and tarpaulins until 2009.

Article: CNN

Police Confirm Dismembered Body Is Missing Law School Graduate

Macon police confirmed Wednesday that the body of Mercer University Law School graduate Lauren Giddings was dismembered, and they said some parts of the body were still missing.

DNA tests confirmed that remains found outside Giddings’ apartment building on June 30 were hers. No arrests have been made in connection with her death.

A friend who had not heard from her since the previous Saturday contacted police after going to her apartment and discovering that she was not there. Friends had initially assumed that Giddings was just busy studying for the bar exam, but family members had not heard from her in that time either.

Police said Thursday that they have been taking statements from people connected to Giddings through the school and the community.

“We have been asked repeatedly about the number of ‘persons of interest’ or suspects in this case,” Macon Police Chief Mike Burns said in a press release. “We are interested in a number of people – but the process we are utilizing entails eliminating or excluding people from consideration; determining who has an alibi and could not have perpetrated this crime.”

Article: CNN

Key senator urges federal investigation of Murdoch media company

(CNN) — The phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire intensified in the United States Wednesday as a veteran senator urged the Justice Department to investigate whether one of Murdoch’s U.S.-based companies violated federal anti-bribery laws.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking Holder to look into concerns that News Corp. — the parent company of Fox News — violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as the FCPA. The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

News of the World, a 168-year-old British newspaper owned by Murdoch, printed its last edition Sunday in the wake of accusations that its reporters illegally eavesdropped on the phone messages of murder and terrorist victims, politicians and celebrities. Police in the United Kingdom have identified almost 4,000 potential targets of phone hacking.

Article: CNN