Government prosecutors want to use a series of eleven voice messages left by baseball home run champion Barry Bonds for his mistress as supporting evidence of steroid use. Former Playboy model Kimberley Bell collected the eleven voice mails over the course of a decade between 1994 and 2003. Bonds does not admit to using steroids nor are steroids ever discussed. Instead, Bonds allegedly sounds irritated in the voice mails that he could not reach Bell. Since Bonds was irritated, he must have used steroids, right? The government wants to introduce the voice messages to bolster their argument that Bonds knowingly used steroids and lied about it under oath.
In the voice mails, Bonds sounds irritated because he can’t reach the girlfriend in most of the 11 messages Kimberly Bell collected between 1994 and 2003. Prosecutors want to play the recordings for the jury to bolster their contention that Bonds’ short temper was a side effect of steroid use.
Apparently, the government wants the jury to believe that no one ever quarrels with their romantic partner UNLESS they are using anabolic steroids. If a person leaves an average of one irritated voice message for their girlfriend, partner, or spouse per year, it could be used against them in a court of law as indicative of steroid use. The Government’s case against Bonds represents a modern-day witch-hunt against celebrity steroid users in the United States.
The government is spending a lot of time providing evidence that Bonds may have displayed irritability and/or aggression particularly with expected testimony concerning his romantic relationship with Bell. However, the government will have its hands full trying to prove the fundamental link between anab0lic steroids and aggression. While “roid rage” may be a popular side effect of steroids in popular culture, the scientific evidence for its existence is tenuous at best.
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