Long-lost audio recording of Bonds' doctor reappears

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It was a very important day in the Barry Bonds perjury trial Monday, even though not much actually happened in the courtroom. The trial was on hold because one juror was sick with a kidney stone. However, the prosecution says one of its witnesses has found a key piece of evidence he thought was lost.

Bonds' former business partner and estranged friend, Steve Hoskins, says he has found a secret audio recording he made of Bonds' orthopedic surgeon soon after the BALCO raid. Hoskins testified he made the tape of Dr. Arthur Ting in September 2003, but then lost it.

The government is now working on a transcript, then the defense will send the tape and the recorder to a lab for authentication. After that, the judge will rule whether to allow the recording as evidence.

Hoskins testified he had many conversations with Ting about Bonds' steroid use. But when Ting took the stand he denied those conversations ever happened, admitting only to making copies of a medical text on steroid side-effects after a call from Hoskins requesting it.

The tape could settle whether or not Ting ever talked to Hoskins about Bonds and anabolic steroid use.

"Defense attorneys always smell a rat. Whether there's really a rat in this case I guess we'll have to find out as the court proceeds and we find out the mystery of this evidence that's been missing for eight years, suddenly pops up at the crucial, most dramatic moment in the prosecution's case," says ABC7 legal analyst Dean Johnson.

Late Monday afternoon the lawyers and judge agreed the trial will continue with the sick juror in place when he returns Tuesday morning, armed with a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine.

Bonds is facing perjury and obstruction of justice charges for telling a 2003 grand jury he never knowingly used anabolic steroids.

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trials, san francisco giants, barry bonds, steroids, mlb, heather ishimaru

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