Roger Clemens’s Slander Suit in Steroid Case Largely Dismissed
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Roger Clemens’s slander suit over former trainer Brian McNamee’s statements that he injected the pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs was largely dismissed by a Houston federal judge, who said part of the case can proceed to trial in Texas.
U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison said today that Clemens’s claims that statements McNamee made concerning the pitcher’s alleged drug use to the Mitchell Commission probing steroid abuse in Major League Baseball and to a sportswriter weren’t grounds for a Texas slander case because they took place in New York.
Ellison also said McNamee’s testimony to the Mitchell Commission was part of a judicial proceeding and immune from civil claims.
The judge said Clemens can go forward with a Texas case against McNamee over conversations the trainer had with pitcher Andy Pettitte in Houston from 1999 to 2004. Ellison also said Clemens could refile his slander case in New York, if he wants to pursue McNamee’s comments to the sportswriter.
“I’m very pleased, this is what I’d hoped for,” McNamee’s attorney, Richard Emery, said in an interview.
Emery said Ellison’s immunity ruling means Clemens can’t pursue McNamee for the Mitchell Commission testimony. He called the surviving part of Clemens’s claims “much ado about nothing” because the seven-time Cy Young Award winner sustained no losses from what Pettitte might have learned.
Clemens Response
Rusty Hardin, Clemens’s lawyer, said he is pleased Ellison will allow the slander case over McNamee’s comments to Pettitte to proceed.
“We are reviewing other parts of the decision that we disagree with to determine how we should best proceed,” Hardin said in an e-mailed statement.
Clemens, 46, sued McNamee last February after being identified as a steroid user in the report by former Senator George Mitchell on the strength of McNamee’s accusations.
Both Clemens and McNamee testified before a congressional subcommittee, with Clemens denying and McNamee claiming he injected the pitcher with steroids and human-growth hormone numerous times before the substances were banned by professional baseball in 2004. Clemens is the subject of a grand jury investigation into whether he lied to Congress.
Emery said that if Clemens chooses to continue his suit against McNamee, either in Texas or New York, “it will give us the chance to depose both Clemens and Pettitte, and gather more evidence for the federal government.”
He said McNamee has met with federal prosecutors in Washington and intends to testify before the grand jury investigating Clemens. Emery said the trainer also hasn’t decided if he’ll continue with the slander counter-claim he filed against Clemens in New York.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in federal court in Houston at laurel@calkins.us.com.
Last Updated: February 12, 2009 18:14 EST |
