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Jan 7, 2008 9:41 pm US/Eastern
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Clemens Sues Trainer For Defamation
NEW YORK (CBS News) ―
Roger Clemens' former trainer said he was willing to go to jail
and repeatedly asked the pitcher "what do you want me to do?" during a
17-minute telephone conversation last week.
A recording of last Friday's conversation between Clemens and Brian
McNamee was played Monday at the start of Clemens' news conference.
Clemens' lawyers said that because McNamee didn't deny Clemens' claims
that he never used steroids, it amounted to proof that Clemens was
telling the truth.
"I'll go to jail, I'll do whatever you want," McNamee said during the conversation.
"I need somebody to tell the truth," Clemens said.
During the tape, McNamee never said he lied when he told baseball
investigator George Mitchell last year that he injected Clemens with
steroids and human growth hormone in 1998, 2000 and 2001.
"I'm in your corner," McNamee said. "I'd also like not to go to jail, too."
Late Sunday, Clemens filed a defamation suit against McNamee in Texas state court.
Clemens was mostly expressionless while the tape played, even when McNamee said, "You treated me like family."
Clemens said McNamee initiated the conversation, which was laced
with emotion and profanity. McNamee, a former strength coach for the
Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, sounded as if he were a
desperate man.
"I'm firing my lawyers. I'm getting rid of everybody," McNamee said. "My wife is gone. My kids are gone."
After the tape was played, Hardin said Clemens was willing to
testify Jan. 16 to the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform. Clemens and McNamee were invited to Washington along with Andy
Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski, the former Mets' clubhouse
attendant alleged to have provided McNamee with performance-enhancing
drugs.
"I'm going to Congress and I'm going to tell the truth," Clemens said.
On the same day his
interview about alleged steroid use was broadcast on "60 Minutes,"Clemens
beat McNamee to court, filing a defamation suit against the former
trainer who claimed to have injected him with performance-enhancing
drugs.
Clemens filed the suit Sunday night in Harris County
District Court in Texas, listing 15 alleged statements McNamee made to
the baseball drug investigator George Mitchell. Clemens claimed the
statement were "untrue and defamatory."
"According to McNamee, he originally made his allegations to
federal authorities after being threatened with criminal prosecution if
he didn't implicate Clemens," according to the 14-page petition.
Richard Emery, one of McNamee's lawyers, said he would seek to
remove the case to U.S. District Court in Houston, then to possibly
shift it to federal court in Brooklyn.
"I think it's dismissible on its face. I think it's a press release
for Clemens and his career," Emery said. "The case is shoddy at best.
The prosecutors acted completely professionally in this case. This is a
very odd thing for me to be saying, but it's the truth. Sometimes you
are bound by the truth."
The suit states that when McNamee told others that when he first
was interviewed by federal law enforcement last June, he denied Clemens
had used steroids or human growth hormone. The suit quotes McNamee as
saying he was pressured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella and
IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky - key members of the BALCO prosecution
- to implicate Clemens. The suit did not attribute where the quote from
McNamee was obtained.
"After this exchange, and for the first time in his life, McNamee
stated that he had injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and
2001," the suit said. "Following his recantation, McNamee has relayed
that he magically went from a 'target' in a federal criminal drug
investigation to a mere 'witness,' so long as he continued to 'toe the
line."'
The suit said that when McNamee initially refused a request from
federal authorities that he speak to Mitchell, he was threatened with
prosecution. Clemens said McNamee decided only then to cooperate with
Mitchell, and the suit said McNamee told other the interview "was
conducted like a Cold War-era interrogation in which a federal agent
merely read to the Mitchell investigators McNamee's previously obtained
statement and then asked McNamee to confirm what he previously stated."
Clemens asked that damages be determined by a jury.
"Clemens' good reputation has been severely injured," the suit
said. "McNamee's false allegations have also caused Clemens to suffer
mental anguish, shame, public humiliation and embarrassment."
Emery said McNamee was threatened with prosecution for steroids
distribution unless he told the truth. That, according to Emery, was
when McNamee implicated Clemens.
Emery also challenged Clemens' assertion that he didn't know in
advance that he would be named in the Mitchell Report, releasing a pair
of what he said were Dec. 11 faxes from Clemens and Andy Pettitte
acknowledging a pair of private investigators worked for them.
The seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who was scheduled to hold a late afternoon news conference Monday in Houston,
sounded indignant and defiant in a segment of
CBS's 60 Minutes
broadcast Sunday night, his first interview since McNamee accused him.
The two are approaching a potential confrontation if they testify under
oath at a Jan. 16 hearing on Capitol Hill.
The most prominent player implicated in last month's Mitchell
Report, Clemens steadfastly maintained his innocence and called
McNamee's allegations "totally false."
"If he's doing that to me, I should have a third ear coming out of
my forehead. I should be pulling tractors with my teeth," said Clemens,
who wore a lavender button-down shirt during the interview, taped Dec.
28 at his home in Katy, Texas.
On Friday, when the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform invited Clemens and McNamee to testify, the pair spoke by
telephone, an individual close to the situation said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because public comments weren't authorized. The
conversation first was reported Sunday by Newsday.
The individual would not say what was discussed.
Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, told the Houston Chronicle that it
was McNamee who arranged to talk to Clemens on Friday but instead of
getting back to Clemens the conversation was leaked "with spin" to
Newsday.
During the "60 Minutes" segment, Clemens said he might be willing
to take a lie-detector test and was "shocked" Pettitte used HGH. He
said - again - that he probably will retire.
A fiery look in his eyes and stubble on his face, Clemens told CBS's Mike Wallace that he would have spoken with Mitchell had he been aware of McNamee's accusations.
"I thought it was an impassioned, disingenuous and desperate plea," said Earl Ward, McNamee's primary lawyer.
One of the few revelations in the much-hyped interview came when
Clemens was asked whether he conceivably would take a lie detector
test.
"Yeah," he answered. "I don't know if they're good or bad."
After Monday's news conference will come the congressional hearing.
Pettitte, former Yankees teammate Chuck Knoblauch and former Mets
clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, who allegedly supplied McNamee with
performance-enhancing drugs, also were asked to appear before the
committee.
Lawyers for Clemens and McNamee have said their clients are willing to testify but Hardin wouldn't commit to the date.
Emery said he wanted to hear testimony from Clemens.
"If Congress calls him, he pretty much has to take the Fifth, and
if he takes the Fifth, nobody will ever believe him again and all this
effort has gone down the drain," Emery said. "And if he doesn't take
the Fifth, it's very hard to imagine that a prosecutor isn't going to
pursue this. So I think he's put himself in a terrible corner."
Clemens said his lawyer advised him not to speak with Mitchell, who spent 20 months on his investigation.
"If I would've known what this man, what Brian McNamee (had) said
in this report, I would have been down there in a heartbeat to take
care of it," Clemens said.
Only two active players, Jason Giambi and Frank Thomas, spoke with
Mitchell, a Boston Red Sox director and a former Senate majority
leader.
In excerpts of the CBS interview that were released Thursday,
Clemens said McNamee injected him with vitamin B-12 and the painkiller
lidocaine. In the full 14-minute broadcast, Clemens also said he was
given an injection of toradol under the supervision of the New York
Yankees.
McNamee told Mitchell he injected Clemens with steroids and HGH
about 16 to 21 times during 1998, 2000 and 2001 - before baseball
players and owners agreed to ban performance-enhancing substances.
Eighth on the career list with 354 wins, the 45-year-old Clemens
said he was angered McNamee's accusations have been accepted as truth
by some.
"It's hogwash for people to even assume this," Clemens said.
"Twenty-four, 25 years, Mike. You'd think I'd get an inch of respect.
An inch."
Clemens said the descriptions McNamee gave Mitchell of injections "never happened."
"If I have these needles and these steroids and all these drugs,
where did I get 'em?" he said. "Where is the person out there (who)
gave 'em to me? Please, please come forward."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)