Oct 5, 2007 8:16 pm US/Pacific
Bonds Lawyers Deny Steroid Claims By Ex-Girlfriend
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
Two Bay Area attorneys who represent Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giant who's baseball's all-time home run king, issued a statement Friday saying they're unhappy with steroid allegations made against Bonds by his former girlfriend Kim Bell in Playboy magazine.
In the November issue of Playboy, Bell describes a "romance gone bad." She said steroids turned the kind man she met in 1994, into "a sudden, sociopathic personality." She describes his angry mood swings and hostile threats. Furthermore, Bonds' ex-mistress alleges the National League's most valuable player was not necessarily an "MVP in the bedroom."
Attroney Todd Schneider, who's based in San Francisco, said, "We had hoped that Ms. Bell would adhere to basic notions of truth and common decency in her comments to Playboy. Obviously we were wrong."
"It is obvious that the lure of a lucrative payday from Playboy magazine has driven Ms. Bell to make these unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue statements," added John Burris, another lawyer based in Oakland. "Unfortunately, Ms. Bell has simply joined the many others who have cashed in by fabricating stories about Barry Bonds."
Schneider and Burris didn't say in their statement if they're planning to sue Bell.
On Aug. 13, Burris and Schneider said in a statement that Bonds would sue anyone who makes false or misleading statements about him.
Burris and Schneider said Bonds retained them "in connection with legal issues arising from the myriad of false statements attributed to him by players, the media and others."
The attorneys, who are veteran civil rights litigators, said they believe "such statements are defamatory and have legal consequences."
They said they "want the public to know that Barry's silence in the face of the accusations should not be construed as an admission of any kind."
In fact, Burris and Schneider said Bonds retained them "because of the false nature of these statements."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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