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A lawyer for Roger Clemens urged a judge to throw out a lawsuit in which the former Major League Baseball pitcher is accused of defamation by his onetime trainer, Brian McNamee.
Seven-time Cy Young winner and former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens leaves federal court Aug. 30 after pleading not guilty to charges of lying to Congress about whether he used steroids or human growth hormone. A lawyer for Clemens on Tuesday urged a judge to throw out a defamation lawsuit brought by the pitcher’s onetime trainer, Brian McNamee. McNamee claims Clemens defamed him by alleging that the trainer lied when he told investigators the pitcher used steroids. AP photo by Carolyn Kaster
The attorney, Rusty Hardin, made his arguments in a hearing Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. in Brooklyn, New York. The court doesn’t have jurisdiction over Clemens, and the complaint fails to state claims McNamee can sue over, Hardin said.
“Mr. McNamee is suing Mr. Clemens because Mr. Clemens has consistently denied that Mr. McNamee committed a crime” by injecting him with illegal drugs, the lawyer said.
Clemens, 48, defamed McNamee by alleging that the trainer lied when he told investigators the pitcher used steroids, the trainer said in the suit, filed last year.
The ballplayer was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Washington on charges that he lied to the U.S. Congress in denying he used steroids and human growth hormone to boost his performance. He pleaded not guilty on Aug. 30 and a trial was set for April.
Clemens wasn’t in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing.
In court papers, McNamee’s lawyers argued the Brooklyn court has jurisdiction over Clemens, a former New York Yankees player, because he conducts business in New York and maintained a residence in Manhattan as recently as 2007.
They argued that Clemens’s statements that McNamee lied when he said he injected the pitcher with steroids are defamatory.
“Since Clemens made his defamatory statements, McNamee’s business and financial situation has cratered,” his lawyers wrote. “Clemens’s lies transformed McNamee from a highly sought-after strength coach into a pariah.”
McNamee said in the complaint that he injected Clemens with steroids during the 1998, 2000 and 2001 baseball seasons, as well as with human growth hormone in 2000.
In 2007, McNamee was approached by federal investigators who made him provide information for former U.S. Sen.George Mitchell’s investigation of steroid use in baseball, according to the complaint.
After Clemens was named in the Mitchell Report, he denied using steroids and human growth hormone and accused McNamee of deceit and defamation, according to the complaint.
In 2008, Clemens sued McNamee for defamation. On Aug. 12, the federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld the dismissal of Clemens’s complaint because McNamee’s statements weren’t made in Texas, where the suit was brought. Clemens has asked the appeals court to reconsider the case.
The right-handed pitcher, known as “The Rocket,” has repeatedly denied using banned drugs. The indictment came more than two years after he told a U.S. congressional committee that he never used banned substances.
If convicted, Clemens faces as long as 21 months in prison under U.S. sentencing guidelines.
Clemens played more than 300 games during his career, which lasted through 2007.
The defamation case is McNamee v. Clemens, 09-1647, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn). The criminal case is U.S. v. Clemens, 10-cr-00223, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
With assistance from Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles and William McQuillen in Washington.
