Clemens trial: Judge loses temper regarding audio deposition debate

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton raised his voice while commenting on the dispute between the prosecution and the defense for Roger Clemens. At issue was the release of the audio for the official deposition that contains the alleged perjury before Congress.

The defense attorneys claimed that the jurors needed to hear the audio recording of the deposition to gauge whether the former All Star pitcher was telling the truth about using steroids or other performance enhancing drugs while playing professional baseball.

The prosecution said those recordings were protected by law and could not be released without a resolution from the House of Representatives. At this point Judge Walton lost his temper and told the defense that Clemens' inflections of voice can't be that crucial to the case, and, mindful that prohibiting the audio could open the door to a later appeal, said it seemed odd that one branch of the government could prosecute a case while another branch of government withholds evidence to do so. In the end, he asked the defense to request the audio again, but said the case wouldn't be delayed for the request.

Judge Walton also said he didn't think it would be necessary to bring other ballplayers to the stand, but warned the defense that if they pursued the strategy of claiming that Brian McNamee was blackmailing Clemens by gathering or fabricating evidence, prosecution could call other ballplayers to the stand to show that this was not his typical behavior.