Federal prosecutors have reduced the number of felony charges for Barry Bonds' perjury indictment from 11 to five.

Bonds, Major League Baseball's all-time leader in career home runs, was indicted in 2007 for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury about his alleged steroid use during his playing career.

The prosecution's case continues to face problems though as Bonds's former trainer Greg Anderson, who has been in prison for more than a year for contempt of court, is steadfastly refusing to take the witness stand for the prosecution. Anderson stands accused as the person who supplied Bonds with steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

One of the charges that was dropped was based on dates on calendars in Anderson's apartment that allegedly correlated to Bonds's drug-taking schedule. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled the calendars inadmissable due to Anderson's refusal to authenticate them as a witness.

A hearing is scheduled for Friday to determine whether a recorded conversation between Anderson and Bonds's former business partner Steve Hoskins will be admissable. The conversation was recorded by Hoskins in March of 2003 and on it Anderson allegedly says Bonds is currently taking a steroid that was at that point undetectable by MLB's testing method. Bonds's initial test sample came back negative, but after an advancement in testing was made, a subsequent test of Bonds's sample came back positive for the steroid THG.

Hoskins recorded the conversation to prove to Bonds's father Bobby that Bonds was in fact taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds still stands accused of making false statements to the grand jury by saying he was never injected with any substances except by his physician and obstruction of the grand jury's investigation into performance-enhancing drug use is sports.

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