roger clemens

roger clemens

Prosecutors said Wednesday needles and cotton balls Roger Clemens' former trainer says he used to inject the star pitcher tested positive for Clemens' DNA and anabolic steroids — evidence defense attorneys said was faked.

Assistant U.S. attorney Steven Durham revealed the results during opening arguments in Clemens' trial on charges of lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin responded he won't dispute the needles contain Clemens' DNA and steroids, but accused the trainer Brian McNamee of "mixing" it up.

"He manufactured this stuff," Hardin told jurors. "Roger Clemens' only crime was having the poor judgment to stay connected with Brian McNamee."

Hardin said steroids would have been so "incredibly inconsistent with his career and beliefs that there's no way he would have done it."

Clemens has said the only things McNamee ever injected him with were the common local anesthetic lidocaine for his joints and vitamin B-12 to ward off flu viruses and stay healthy.

But, Durham said neither substance was found on the needles or cotton swabbed with his blood.

Hardin told the jury the government is "horribly wrong" in charging his client with perjury, false statements and obstruction of Congress.

Clad in a dark suit, Clemens watched silently from the defense table with a clenched jaw.

"There was a rush to judgment on Roger that has made it impossible for him to be fairly heard until he got here," Hardin said in the federal courthouse just a couple blocks from the congressional hearing room where he testified three years ago.

Hardin showed the jury an enlarged photo of the country with all the sites where federal agents investigated the case.

"They still didn't find anything to connect him with steroids except Brian McNamee," Hardin said.

Durham, however, said about 45 witnesses, including several of Clemens' former teammates, will help make the case Clemens used banned substances.

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