Roger Clemens got to the courtroom first last night, suing the man who has accused him of using steroids and human growth hormone.
The suit raises the stakes in what had been a war of words, creating the possibility of testimony under oath and all its consequences.
The suit against Brian McNamee was filed on the same night Clemens went on 60 Minutes and denied ever receiving illegal injections of performance enhancing drugs from McNamee.
The suit filed in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, accuses McNamee of making “untrue and defamatory statements” about Clemens.
McNamee had told federal authorities and former Sen. George J. Mitchell, who was compiling a report on steroid use in baseball, that he had injected Clemens with steroids or human growth hormones in 1998, 2000 and 2001.
The suit contends that McNamee, who was under investigation for supplying steroids to athletes, was pressured to name Clemens.
“According to McNamee, he originally made his allegations to federal authorities after being threatened with criminal prosecution if he did not implicate Clemens,” the suit says.
The suit does not say when or where McNamee said this.
It also contains an unattributed transcript of an ‘interrogation” of McNamee by Matthew Parrella, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Parrella is part of the team prosecuting the steroids case connected to the operations of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative or BALCO.
The transcript also mentions IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the BALCO case.
The Clemens lawsuit would seem to be a kind of preemptive strike, as McNamee’s lawyer, Richard D. Emery, had said last week that his client was considering suing Clemens for defamation.
Later, Emery said he would hold off on a suit until Clemens testified before Congress.
Clemens, several other players and McNamee have been asked to appear before a Congressional committee looking into the issues raised by the Mitchell report.
Emery told the New York Daily News today that he found it “astounding” that Clemens had sued his client. “I don’t consider this lawsuit a major threat,” Emery said. “I’m sure we can get it dismissed.”
“You can’t be sued for talking with federal officials,” Emery added.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Rusty Hardin, Clemens’s lawyer, filed the lawsuit electronically shortly before 60 Minutes broadcast its interview of Clemens by correspondent Mike Wallace.
In the interview, Clemens denied receiving steroids or human growth hormones from McNamee. He did say that McNamee gave him injections of Vitamin B12 and lidocaine, a painkiller.
“I’m angry that what I’ve done for the game of baseball and as a person, in my private life, what I’ve done, that I don’t get the benefit of the doubt,” Clemens told Wallace. “The stuff that’s being said. It’s ridiculous. It’s hogwash.”
Clemens’s lawsuit devotes several pages to the pitcher’s career and to his relationship with McNamee.
It alleges that Clemens stopped training with McNamee after the 2001 season when he learned that McNamee was a suspect in a rape investigation. Because of the investigation, McNamee was also let go of his job as an assistant trainer with the Yankees, the suit says. He was never charged, however, and later Clemens rehired him.
The lawsuit contends that McNamee’s allegations have “severely injured” Clemens’s reputation.
The lawsuit asks for damages “in an amount to be determined by a jury.”
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