Associated PressSAN FRANCISCO ó Barry Bonds renewed his claims of innocence Friday, pleading not guilty to 15 federal charges of lying to a grand jury about his performance-enhancing drug use.
Baseball’s home run king pleaded not guilty to similar accusations last December, but a judge ordered prosecutors to rewrite the indictment. The new indictment includes no new allegations.
Bonds was re-arraigned Friday on 15 felony counts of lying under oath. Prosecutors say he lied when he told a grand jury investigating BALCO in 2003 that he never knowingly took steroids.
Bonds said nothing during the five-minute arraignment. His attorney Allen Ruby pleaded not guilty on the slugger’s behalf, and Bonds embraced his aunt Rosie Kreidler after the hearing.
“The reason that I am here is because his father is deceased,” said Kreidler, sister to Bonds’ father Bobby Bonds. “This is such a tremendous blow to his family. It is so much on us. He’s a great person. We are all praying for him.”