SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson told a judge Friday he won't testify at the slugger's perjury trial.
Federal prosecutors will appeal this key ruling in the trial, likely delaying its start for several months.
Prosecutors notified the judge of their latest move after Anderson, said at a morning court hearing that he would not testify at the slugger's trial. Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston had barred prosecutors from showing the jury important evidence linked to Anderson unless he took the witness stand.
Bonds is accused of lying to a grand jury in 2003 when he denied that he knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.
Illston told Anderson at a hearing that she will order him to testify on Wednesday when attorneys are slated to deliver their opening statements to the jury. Anderson said that he will disobey the order, a move that could put him back behind bars.
The judge said Anderson will be incarcerated during the trial for contempt of court until he changes his mind or for the length of the proceedings, which are expected to last a month. He was previously imprisoned for refusing to testify about Bonds before a grand jury.
Whether the trial would start on schedule Monday was still unclear.
Illston has barred prosecutors from showing jurors three positive steroid tests they allege belong to Bonds, as well as so-called doping calendars investigators say that Anderson maintained for baseball's career home run leader.
The judge said her reading of the law requires her to automatically stop proceedings to allow the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider the government's appeal.
"I would be delighted to know that I'm wrong about that," said Illston, who noted that 90 prospective jurors were planning to show up to court on Monday. "I would be delighted to have the discretion to deny" the delay.
Bonds is accused of lying to a grand jury when he denied that he knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.
