Bonds' personal trainer asks appeals court to free him

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Barry Bonds' personal trainer has asked a federal appeals court to free him from prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the Giants slugger.

Greg Anderson, who has appeared five times before two federal grand juries without answering pertinent questions, filed court papers late Wednesday through his attorney Mark Geragos. The papers allege many of the same points Anderson has argued unsuccessfully to a trial court since July when a judge first ordered him jailed.

Anderson has been held since Aug. 28 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin.

The trainer already has served three months in prison and three months of home detention after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering stemming from the government's investigation of BALCO, which allegedly supplied Bonds and other elite athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.

Numerous grand jury leaks have left Anderson mistrustful that his testimony will be kept confidential, Geragos said. Testifying also would violate a deal Anderson struck last December in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative case, in which Anderson specifically stated he wouldn't cooperate with the government.

Judge William Alsup rejected those arguments, as well as a third claim that Anderson was a target of an illegal wiretap. A federal appeals court also rejected the wiretap argument.

In the new court papers, Geragos said Anderson answered more than 50 questions. But prosecutors have argued Anderson answered only rudimentary questions like providing his name. Prosecutors said Anderson didn't answer any substantive questions about performance-enhancing drugs and his responses were designed only to delay the process, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella argued Aug. 16.

For instance, Anderson refused to answer when Parrella asked, "Did you distribute anabolic steroids to Barry Bonds?"

U.S. Attorney spokesman Luke Macaulay said Thursday "we will respond in court as appropriate." The government has until Sept. 20 to file opposing arguments.

Anderson spent 15 days in prison last month for refusing to testify, but he was freed after that grand jury's term expired.