Bonds drops lawsuit against authors

Updated: June 11, 2006, 1:27 AM ET
Bonds drops lawsuit against authors
Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds dropped his lawsuit against two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who published a book claiming the Giants slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds requested that San Francisco County Superior Court dismiss the lawsuit June 2, according to court records reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. The suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning he retains the right to refile it.

In March, Bonds sued Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, publisher Gotham books, the Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published an excerpt of the book, "Game of Shadows."

Bonds' lawyers, suing under California's unfair competition law, argued that the authors should be blocked from making money on the book because it used illegally obtained grand jury testimony.

Transcripts of the testimony were leaked from a federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, where Bonds and several other major league players allegedly obtained performance-enhancing drugs.

During a March hearing, Bonds' lawyers unsuccessfully sought a temporary restraining order on all profits from the book. At the time, Judge James Warren said he thought the lawsuit had little chance of success and the authors had raised "serious first amendment issues."

A federal grand jury in San Francisco is now investigating whether Bonds lied under oath about using the performance-enhancing drug known as "the clear" during that grand jury testimony. A separate federal grand jury is probing who leaked Bonds' testimony to the Chronicle.