Feds raid home of Bonds' trainer's mother-in-law
SAN FRANCISCO – Twenty federal agents raided the home of the mother-in-law of Barry Bonds' personal trainer on Wednesday.
Madeleine Gestas and her daughter Nicole Anderson, the trainer's wife, are the target of a tax investigation that the lawyer for Greg Anderson said is aimed at pressuring the trainer to testify at Bonds' upcoming trial.
Bonds, baseball's career home run leader and a seven-time MVP, has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
"Even the mafia spares the women and children," said Anderson's lawyer, Mark Geragos.
Lead prosecutor Matthew Parrella didn't immediately return a telephone call Wednesday.
Geragos said he believes the raid was in response to his refusal to tell prosecutors whether Anderson would testify. Geragos said he ignored a letter faxed to his Los Angeles office Monday by prosecutors that asked about Anderson's plans for the Bonds' trial.
Anderson served more than a year in prison for refusing to testify against Bonds before a federal grand jury. Geragos said that on the day after her husband was released from prison, Anderson's wife received a so-called target letter informing her that she was under investigation.
Geragos said Anderson received a government subpoena last week demanding his testimony at the March 2 trial. Geragos declined to say whether Anderson would testify. If Anderson refuses, he could be sent to prison again.
Grand jury: Ind. man deliberately crashed plane
PENSACOLA, Fla. – A federal grand jury indicted an Indiana investment adviser Tuesday on charges of deliberately crashing his small airplane in the Florida Panhandle to try to fake his own death as part of a plan to escape financial ruin.
Authorities say Marcus Schrenker, 38, an amateur daredevil pilot and businessman, secretly parachuted to the ground before the crash and sped away on a motorcycle he had stashed away in central Alabama.
A three-day search came to an end on Jan. 13, when authorities finally caught up to Schrenker at a campground near Tallahassee, where they say he tried to take his own life by slashing one of his wrists.
The grand jury also charged him Tuesday with making a fake distress call and he remained jailed after spending a few days in the hospital being treated for his injuries.
But the federal charges, which were expected, are just part of the trouble he faces.
In Indiana, he faces two felony counts alleging that he worked as an investment adviser without being registered, and he is the subject of more than a half-dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars over disputes of his financial dealings.
His personal life was also in disarray, with his wife filing for divorce Dec. 30, a day before Indiana police served a search warrant on his home and office, seizing computers, tubs full of financial documents and evidence of recent document shredding. That was within days of his losing a $533,000 judgment to an insurance company.
With his woes mounting, Schrenker bailed out of his plane Jan. 11 near Birmingham, Ala., authorities say. The plane, left on autopilot, continued for another 200 miles before crashing near homes in Florida.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Schrenker to remain in a Pensacola jail until a Monday detention hearing. A federal public defender also was to be appointed to represent Schrenker, but hasn't been assigned. His initial hearing on the federal charges was expected within the week.