Judge denies Roger Clemens' motion to keep emails
Roger Clemens arrives at federal court in New York on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Clemens is fighting a federal judge's order to share documents with his accuser in a defamation case. Credit: AP / Seth Wenig
A federal judge Tuesday denied an emergency motion filed by Roger Clemens in Brooklyn federal court in an attempt to avoid having to give his former trainer Brian McNamee nearly 1,000 emails that Clemens says are covered under attorney-client privilege.
U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson called the filing "yet another 11th-hour attempt by a recalcitrant and indefatigable defendant to delay the inevitable.''
The emails have been in dispute for more than two years in McNamee's defamation lawsuit. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered Clemens last week to hand over all of them, including those she said would have been covered under attorney-client privilege but no longer were, as a penalty for running afoul of previous rulings about the emails.
Pollak also said Clemens has to explain in papers due next month why he should not be held in contempt of court and fined for a "deliberate violation'' of a series of rulings regarding the emails.
Clemens attorney Rusty Hardin said in this week's filing that their actions the past two years weren't meant to stall the case. He said he's "ethically obligated'' to block McNamee's "opportunistic attempt to pierce the sanctity of Clemens' defense communications.''
But Johnson said Clemens "has taken so many bites of this apple that -- days before the feast of Thanksgiving -- all that is left is a rotten core.''
Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.
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