Barry Bonds' entourage would arrive at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative on Saturdays and after usual business hours, the slugger could have samples of his blood and urine collected in peace.
Dr. Arthur Ting was in the posse that arrived at BALCO's Burlingame headquarters in late 2001. The doctor that day drew Bonds' blood, an unusually pedestrian lab technician role for an otherwise prominent orthopedic surgeon to the stars. But then Ting is known to go out of his way to cultivate rich and famous patients.
He once cleared his clinic's schedule and sent a limousine to pick up Siebel Systems Inc. founder Tom Siebel to squeeze in a last-minute shoulder operation so the Silicon Valley billionaire could recover in time for a golf tournament, according to press accounts.
Ting also hosted a birthday party at his Woodside home for former San Francisco 49er great Roger Craig and counted as patients former 49er quarterback Joe Montana and Hall of Fame runni! ng back Barry Sanders, who Ting befriended while Sanders was still in college.
But the relationship Ting carefully cultivated with Bonds over the last decade - including performing at least three surgeries on the slugger - has put him squarely in the middle of the federal government's perjury case against Bonds.
This new and unwanted attention has also dredged up several unsavory incidents in the proud doctor's past, including two California Medical Board reprimands and a lawsuit filed against his former clinic involving billing issues related to three of his patients.
According to Derek Longstaff, the attorney who represented Ting's aggrieved patients, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation where he worked at the time would bill the patients for appointments that didn't happen. The patients settled the lawsuit, which didn't name Ting as a defendant, and he left the foundation after the medical board began its investigation. Ting now has a thriving sports med! icine practice of his own in Fremont.
The Medical Board! reprima nded Ting in 1996 and again in 2004, when the California Attorney General alleged that he "prescribed dangerous drugs and controlled substances to friends and acquaintances, particularly athletes, for whom he kept no medical records of for whom the medical records were fictitious, inadequate, or inaccurate."
The improper drug handling allegations were dropped as part of his agreement in 2004 to admit to improperly supervising a subordinate. He paid a $15,000 fine and was placed on probation through 2009, which allows him to retain his medical license and continue to see patients.
According to the federal indictment unsealed earlier this month charging Bonds with perjury and obstruction of justice, two of those BALCO tests Ting helped conduct in 2001 came back positive for steroid use. Those failed tests will be used to bolster the government's position the Bonds knowingly took steroids, legal experts said.
Ting also operated on the injured elbow Bonds bl! ew out in 1999. According to Bonds' former girlfriend, the slugger blamed the injury on steroids, complaining that the elbow couldn't handle the new muscle he added that year.
So it came as little surprise when Ting was called last year to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds for lying under oath about his steroid use. Bonds testified that he unknowingly ingested steroids given to him by his personal trainer - an alibi prosecutors charge is a lie.
Ting is now expected to be a vital, if reluctant, witness for the government if Bonds fights the charges to trial. Ting didn't return telephone calls and his attorney Daniel Alberti declined comment other than to note Ting is highly respected in the medical community.
Ting serves as team doctor for the San Jose Sharks and the San Jose SabreCats of the Arena Football League. He's also listed as team orthopedist for the fabled San Francisco City College football program.
Ting's attorney confi! rmed that Ting is still Bonds' doctor, which may put Ting in a! n awkwar d position.
Since there is no protection in federal court for doctors testifying against their patients like there is between lawyers and their clients, Ting has little choice but to tell investigators what - if anything - he knows about Bonds' alleged steroids use.
"The doctor can't try and protect Bonds," said Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane, a former San Francisco public defender. "The prosecutors will treat Ting like any other witness. If he doesn't tell the truth, he could be could be prosecuted for perjury, if he doesn't testify, he could be held in contempt."
He also had to turn over Bonds' medical file to investigators before he testified before the grand jury in April 2006. Three months later his son Ryan quit the USC Trojans football team after testing positive for steroids use.
One of the things Ting will probably testify about is the dramatic change he personally witnessed of Bonds' body.
When Bonds broke into M! ajor League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986, he weighed about 180 pounds. When a bloated Bonds chugged around the bases on Aug. 7 after slugging home run No. 756, the San Francisco Giants listed his weight at 228 pounds.
The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Bonds jersey size ballooned from a size 42 to a size 52 and that his shoe size went from a 10 1/2 to a size 13 cleats. Most telling was the growth of Bonds' head, which the Chronicle reported went from a cap size of 7 1/8 to a size 7 1/2, even though Bonds now keeps his head shaven.
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Michael Comeau has been owner of many successful businesses over the years including his current onlin! e business which can be viewed at www.workfromhome4dollars.com/ArticleTop10.php You may also find more articles by Michael Comeau at www.workfromhome4dollars.com
Source: http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/138456.html
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