Roger Clemens Affair Claims Won't Hurt His Libel Case, Experts Say
Updated: No matter how many extramarital affairs star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens may or may not have had, or with whom, there’s only one possible scenario in which they might have an adverse effect on his ongoing libel case against his former trainer, Brian McNamee, practitioners say. That is if pillow talk during claimed romantic encounters included any discussion of the alleged steroids use at issue in the defamation action.
Regardless of whether Clemens had a decade-long affair with country music star, Mindy McCready, starting when she was a teenager—as some news accounts claim he did, but his lawyer, Rusty Hardin, completely denies—a judge is unlikely to see any testimony she could offer as relevant to the libel case, libel attorney Anthony Glassman tells the Los Angeles Times.
“The heart of the defamation claim is that he has been falsely accused of being a steroids user,” says Glassman. “The fact that he may or may not have had a relationship with a country-western singer would seem to be totally and completely irrelevant.”
Related coverage:
Chicago Tribune: “Report: Ex-wife of golfer John Daly also linked to Roger Clemens”
New York Daily News: “Mindy McCready weeps as she confirms affair with Roger Clemens”
New York Post: “Clemens Gal’s Comeback Pitch”
ABAJournal.com: “Clemens Sues Ex-Trainer for Defamation Over Steroid Allegations”
ABAJournal.com: “New Twist in Baseball Steroids Case: Claimed Roger Clemens Blood Samples”
Updated at 5:40 p.m., central time, on May 1, 2008, to add Chicago Tribune article about additional alleged liaison.
