CENTER FIELD :: Rocket Goes To Court

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Rocket Goes To Court

Shortly before the fateful 60 Minutes interview last night, Roger Clemens went on the offensive against Brian McNamee's threats to file a lawsuit against Roger... and Clemens filed a lawsuit of his own. Roger is suing McNamee in county civil court for defamation - seeking an unspecified amount of damages- and an affirmative finding by the court that he did not defame McNamee. A 1-2 punch, in other words. Roger's filing alleges that McNamee only implicated Clemens after a federal prosecutor threatened McNamee.

Quoting from the lawsuit:

All of McNamee's accusations are false and defamatory per se. They are not true, and they injured Clemens' reputation and exposed him to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, and financial injury. McNamee made the allegations with actual malice, knowing they were false.

All the lawyers that are reading along are mentally checking off the elements that establish a prima facie case of defamation. False and defamatory statement? Check. Acted with malice and actual knowledge of falsehood? Check. Damage to the plaintiff? Check and check.

Why the delay in filing the lawsuit? Why not file it back in December, when the Mitchell Report was first released? According to the Rocket's lawyer:

"We kept thinking McNamee might change his mind and come to his senses and admit he was lying," Hardin said. But, Hardin said, instead McNamee arranged to talk to Clemens Friday and, rather than getting back to Clemens as promised, their conversation was leaked "with spin" to Newsday.

Roger also says that he plans to testify before Congress on the subject of steroids without asking for immunity or invoking any kind of Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions.

Strap in folks, this is gonna get (more) crazy.

Comments (4)

[ starr4 ] says:
on January 7, 2008 8:50 AM

Oh yeah, Clemens has now opened himself up to a host of new risks, not the least of which is the discovery process. This is not a step to take if you wanted to mitigate the risks and issues.

Strap in, is right. Go on, start pulling tractors with your teeth (my favorite quote from the interview last night.)!

[ Margaret ] says:
on January 7, 2008 9:04 AM

Clemens must really believe that there is no evidence against him in any form aside from McNamee's deposition. Seems unlikely to me, but...

I worry that in his actions trying to prove his own innocence, Clemens may find himself in even more hot water. Defamation suits are not fun for either party, since the defense, in trying to prove its case, will naturally try to prove that the statements in question were true.

And, if this lawsuit pans out in Clemens' favor, it means McNamee lied to Mitchell's crew about at least one player.

In short, this is going to get REALLY, REALLY ugly. This is the kind of story I stop following eventually because I get so disgusted with everyone involved.

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on January 7, 2008 9:37 AM

Discovery = lawyer play time. The best is when discovery includes a request for email records-- going through and reading everyone's private and often quite embarrassing emails, only because they were dumb enough to send personal stuff out on the company email account.

Note to everyone: do not EVER send anything out using your business email account (a) that you wouldn't want a room full of junior lawyers reading and snickering at, or (b) that you wouldn't want read in open court. Because chances are the company you work for has been sued umpteen million times, and your emails will be subject to discovery.

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on January 7, 2008 9:40 AM

Oh, and "Tractor Teeth" would make a great band name.

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