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Barry Bonds’ ex-aide says she saw personal trainer inject Bonds in the navel

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Reporting from San Francisco -- A family friend who worked as a personal shopper for slugger Barry Bonds testified at his federal trial Thursday that she once saw Bonds’ personal trainer inject him in the navel, contradicting sworn testimony that Bonds gave to a grand jury.

Kathy Hoskins, whose family was friends with Bonds’ family when they were young, said Bonds hired her in 2001 to do his shopping after she playfully told him she could improve his wardrobe. Hoskins said she shopped for the former San Francisco Giants player from 2001 until 2003 and also packed for him for road trips.

She testified that she saw Greg Anderson, Bonds’ former personal trainer, at Bonds’ house about 20 times during the years she worked for him. Bonds and Anderson often went into an office alone for a few minutes, she said.

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On one occasion, though, Hoskins said, Bonds told Anderson that they did not have to go into another room while Hoskins packed.

“‘This is Katie,’” Hoskins quoted Bonds as saying. “‘That’s my girl. She’s not going to say’” anything.

After Anderson injected Bonds in the stomach, Hoskins testified, Bonds told her: “‘That’s a little something, something for when I go on the road. You can’t detect it.’”

Hoskins said she didn’t ask what was in the injection.

Bonds is charged with lying under oath when he told a federal grand jury in 2003 that Anderson never injected him and that he never knowingly used steroids or human growth hormones. Human growth hormones are often injected in the stomach.

Anderson was jailed last week for refusing to testify at the trial. Anderson has served time for illegal steroid distribution, but most of the nearly two years he has spent behind bars has been for refusing to testify against Bonds, a childhood friend.

Hoskins’ description of the injection followed testimony by Dr. Arthur Ting, Bonds’ former orthopedic surgeon, whose statements cast doubts on claims made by a key prosecution witness.

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Ting insisted that he had never said an elbow injury Bonds suffered in 1999 was caused by steroid use. That testimony contradicted what Steve Hoskins, Kathy’s older brother, told the court last week. Kimberly Bell, Bonds’ former mistress, also testified that Bonds told her steroids had caused his elbow injury.

During Thursday’s testimony, Kathy Hoskins wept and said she did not want to testify. She said she told her brother, a key prosecution witness, about Bonds’ injection the day after it happened. She said Steve told the FBI about her after he and Bonds had a falling-out over money.

“He threw me under the bus,” Kathy Hoskins said of her brother. “That is why I am here.”

During cross-examination, she acknowledged that Bonds told her in 2003 that her brother had stolen from him and that Bonds did not want Steve Hoskins around. She said she eventually learned that Bonds had reported her brother to the FBI and that her brother also had gone to the FBI about Bonds.

Kathy Hoskins acknowledged that she lived in housing her brother owned for a while and later worked for him as a receptionist.

But in response to a prosecutor’s question, she said she was not testifying to help her brother. Steve Hoskins was never charged with any crime as a result of Bonds’ accusations.

Steve Hoskins told the jury last week that Bonds began using steroids in 1999 and asked him to research their side effects. Steve Hoskins told the jury that he went to Ting, on behalf of Bonds, to get the medical information.

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Steve Hoskins said he had repeated conversations with Ting about steroids, and Ting told him steroids were responsible for Bonds’ elbow injury.

But Ting denied Thursday having dozens of talks with Steve Hoskins about steroids and testified that Hoskins never told him the steroid research was for Bonds. Ting also said he had not blamed steroids for Bonds’ elbow injury in a conversation with Steve Hoskins after the surgery.

In response to questions from the defense, Ting said the elbow injury was consistent with overuse. The prosecution then asked him if steroids could have caused the tendon injury. “It’s possible,” Ting said.

Bell, Bonds’ girlfriend of nine years, testified Monday that Bonds told her in 1999 or 2000 that his elbow injury had been caused by steroids and explained that many major league baseball players used steroids. She said Bonds told her steroids had caused the muscle and the tendons nears his elbow to grow faster than the joint could handle.

Ting also testified that Bonds disliked needles and had to be given Novocain before injections. The physician said he prescribed Bonds corticosteroids to reduce inflammation, medical drugs that have side effects of bloating, lack of sexual desire and shoulder acne, symptoms other prosecution witnesses have testified Bonds had. An expert witness testified those also are side effects of anabolic steroids.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

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