For Rocket, DNA is TNT in perjury trial

For Rocket, DNA is TNT in perjury trial

Miller Elisa/Elisa Miller for New York Daily

Roger Clemens and attorney Rusty Hardin find forensic expert testifies that medical waste Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, turned over to government contains traces of the former Yankee pitcher’s DNA. 

WASHINGTON If there is a smoking gun in the Roger Clemens perjury trial, jurors saw it Friday during a day-long review of DNA testing that identified traces of the pitchers cells on and within a collection of steroid-laced medical waste.

Among the items tested was a needle used for intramuscular injections that was shown to contain what was probably Clemens genetic material within the barrel of the needle the evidence that may end up getting him in the end.

The results of the tests may be damning for Clemens, but one of his attorneys seemed to find wiggle room during cross-examination of government witness Alan Keel, the seasoned DNA analyst from a private laboratory in California who performed the tests.

I would expect to find this profile unique to only one person that has ever lived on the planet, Keel said several times in testimony about DNA profiles he extracted from the waste, which Clemens former trainer, Brian McNamee, turned over to the feds in 2008.

Keel spent all day on the witness stand describing his forensic examination of a needle, tissues, blood-stained gauze and cotton balls that McNamee says he saved in 2001. Keel revealed that he found DNA of both Clemens and McNamee on the items, and left it for lawyers on each side to battle over the implications.

There were cotton balls stained with Clemens blood. Keel said of one that there was a 1 in 173 trillion chance that another randomly selected Caucasian American would produce the same genetic markers.

But perhaps the most critical item was a needle that Keel flushed with a solution, dislodging cell debris that he said was compatible to a sample Clemens gave to federal agents in 2008 for comparison. Keel said he found just a tiny amount of material six to 12 cells and calculated the probability of another match at 1 in 449.

Is there any way to fake this? assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Saleski asked Keel.

Keel answered no, adding that the amount of genetic material within the needle was so small that he believed no one could ever have fabricated it, an idea that the Clemens defense team has been putting before the jury throughout the six-week trial.

In my opinion, Keel said, it would be virtually impossible for someone to have left only the trace amount of material by design.

On cross-examination, Clemens defense attorney Michael Attanasio referred repeatedly to the Miller Lite beer can that McNamee stuffed some of the medical waste into before secreting it to his Queens basement in 2001. Medical waste from other players was stored alongside the waste.