On Roger Clemens's Alleged Affairs and His Defamation Suit

Here at FanHouse, we're long on sports opinion but, with one notable exception, a little lighter when it comes to the rules of evidence for litigation. We're a sports blog, so that's okay, but when things like the Roger Clemens defamation suit come around it does leave us a bit exposed. Around these parts, we've made a lot of reference to how the numerous allegations of infidelity reflect on Clemens's character and, by extension, his chances of succeeding in said suit.

According to Howard Wasserman at the Sports Law Blog, the two things don't have anything to do with one another.

First, any effect on Clemens' reputation from these statements came after McNamee's statements and the Mitchell Report and damage to reputation must be measured from the time of the libelous statements. Second, McNamee's statements damaged Clemens's professional reputation--his status as the greatest pitcher of his generation--and his reputation for marital fidelity has nothing to do with that professional reputation. Third, character is not the same thing as reputation.

In short, the stories about affairs might serve to cement Clemens as a creep in the court of public opinion but they don't hold much weight in a court of law. The one exception Wasserman notes is if Clemens lied about the affair when asked but his statement admitting he made mistakes seems to close that door.

From Brian McNamee's (and his lawyers) standpoint, what benefit do they gain from this information coming out? It could taint the jury pool, I suppose, so that any eventual trial would still be impacted by the volumes of discussion about Clemens's character or to simply embarrass him into dropping the suite. Either way, it would seem hard to see a way that the information could come into play during the actual trial.

That leaves Clemens's lawsuit right back where it started and, frankly, it still doesn't look so hot. He would have to prove that McNamee didn't inject him with steroids and proving a negative is quite difficult.

(H/T Baseball Musings)