Reds’ Chapman robbed; guest found tied up
Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman’s Pittsburgh hotel room was burglarized, and a female guest was found bound at the wrists by cloth napkins, Pittsburgh police say.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the woman, a 26-year-old from Silver Spring, Md., was in Chapman’s room while he was at Tuesday’s Reds-Pittsburgh Pirates game, which was delayed by rain for two hours. The incident occurred eight days after he was arrested for driving 93 mph with a suspended license in Ohio.
The woman told police a man claiming to be a maintenance worker knocked on the room door and, after she let him in, demanded several items from her. She refused, so the suspect proceeded to restrain her and took jewelry, clothing, a computer, credit cards and ID cards from the room.
Several hotel guests heard the woman crying and alerted hotel security, who told Pittsburgh police they will be tracking security surveillance videos.
Clemens trial:
With two of Roger Clemens’ former catchers on the witness stand Wednesday, testimony at his federal trial strayed to inside baseball (such as secret signs and ball scuffing). Yet to be determined: Can the defense call the estranged wife of key prosecution witness Brian McNamee to the stand? If so, what will she be permitted to talk about?
Charlie O’Brien caught for Clemens when he won the Cy Young Award with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997. Darrin Fletcher was Clemens’ catcher in Toronto in 1998 when he won another Cy Young. They were called to the stand in the first full day of defense testimony.
Clemens is on trial under a six-count indictment alleging he lied to Congress in 2008 when he said under oath that he never used steroids or human growth hormone.
McNamee, formerly a strength coach with the Blue Jays and Clemens’ former personal trainer, has testified he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs between 1998 and 2001.
He also has testified that he saved needles, syringes and other paraphernalia from those injections in a beer can as evidence. He said he saved those items at the urging of his wife, Eileen.
Brian and Eileen McNamee currently are in the process of a divorce. Before the start of court today and the jury is brought in, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton will hold a hearing on whether she can be called by the defense.