Hardin, on cross-examination, jabbed prosecutors by asking Manuele: "You don't sell these beer cans to keep needles, do you?"
The judge sustained a government objection, but not before Manuele could answer: "No, sir."
One of the charges against Clemens is that he obstructed Congress when he stated in a deposition that he "was not at Jose Canseco's house on or about June 9, 1998." That's the date McNamee says he saw Clemens and Toronto Blue Jays teammate Canseco talking to a mysterious third person at a pool party at Canseco's Florida home, a person McNamee said he felt had a connection to steroids. McNamee said he first injected Clemens with steroids a few days later.
So the government called Alexander Lowrey, who said he was at the party as a starry-eyed 11-year-old boy and posed for photos with both Clemens and Canseco. Prosecutors showed jurors the photos: One shows the boy on the deck of the pool, next to a smiling Clemens standing in the shallow end of the water. The former pitcher's hair is bleach-blonde, which is how Lowrey, now 25, said he recalled it.
Clemens' lawyer tried to play with the potentially faulty memory Lowrey might have of a party that happened 14 years ago. Lowrey couldn't remember some details and said he had to estimate the times he arrived and left, but he said he had a clear memory of meeting the two major leaguers.
Clemens, in his congressional deposition in February 2008, said: "I never was at the party." Later in the deposition, he said: "I wasn't here at this — at a party that he had. I could have gone by there after a golf outing. So — but I was not at this party."
The day's final witness was FBI fingerprint expert Elizabeth Fontaine, who testified she couldn't identify Clemens' fingerprints on the waste associated with the beer can. But she also said that doesn't necessarily prove that Clemens never handled the evidence.
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Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer contributed to this report.
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