Clemens lawyer: Pitcher’s denials not helping

Rumor has it he wore one of those seersucker-type suits earlier in the week, the kind Ben Matlock used to parade around a television courtroom in before confronting the real murderer. No such luck this day, though. Rusty Hardin is more fashionable than folksy.

So this is him. The showy defense attorney in charge of digging Roger Clemens out from under all the dirt and yet the one many claim is responsible for handing the nation's sports media a shovel. The one whose hair rivals the helmet of Mel Kiper Jr. for publicity. The one whose PDA likely includes a DENY button, which he immediately can push upon learning of the next woman who allegedly was more than just friendly with his famous baseball client. Hardin's finger might fall off with that one.

"If you judge from the public reaction," he says, "we're doing (our job) very poorly. I think we've already been judged."

Hardin spoke Thursday after hours of questioning a Macau government official in a Hong Kong businessman's civil suit against Las Vegas Sands Corp., which Hardin represents.

The Web site for his Houston-based firm states, "We can take a complex case and simplify it. ... We know how to present the facts and evidence while keeping the jurors' interest and attention."

He seriously is challenged on that point here. Following an afternoon break, one juror accidentally dropped a binder and quipped, "I woke everybody up." That, and the fact witness Jorge Oliveira spoke faster than Cosmo Kramer jacked up on cafe lattes made for a confusing and tedious day. The most uncomplicated closing argument alone will win this for someone. Until then, a bailiff should be in charge of dropping a few binders each hour.

Where's a good ol' accusation of infidelity by a star pitcher when you need to spice things up?

Hardin wouldn't discuss any of that, wouldn't specifically address recent reports Clemens had affairs with country singer Mindy McCready and an ex-wife of golfer John Daly and whatever other names might emerge to confirm -- directly or otherwise -- what sources tell New York papers. It's the continuation of a public relations train wreck that began churning for Clemens the second he denied claims in the Mitchell Report that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Things, simply, have run amok for him.

"I never foresaw it getting (this big), and I have never seen anything like it," Hardin said. "People's opinions are so strong. The e-mails I get are just vicious.

"I think there is such a strong demand in the American psyche for heroes to always confess, that the assumption of guilt is always there. So when the person denies it, they don't want to believe it."

I'm one who doesn't, who believes Clemens was injected with steroids and human growth hormone by former trainer Brian McNamee, who always laughed at the B-12 vitamin shots explanation, who thinks Clemens should drop his defamation suit against McNamee before this soap opera completely ruins his legacy and instead concentrate on that matter of being investigated by the FBI on allegations of lying under oath before Congress.

It's hardly shocking, all the negative scrutiny thrown at Hardin, the assumption he is most liable for the mess Clemens' situation has become. It's a classic tale of the high-profile defense attorney: Perceived smugness elicits all sorts of angry and bitter opinions, until you need such services.

But while Hardin is the one providing advice and supposedly drafting strategy, the only thing bigger than Clemens' frame is his ego. How much Hardin has pushed one avenue of attack and how much Clemens agreed or instead demanded another is known only to those intimately involved. Everyone else is just guessing as to who is most culpable for what more and more appears to be disastrous tactical decisions.

"I can't stop any of it, really," Hardin said. "You have to accept it, but sure it's frustrating. Especially if you care for the client and see things escalating out of control. The only vehicle lawyers have left to test any of this is in the courtroom. It's impossible to win the battle of public opinion if you deny the allegations.

"We always thought that if we could get the public back to 50-50 (on Clemens), we would have a hell of a run. But if the person doesn't confess the way the public wants them to, there really is no way to get out from under it. Everybody always wants the confession, but they never leave open the possibility the person didn't do it, whatever it is."

I don't want a confession. I haven't believed Clemens about anything from his first denial.

I just want to avoid at all costs sleeping through one more second of that Sands trial.

Ed Graney's column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.