By Tom Schoenberg - 2012-05-25T16:42:02Z

Roger Clemenss genetic material was found on medical waste that his former trainer turned over to federal investigators, a DNA analyst testified at the perjury trial of the ex-New York Yankees pitcher.

Alan Keel of Forensic Science Associates, a California consulting firm, told federal court jurors today in Washington that he found Clemenss DNA on two cotton balls and a syringe. The former trainer, Brian McNamee, left blood on a piece of gauze and pus on a piece of tissue, Keel said. McNamee said earlier he might have cut himself breaking the top of an ampul.

The amount of Clemenss DNA found on the syringe was about six to 12 cells, Keel said.

A very small amount of biological material was recovered, he said.

Keel, a prosecution witness, agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Saleski that a small amount is not unusual for an intramuscular injection.

Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is charged with one count of obstructing a congressional investigation, three counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury stemming from his testimony to a House panel investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs including steroids and human growth hormone.

The ballplayer faces as long as 21 months in prison if convicted. He denies having used the drugs. The government is trying to prove he used them and lied about it to Congress.

The prosecutions evidence includes the needle and cotton with Clemenss DNA that tested positive for anabolic steroids, prosecutors said. The material came from McNamee, who said he saved needles, gauze and vials from one of the injections in 2001. He told jurors he kept some of the items in a Miller Lite beer can that he took from the recycling bin in Clemenss apartment.

McNamee has testified that he gave the ballplayer injections of steroids and HGH during the 1998, 2000 and 2001 baseball seasons while both men worked for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees.

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Clemens’s DNA Was on Syringe, Cotton Balls, Witness Says

WASHINGTON A forensic scientist testified Friday that two cotton balls and a syringe needle allegedly saved after a steroids injection tested positive for Roger Clemens' DNA, a key moment as the government tries to prove the former pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs.

Alan Keel told jurors that the DNA on both cotton ball matches were "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other had one in 173 trillion, when comparing to the population of white people in the U.S.

The needle was not as conclusive, because Keel was only able to get a handful of cells. That match was one in 449.

Brian McNamee, Clemens' former strength coach, earlier testified he collected the medical waste after injecting the pitcher with steroids in 2001, and turned them over to federal authorities in 2008. Earlier government witnesses testified that steroids were found on the medical waste.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutors hope that Clemens' DNA which helped make him one of the most successful pitchers in baseball history will help them convict him of a federal crime.

While Keel's testimony was a milestone moment for the government, the defense indicated early on it wouldn't contest that the needle had both steroids and Clemens' DNA on it. But Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin said in his opening statement that the defense will contend that McNamee put the steroids in the needle after injecting Clemens and that the coach in fact had used the needle to inject Clemens with vitamin B12. Clemens has maintained for years that he received B12 shots and the local anesthetic lidocaine but not performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutor Courtney Saleski tried to pre-empt that by asking Keel if there was any way to "fake this."

Keel said no.

"If this were contrived, I would expect to obtain much more biological material," he said in other words, it would be hard to fake a sample with such a small amount of biological material on it.

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Expert says DNA on medical waste allegedly saved after steroids injection matched Clemens'

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - A forensic scientist testified Friday that two cotton balls and a syringe needle allegedly saved after a steroids injection tested positive for Roger Clemens' DNA, a key moment as the government tries to prove the former pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs.

Alan Keel told jurors that the DNA on both cotton ball matches were "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other had one in 173 trillion, when comparing to the population of white people in the U.S.

The needle was not as conclusive, because Keel was only able to get a handful of cells. That match was one in 449.

Brian McNamee, Clemens' former strength coach, earlier testified he collected the medical waste after injecting the pitcher with steroids in 2001, and turned them over to federal authorities in 2008. Earlier government witnesses testified that steroids were found on the medical waste.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutors hope that Clemens' DNA which helped make him one of the most successful pitchers in baseball history will help them convict him of a federal crime.

While Keel's testimony was a milestone moment for the government, the defense indicated early on it wouldn't contest that the needle had both steroids and Clemens' DNA on it. But Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin said in his opening statement that the defense will contend that McNamee put the steroids in the needle after injecting Clemens and that the coach in fact had used the needle to inject Clemens with vitamin B12. Clemens has maintained for years that he received B12 shots and the local anesthetic lidocaine but not performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutor Courtney Saleski tried to pre-empt that by asking Keel if there was any way to "fake this."

Keel said no.

"If this were contrived, I would expect to obtain much more biological material," he said in other words, it would be hard to fake a sample with such a small amount of biological material on it.

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Expert: DNA on medical waste matched Clemens'

For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies.

Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin.

And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn't sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry.

"There were a whole lot of people upset by this study," lead researcher Roberta Estes said. "They just knew they were Portuguese, or Native American."

Beginning in the early 1800s, or possibly before, the term Melungeon (meh-LUN'-jun) was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border. But it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.

In recent decades, interest in the origin of the Melungeons has risen dramatically with advances both in DNA research and in the advent of Internet resources that allow individuals to trace their ancestry without digging through dusty archives.

G. Reginald Daniel, a sociologist at the University of California-Santa Barbara who's spent more than 30 years examining multiracial people in the U.S. and wasn't part of this research, said the study is more evidence that race-mixing in the U.S. isn't a new phenomenon.

"All of us are multiracial," he said. "It is recapturing a more authentic U.S. history."

Estes and her fellow researchers theorize that the various Melungeon lines may have sprung from the unions of black and white indentured servants living in Virginia in the mid-1600s, before slavery.

They conclude that as laws were put in place to penalize the mixing of races, the various family groups could only intermarry with each other, even migrating together from Virginia through the Carolinas before settling primarily in the mountains of East Tennessee.

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DNA Study Seeks Origin of Appalachia's Melungeons

Alan Keel, a DNAforensic scientist for the prosecution, has just linked Roger ClemensDNA to some of the medical waste stored in a crumpled beerby Brian McNamee for seven years.

The medical waste is the only physical evidence linking Clemens to the baseball doping scandal.

Keel, who is still testifying, said his lab found Clemens DNA on two cotton balls and at least one needle that had been used for an anabolic steroid shot.

McNamees DNA was found on wadded gauze that had blood stains, apparently from giving an injection.

McNamee claims he gave Clemens shots of performance enhancing drugs betwen 1998 and 2001.

Clemens claims McNamee gave him shots of vitamin B-12 and the pain-killer lidocaine but never performance enhancing drugs.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress for sworn testimony in 2008 in which he denied that he had used the banned substances.

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Former trainer Brian McNamee arrives at the federal court in Washington, Monday, May 14, 2012. McNamee, Roger Clemens' chief accuser, testified Monday against the former pitcher, a make-or-break moment for the prosecution as it seeks to convict Clemens of perjury. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Roger Clemens arrives at federal court for his perjury and obstruction trial on May 14, 2012, in Washington, DC. (Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images)

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Clemens’ DNA formally linked to needle

Updated: May 25, 2012, 2:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- A forensic scientist testified Friday that two cotton balls and a syringe needle allegedly saved after a steroids injection tested positive for Roger Clemens' DNA, a key moment as the government tries to prove the former pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs.

Alan Keel told jurors that the DNA on both cotton ball matches were "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" -- Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other had one in 173 trillion, when comparing to the population of white people in the U.S.

The needle was not as conclusive, because Keel was only able to get a handful of cells. That match was one in 449.

As the jurors in the Roger Clemens perjury trial completed their 22nd day and listened to the 21st government witness, they were increasingly restive, demanding and skeptical, writes Lester Munson. Story

Brian McNamee, Clemens' former strength coach, earlier testified he collected the medical waste after injecting the pitcher with steroids in 2001, and turned them over to federal authorities in 2008. Earlier government witnesses testified that steroids were found on the medical waste.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutors hope that Clemens' DNA -- which helped make him one of the most successful pitchers in baseball history -- will help them convict him of a federal crime.

While Keel's testimony was a milestone moment for the government, the defense indicated early on it wouldn't contest that the needle had both steroids and Clemens' DNA on it. But Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin said in his opening statement that the defense will contend that McNamee put the steroids in the needle after injecting Clemens and that the coach in fact had used the needle to inject Clemens with vitamin B12. Clemens has maintained for years that he received B12 shots and the local anesthetic Lidocaine but not performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutor Courtney Saleski tried to pre-empt that by asking Keel if there was any way to "fake this."

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Expert: DNA on medical waste was Clemens'

Roger Clemens is on accused of lying to Congress over his alleged steroid use.

AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A forensic scientist testified Friday that two cotton balls and a syringe needle allegedly saved after a steroids injection tested positive for Roger Clemens' DNA, a key moment as the government tries to prove the former pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs.

Alan Keel told jurors that the DNA on both cotton ball matches were "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" - Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other had one in 173 trillion, when comparing to the population of white people in the U.S.

The needle was not as conclusive, because Keel was only able to get a handful of cells. That match was one in 449.

Brian McNamee, Clemens' former strength coach, earlier testified he collected the medical waste after injecting the pitcher with steroids in 2001, and turned them over to federal authorities in 2008. Earlier government witnesses testified that steroids were found on the medical waste.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutors hope that Clemens' DNA -- which helped make him one of the most successful pitchers in baseball history -- will help them convict him of a federal crime.

While Keel's testimony was a milestone moment for the government, the defense indicated early on it wouldn't contest that the needle had both steroids and Clemens' DNA on it. But Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin said in his opening statement that the defense will contend that McNamee put the steroids in the needle after injecting Clemens and that the coach in fact had used the needle to inject Clemens with vitamin B12. Clemens has maintained for years that he received B12 shots and the local anesthetic lidocaine but not performance-enhancing drugs.

Prosecutor Courtney Saleski tried to pre-empt that by asking Keel if there was any way to "fake this."

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Expert: DNA on evidence matches Clemens'