in november, after the order was clarified, the 9th circuit court agreed to hear anderson's argument that his "entire grand jury process was tainted" because the government let the grand jury hear the tape. if the appeals court had agreed that the tape unfairly contributed to anderson's guilty plea, his conviction could have been thrown out, even though anderson had already completed his three-month sentence. in the disputed tape recording, first reported by the "san francisco chronicle", anderson reportedly told an unidentified person that bonds was using drugs which could not be detected. judge alsup, who had read a transcript of the tape, called it "as worthless a piece of evidence as i've ever seen", according to newspaper reports.