A federal judge has dismissed Roger Clemens' defamation suit against his former trainer, Brian McNamee, ending that chapter of the litigation in Texas and shifting the focus to New York, where McNamee has filed his own defamation suit against the former Cy Young Award winner. The New York Daily News first reported the dismissal, which took place Aug. 28.

Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, filed the suit on Jan. 6, 2008, in Houston, claiming McNamee was "malicious and grossly negligent" in his remarks about Clemens to baseball investigator George Mitchell and SI.com.

Federal judge Keith Ellison of the U.S. District Court dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Clemens cannot file the suit again. Clemens does, however, retain the right to appeal.

"Brian has defeated Clemens in Texas," McNamee's lawyer, Richard Emery of the Manhattan firm of Celli, Emery, Brinckerhoff & Abady, told the Daily News. "And now the battleground moves to New York."

Clemens is under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington that is trying to determine whether he lied when he told a congressional committee in February 2008 that he had not used steroids.