He also stole a car shortly after taking part in the Skate America competition. From AP-
Police said Russian figure skater Andrei Lutai stole a car and drove it while drunk after finishing 10th overall in the Skate America competition in Lake Placid.
Police said the car was stolen from a service station lot late Sunday night. A garage employee followed the car and called police.
Sgt. Carol Hayes said officers pulled over the 23-year-old Lutai, of St. Petersburg, a few minutes later.
Police have charged Lutai with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, unauthorized use of a vehicle and aggravated driving while intoxicated.
In other skating news, Yu-Na Kim won the female portion of the Skate America competition. She remains the heavy favorite to win the gold at next year’s Olympics.
I’m so glad a country who has never had a President convicted of war crimes takes enforcing the law against all its citizens seriously. From AP-
Serbian President Boris Tadic faces a fine for allegedly drinking champagne at a stadium with his sports minister and the head of the soccer federation.
Judge Zoran Pasalic said Tuesday the three are requested to appear in court on Dec. 1.
Drinking alcohol at and around sports venues is illegal in Serbia and fines range from $150 to $1,500.
Police filed misdemeanor charges against all three officials after photos were published of them holding glasses filled with champagne after Serbia’s 5-0 victory over Romania last month in World Cup qualifying.
Tadic said he drank no champagne and just made a toast. I don’t care, throw the book at him.
This for her actions in a recent Mountain West Conference semifinals versus BYU. From AP-
New Mexico women’s soccer defender Elizabeth Lambert has been suspended indefinitely after engaging in rough play — including hauling an opposing player to the ground by her pony tail — in the Lobos’ 1-0 loss to BYU in the Mountain West Conference semifinals.
Lambert is prohibited from taking part in practices, games and conditioning, coach Kit Vela announced Friday.
“Liz is a quality student-athlete, but in this instance her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship,” Vela said.
Video footage of the game shows Lambert, a junior, committing a series of excessively rough plays, including kicking, tackles, a forearm shiver to the back — in response to an elbow to the ribs — and yanking BYU forward Kassidy Shumway to the ground by her hair.
Lambert was assessed a yellow card during the 76th minute, apparently for tripping.
Lambert apologized for her actions.
Here’s a video of what happened. Warning the audio isn’t too good.
Her actions may have been provoked but are still uncalled for. I do think Lambert could have a future in another sport. How good is she at ice skating? Watch out Mountain West women’s hockey players.
The HIGHlights of MLB’s offseason are now under way. From AP-
San Francisco Giants star pitcher Tim Lincecum is facing misdemeanor marijuana charges following a traffic stop in his home state.
Washington State Patrol spokesman Steve Schatzel said Thursday that the 2008 Cy Young Award winner and former star at the University of Washington was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 5 in the town of Hazel Dell, about four miles north of the Oregon border, on Oct. 30.
An officer approached Lincecum’s 2006 Mercedes and smelled marijuana as the pitcher rolled down his window. Schatzel said Lincecum immediately complied with a request to hand over the drug and a marijuana pipe from the car’s center console.
The amount measured was 3.3 grams. Schatzel said police consider that a small amount for personal use, well below the maximum of 40 grams before possession is classified differently and carries a more severe penalty.
I think marijuana should be legalized. Way too much taxpayer money and law enforcement time is spent trying to combat this relatively harmless substance. Legal drugs or substances, cigarettes and alcohol, would continue to do more to society than marijuana if all three could be legally obtained.
One Brit’s enthusiam for horse racing has gone slightly overboard. From AP-
A man has been charged with blackmail over a threat to kill 4-year-old colt Conduit before his Group One victory at Ascot.
Ten days before Conduit tries to win his second Breeders Cup Turf in a row at Santa Anita, Calif., Manchester police said Wednesday the man would appear in court Dec. 1.
The police didn’t identify the man but the Guardian newspaper named him as 26-year-old Andrew Rodgerson and alleged he sent texts and e-mails threatening to kill the colt unless he were withdrawn from the race.
I wouldn’t be surprised if alcohol is involved. Access to race track barn areas and paddocks is restricted. A person, at least when my father was involved with horse racing, had to show their license to gain access to these areas. I’m not saying it would be impossible for Mr. Rodgerson or whomever issued these threats to carry them out, but it isn’t an easy matter either.
He got leveled by a shoulder to his face. From AP-
Florida Panthers left wing David Booth was taken from the ice on a stretcher Saturday night after a hard hit from Philadelphia captain Mike Richards.
With 2:55 left in the second period, Booth had just released the puck in front of the Flyers’ blue line, and Richards delivered a late hit with his shoulder. Both of feet appeared to leave the ice as he struck Booth.
Booth immediately fell face-down and remained motionless for several minutes. Both teams trainers and Flyers team physician Gary Dorshimer attended to him. Booth appeared to be conscious as he was wheeled off following a 7-minute delay.
Richards was given a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for intent to injure. He could face a suspension.
The verdict on Richards- He should be suspended for two months. I’ve been ranting about the NHL’s jellyfish like reaction to thuggery on ice for as long as I’ve blogged here. My most recent post on a player suspension, was written less than three hours before Booth got knocked out. There’s only one way to stop this, make the penalties so severe that team’s and players will think twice before leveling an opposing hockey player. Two month suspensions when players are carted off on a stretcher. The rest of the hand short handed. You’ll see this shit stop fast with those punitive forms of punishment.
I’d like to strangle Florida Panther announce Bill Lindsay. He was talking about Mike Richards leadership. He was an animal tonight, not a saint and Lindsay should be ashamed of himself for making excuses for what was done today. The Panthers should send Lindsay back to radio broadcasts where no one will hear his stupidity.
Florida is down 5-1 with less than three minutes to play. Another loss will take the team to 2-6-1 this year. Booth is the team’s best player. Another key player, Radek Dvorak, hurt his knee tonight. This is going to be a horrible year for Florida.
Another thug NHL player being wrist slapped by the league. From AP-
Carolina Hurricanes forward Tuomo Ruutu has been suspended three games by the NHL for a boarding of Darcy Tucker that knocked the Colorado Avalanche winger unconscious.
Ruutu was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding Tucker at 5:26 of the second period of Friday night’s game.
Ruutu will lose $56,067.36 in salary for the suspension, which was announced Saturday. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Here’s the video
The NHL will only get control of this violence by handing down suspensions for double digit amounts of games. I don’t see that happening any time soon. I think the NHL thinks violence like this and the Evgeny Artyukhin/Matt Niskanen incident appeal to a certain group of fans. They probably do, but I don’t know why a serious sports needs to satisfy the lowest common denominators among its fan base. The image of the NHL will always be dirtied by the thugs that play for them.
The victims were basketball players from Israel. From AP-
Police say $22,000 in cash and valuables were stolen from a visiting Israeli basketball team during an exhibition game with the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center.
Lt. Albert Gavin says somebody apparently got into the locker room Tuesday and stole watches, jewelry and $15,000 in cash from 10 members of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.
Gavin says the team noticed the theft during halftime of Maccabi’s 108-96 loss.
Gavin says police weren’t notified of the theft until after the game and weren’t able to get statements from the victims.
Locker rooms at many sporting facilities are under heavy guard. Could this robbery been an inside job?
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has imposed life bans on four premier league referees and fined a club US$10,000 after it found them guilty of corruption.
The officials allegedly received around US$200 from premier league side, Majimaji FC, to fix their match against Mtibwa Sugar last month.
Majimaji, who eventually won the game 1-0, were fined US$10,000 for their misconduct.
The TFF spokesperson Florian Kaijage claimed that the club also covered the officials’ accommodation and gave them air tickets for their journey back to Dar es Salaam from Ruvuma in Southern Tanzania, where the match was being played.
Match officials are normally given money by the TFF to cover their return travel by bus to games, for their food and accommodation as well as a small allowance.
The referees say they planned to give the money back.
But the match referee, Othman Kazi, insisted to BBC Sport that they were given a bribe but never planned to keep the money.
“Majimaji brought us the money, but we refused to take it, then they threw it at us,” he told BBC Sport.
“We then decided to pick up the money and handed it over to TFF.
“We are the ones who reported the incident, how can they ban us?”
The TFF says the bribe was never reported to them. All I can say to this muddle, is if the bribery took place, Majimaji FC should have faced worse sanctions than a $10,000 fine.
This is his second run-in with the law for 2009. From AP-
Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Jeff Reed has been cited by city police for public intoxication and disorderly conduct outside a bar a couple of blocks from where the team beat the Cleveland Browns a few hours earlier.
Police say Reed was cited outside McFadden’s Bar about 9 p.m. Sunday.
Reed kicked two field goals in the 27-14 victory.
This is Reed’s second brush with the law this year.
He paid $543 in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and criminal mischief for damaging a paper towel dispenser in a convenience store bathroom in New Alexandria in February.
Team spokesman Dave Lockett says the team is still gathering information and has no comment.
Reed wasn’t placed under arrest but will receive a summons via the mail.
Publicly drunk five hours after the completion of a football game game you played in. I would guess Reed didn’t leave the stadium till 5-5:30 yesterday. For some people it don’t take much time or all that much alcohol to get drunk.
The Steelers lost a game to Chicago this year mostly due to failed field goal attempts by their placekicker. Reed better pull himself together if he wants to remain employed. A player not performing on the field and with personal problems off it has the right mix for job security problems.
