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.

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.

You can turn off the snark now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Update= Here’s the video

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.

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.

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.

New Mexico coach Mike Locksley won’t be on the sidelines when his team plays UNLV later this month, part of a 10-day suspension issued Tuesday as punishment for his role in a fight with an assistant coach.

“I’m the leader of the team and my staff,” Locksley said. “I should have used better judgment. I showed poor leadership and I won’t let it happen again. I’ve learned some harsh lessons, lessons that I feel will make me a better leader.”

Locksley initially had been reprimanded. Athletic director Paul Krebs said during a news conference the coach won’t be allowed to have any contact with the team until Oct. 25, one day after UNLV visits Albuquerque. The Lobos have a bye this week.

Locksley also will be required to attend conflict resolution training.

Defensive backs coach George Barlow will serve as an interim coach.

The UNLV game could amount to a tryout for Barlow. The Lobos are 0-6 under Locksley in addition to bringing scandal to the school’s athletic program. That is not a good combination at all for job security.

One bit of good news for Locksley. The sexual harassment complaint filed against him and the University has been resolved.

Greeley police arrested former major league pitcher Shawn Chacon on Monday night on a felony warrant for suspected unpaid gambling debt in Las Vegas.

Police received an anonymous tip at 7:57 p.m. Monday that Chacon was at Highland Park Lanes, 1900 59th Ave. in Greeley, and that tip led to his arrest soon after, according to police reports.

Chacon was taken to the Weld County Jail, and bail was set at $165,125.

The arrest comes after Chacon was wanted in connection with three bad checks written to Caesars Palace in March, each for $50,000, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Chacon was a standout athlete at Greeley Central High School before being drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the third round of the 1996 draft. He made the Major League All-Star team in 2003 before being traded to the New York Yankees in 2005. After his stint with the Yankees, Chacon went on to pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros.

The story of Shawn Chacon is a sad one. He was once a promising pitcher, now his career and personal life appear to be in ruins.

New Mexico Lobos head coach Mike Locksley has been reprimanded for a fight involving an assistant coach, who told police Locksley struck him and split his lip.

Athletic director Paul Krebs said at a news conference Monday that Locksley was issued “a verbal reprimand” with a follow-up letter placed in his personnel file after the Sept. 20 altercation.

According to a police report, receivers coach J.B. Gerald said the fight occurred during a “heated” coaches meeting.

Locksley became angry, grabbed Gerald by the collar and punched him as other coaches tried to intervene.

Krebs downplayed the incident, saying it’s not unusual in college football for coaches to have “heated discussions.” He also expressed steadfast support for Locksley, whom he hired after last season.

No charges were filed. I do think Locksley could be in a great of trouble at this moment. He is being been accused of sexual harassment and the Lobos aren’t having much success on the field(0-4 in 2009). It wouldn’t at all surprise me if Locksley’s tenure in Albuquerque is a very short one.

Charges have been dropped against school officials and coaches accused of not reporting a series of attacks at a football camp last year — and at least one victim’s parents, as well as the prosecutor who initially filed the charges, aren’t a bit happy about it.

Superintendent Rick Romero, Athletic Director Michael Yara, former head football coach Ray Woods and former assistant coach Adam Alvarez were each facing a misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. Eighth Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos said he dropped the charges after determining that the case would not likely hold up on appeal, even if he could get a conviction.

“The duty-to-report statute did not fit this particular aspect of this crime,” Gallegos said Friday.

The legal sticking point was in the state’s definition of an abused child, Gallegos said. In the Children’s Code, a person is required to report suspected abuse, but it goes on to define such abuse as coming from a “parent, guardian or custodian” — not another child.

Gallegos added that legislative intent may have been to require reporting child abuse regardless of the age of the person doing the abuse, but the law doesn’t state this.

At least one of these animals men facilitated rape(One assistant coach walked into a cabin while the sodomizing of a student took place and took no action other than to tell the boys to stop it.) and they will face no criminal punishment? This is just outrageous.

I am not the only one holding that viewpoint.

The parents went further in suggesting the ramifications to such a decision:

“What District Attorney Donald Gallegos and Prosecutor Leslie Fernandez are saying is that if a teacher knows that a female student is forcibly held down by several male students and sodomized, then they have no legal responsibility to report the crime because it was not committed by adults.

“We allege that the only reason this is different is because these are sexual assaults committed by boys against boys,” the parents said. “It is an unpleasant topic that nobody obviously wants to deal with, (but) deal with it! We are!”

If it had been a case of a girl being raped and a school official had turned a blind eye to it, the outrage would have resounded a lot further than New Mexico and it would have increased in volume when the prosecutor dropped the charges. The boys who were being sodomized were allowed to remain in the company of their tormentors. How about charging at least one of these people as being an accessory? What a spineless jellyfish of a criminal prosecutor Donald Gallegos is.

A federal judge has sentenced a Silicon Valley financier to more than 8 years in prison for bilking banks and investors out of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy a pro hockey team and finance a lavish lifestyle.

William “Boots” Del Biaggio III was sentenced Tuesday in San Francisco. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of forging financial documents to obtain $110 million in loans from several banks and two NHL owners.

He used the money to buy an interest in the NHL’s Nashville Predators and to pay personal expenses that included $4 million in gambling debts.

The judge also ordered him to pay more than $67.4 million in restitution. His interest in the hockey team will be sold and the proceeds distributed to his victims.

Are the Predators worth 67 million? They have been a mediocre NHL franchise at best that has been rumored in the not too distant past to be moving out of Tennessee. Yes, they’re probably worth enough to make restitution for Mr. Del Biaggio but now NHL owners are probably getting migraines as they face yet another franchise with ownership problems. The mess in Phoenix is still ongoing.