Former National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 months in prison after being found guilty of helping gamblers and betting on games he officiated.
Donaghy, 41, also received three years probation from US District Court Judge Carol Amon after admitting last year to receiving thousands of dollars for passing confidential information to gamblers and making his own bets on games.
“I brought shame on myself and my family,” Donaghy said.
The sentence was only half the 27 to 33 months demanded by prosecutors. The relatively light punishment reflected Donaghy’s cooperation with investigators.
“It could have been a lot worse,” said John Lauro, Donaghy’s attorney.
Last week, the same court sentenced Donaghy’s former school friends and co-conspirators — professional gambler James Battista and middleman Thomas Martino — to 15 months and 12 months jail respectively.
The disgraced referee was described by his defense lawyers as a pathological gambling addict who needed treatment after almost 15 years of betting on sports and cards.
“Though we believe no sentence would ever be able to repair or justify the damage caused by this criminal and scoundrel, we are glad to finally put this behind us,” said Lamell McMorris, a National Basketball Referees Association spokesman.
The NBA is hoping to clear up the embarrassing scandal before the start of next season in three months, having already changed their officiating staff organization and looked into Donaghy’s actions.
“The NBA looked at the various games he officiated. They concluded that [match-fixing] simply never took place,” Lauro said.
Lawrence Pedowitz, who is looking into the Donaghy affair for the league, said his probe remains ongoing with no timetable for a final report to be delivered to NBA commissioner David Stern.
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