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Posted at 1:58 a.m., Tuesday, July 24, 2007

NBA: Disgraced ref expected to surrender by Thursday

By Tamer El-Ghobashy, John Marzulli and Dave Goldiner
New York Daily News

BRADENTON, Fla. — Disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy is expected to surrender as early as Thursday to face federal gambling charges and plans to cooperate with prosecutors, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

The referee is named as a "John Doe" in papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, a legal step that suggests Donaghy plans to plead guilty to the charges and help in the probe, sources close to the case said.

Donaghy's case will be prosecuted by Thomas Seigel, chief of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office organized crime division — a sign of how seriously prosecutors are treating the case.

A grand jury is also expected to indict at least two mobbed-up gamblers in the scheme.

Donaghy, 40, is suspected of betting on NBA games and giving gamblers inside information, including which refs were slated to work certain games.

Investigators are still trying to find evidence he threw games or favored teams.

NBA Commissioner David Stern is expected to hold a news conference on the scandal today.

At Donaghy's home in Bradenton, Fla., a string of friends carted in cases of soda and supplies, but a pal who came to the front door insisted Donaghy had left.

"He's not here," the friend said.

Donaghy called cops a day earlier to complain about threatening phone calls, prompting police to boost patrols.

"You're done," one caller said, a Manatee County Sheriff's Office report said.

In Donaghy's former hometown of West Chester, Pa., many people remembered him as pugnacious and litigious.

"He was the kind of guy you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy," said developer Robert Zoba, 42, who sold the ref a home lot. "He was one of a kind, a bad egg, a nightmare."

Zoba said Donaghy peppered him with legal threats: "He was searching for conflict."