ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701100030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
Cleveland Indians pitcher Jose Mesa and a friend pleaded innocent today to charges of gross sexual imposition.
Mesa, accompanied by his wife, Mirla, and more than 12 relatives and friends, was arraigned before Lakewood Municipal Court Judge Patrick Carroll.
Mesa, 30, and David F. Blanco, 34, entered the pleas and requested a preliminary hearing, which was set for Jan. 17. Both men remained free on $5,000 bonds.
Police in the Cleveland suburb said two 26-year-old women reported that Mesa and Blanco fondled them in a motel room Dec. 22.
Mesa didn't address the judge and left court without speaking to reporters. His attorney, Gerald Messerman, declined to comment because of ``procedural problems'' that he did not describe.
At the time of the arrests, Lakewood police said both men also had been charged with carrying a concealed weapon. But Capt. Alan Clark said today that no weapons charge had been filed and the issue was pending.
In other baseball news:
8 Brett Butler has decided to go ahead with his attempt to play this season.
``Other than still having the dry mouth from the radiation, I feel good,'' Butler said Tuesday as Los Angeles Dodgers began winter workouts. ``I'm about 155 pounds, so I'm close to where I was. As a matter of fact, this is probably exactly where I was when I was a rookie. So maybe there's some positive signs to losing a few pounds.''
Butler, 39, had surgery last May to remove a cancerous tumor from his tonsils. He was activated Sept. 6 but fractured a hand on Sept. 10 when he was hit by a pitch from Cincinnati right-hander Giovanni Carrara.
In related news, first baseman Eric Karros, who had been eligible for free agency after the 1997 season, agreed Wednesday to a $20 million, four-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
* Right-hander Dan Miceli, acquired by Detroit from the Pittsburgh Pirates in November, agreed Wednesday to a $425,000, one-year contract with the Tigers.
* The Toronto Blue Jays have signed 16-year-old shortstop Josephang Bernhardt for a $1.1 million bonus, a record for a Dominican amateur.
Bernhardt, a native of San Pedro de Macoris and a nephew of former White Sox outfielder Juan Bernhardt, signed with Tampa Bay last summer and attended the Devil Rays' instructional league.
But that deal was voided by the commissioner's office when it was determined Bernhardt was only 15 when he signed. Dominicans cannot sign before July 1 of the year of their 16th birthday, and Bernhardt was declared a free agent.
* The Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday signed a one-year contract with left-hander Pete Schourek.
The deal will pay Schourek a base salary of $2.64 million, down 20 percent from his $3.3 million 1996 salary. The contract also includes incentive bonuses.
ETC. NCAA sued for discrimination
A public-interest legal group filed a federal lawsuit today accusing the NCAA of discriminating against black athletes by using SAT scores to determine freshmen eligibility for sports.
Under NCAA rules, high school seniors scoring less than 820 out of 1600 on the college entrance exam cannot participate in athletics during their first year of college. They also lose a year of eligibility.
Andre Dennis, the local co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said he would ask the court for an injunction blocking the NCAA from using the fixed test scores, as well as a finding that the practice violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
``The NCAA's minimum test score requirement has discriminated against hundreds, if not thousands, of African-American student athletes,'' he said.
Attorney Adele Kimmel said the plaintiffs don't quarrel with the NCAA's stated goal behind using the standards - ensuring that student athletes do well academically and graduate from college.
The SAT has been criticized by civil rights advocates as culturally biased and discriminatory against low-income and minority students who historically have attended poor schools.
The lawsuit, filed by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, names runner Tai Kwan Cureton, a Philadelphian now attending Wheaton College, and Leatrice Shaw, also from Philadelphia and now attending Miami.
The Franklin County Speedway awards banquet scheduled for Jan. 11 has been moved to Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. at the National Guard Armory in Rocky Mount.
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