Plummer Charged With Sexual Abuse

Quarterback Jake Plummer, who led Arizona State to the Rose Bowl and was subsequently drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, was charged Wednesday on four felony counts of sexual abuse stemming from an incident in a nightclub.

The charges were announced by Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, who said a settlement Plummer reached with three accusers didn’t free him from prosecution.

“There are not two systems of justice in Arizona--one for the rich, one for the poor,” said Romley.

Plummer also was charged in the criminal complaint with one count of misdemeanor assault. If convicted on all charges, he would face more than eight years in prison.

Three women claimed Plummer reached under their clothes while they danced. Last week, the women reached a civil settlement with Plummer and said through a lawyer they didn’t want to pursue criminal charges. A fourth alleged victim came forward later and made similar allegations against Plummer.

*

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Hillman ordered the NFL to produce documents that the Oakland Raiders intend to use in their defense against a lawsuit filed by the league in 1995.

The lawsuit includes a counter-suit by the Raiders in which the club is asking for damages up to half a billion dollars, claiming the league interfered with a planned move to Oakland in 1994, sabotaged a plan to build a football stadium at Hollywood Park in 1995, forcing the team to relocate to Oakland, and created, in the words of Raider attorney Joe Alioto, “an aura of uncertainty” in the Oakland area by filing its suit two days before the start of the 1995 regular season.

The league sued to establish that is not liable for the Raiders failure to move in 1994, and to determine what, if any, revenue-sharing funds it is entitled to as a result of the ’95 move.

*

Former Dodger Derrel Thomas pleaded innocent in Torrance Superior Court to a charge of possessing cocaine. Thomas, who was arrested in January, was suspended from his position as a minor league manager by the Cincinnati Reds last week following a report in The Cincinnati Post that Thomas was serving two years’ probation for pleading no contest to cocaine charges dating back to 1992.

*

Kentucky circuit judge Greg Bartlett warned Cincinnati Red third baseman Willie Greene that he will spend five days in jail if he continues to violate court orders in a child-support case involving the player’s 2-year-old daughter.

Baseball

Ila Borders, from Whittier, Calif., earned a spot in the pitching rotation of the Saint Paul Saints.

When she takes the mound for the Northern League team, which could happen as early as Friday, she will become the first woman to pitch in a regular-season minor-league game, when the independent Saints play their Northern League opener at Sioux Falls.

“I’m pretty excited, but I’m pretty stressed, too, in a way,” Borders said. “It’s professional ball now. Every time I go out there the spotlight is going to be on and I’m going to be fighting for my life.”

Soccer

A failure to promptly renew immigration documents kept goalkeeper Jorge Campos from playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy last weekend after the end of his Mexican League season.

“I was taking care of my paperwork,” Campos said through an interpreter after practice at Azusa Pacific University. “I found out during the playoffs I needed to renew my visa. If you’re in the playoffs, it is going to be a lot tougher to take care of, so that’s why I had to do it the week after we were ousted.”

Campos’ Mexican League team, Atlante, was eliminated from the Mexican League playoffs May 18. Galaxy officials had hoped he would play last Sunday against the Columbus Crew.

FC Barcelona chairman Jose Luis Nunez said negotiations for a contract extension had broken off and that he expected Ronaldo, soccer’s 1996 player of the year, to announce an agreement with Internazionale of Milan.

“Ronaldo is leaving us,” Nunez told the state news agency EFE. Nunez said he believed that the 20-year-old Brazilian forward’s agents already had made a deal with the Italian team before they began final negotiations with him.

South Korea advanced to the final round of Asia qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, defeating Hong Kong, 4-0, in Taejon, South Korea.

Pro Football

The New Orleans Saints were further transformed into new Coach Mike Ditka’s image when wide receivers Michael Haynes and Torrance Small were cut and four players, including receivers Andre Hastings and Randal Hill agreed to terms.

The Saints, according to reports, will also sign cornerback Mickey Washington from the Jacksonville Jaguars and center Jerry Fontenot from the Chicago Bears.

The moves, coupled with the release of starting quarterback Jim Everett and cornerback Mark McMillian two weeks ago, trimmed more than $6 million from the Saints’ 1997 payroll.

Indianapolis Colt owner Jim Irsay told fans in a full-page ad in The Indianapolis Star that he would not move the team. He also joined Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith in appealing to state lawmakers to settle their differences and agree to a deal to keep the NFL team in town.

The Colts wants the city’s help in adding high-priced seats at the RCA Dome and renegotiating the team’s stadium lease.

College Football

Defensive end Fred Dryer, a dominant player for San Diego State in 1967 and 1968, was one of 22 players selected for the College Football Hall of Famed along with three coaches. Dryer went on to play 13 seasons in the NFL, including 10 with the then-Los Angeles Rams.

Also named was Northwestern State running back Joe Delaney and University of California-Davis quarterback Ken O’Brien. Delaney, the AFC rookie of the year as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1982, died a year later when he tried to rescue three children from drowning. O’Brien went on to play for the New York Jets.

Alabama A&M; is moving to NCAA Division I-A from Division II in all sports except football. The football program will move to Division I-AA, a level below major college.

Miscellany

Chris Oeding scored with 56 seconds remaining to give the United States a 7-6 victory over Italy in the Water Polo World Cup in Athens, Greece. . . . Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe has applied for a school guard position in Upper Marlboro, Md., that pays $10.49 an hour. . .A 28-year-old student charged with the sledgehammer attack on the world’s oldest sporting trophy, yachting’s America’s Cup, pleaded innocent to the charges. Benjamin P. Nathan of Manurewa, New Zealand, shook his head in denial of any guilt as the charges were read to him and he was asked for his plea in the Auckland District Court.

He was remanded in custody until June 19 when a trial date will be set.