2 plead guilty in NBA scandal

NEW YORK, July 24 (UPI) -- Two Pennsylvania gamblers received short prison terms Thursday for their part in a National Basketball Association betting scandal.

U.S. District Judge Carol Amon, sitting in the Brooklyn borough of New York, imposed a 14-month sentence on James Battista, Newsday said. She gave Thomas Martino a year and a day.

The defendant at the heart of the case, former NBA referee Timothy Donaghy, is to be sentenced next Tuesday. Donaghy resigned from the NBA in July 2007, shortly before he admitted that he made calls aimed at affecting the point spread of games.

Amon refused to allow Martino and Battista to serve their sentences under house arrest.

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