1. Former Florida A&M basketball coach Mike Gillespie pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges of stalking a former girlfriend and was sentenced to a year of probation. The court also ordered Gillespie, who is married, to permanently stay away from the victim in the case. He will receive counseling twice monthly during the terms of the plea agreement in addition to paying court costs. Leon County Judge Judith Hawkins told Gillespie any violation of the sanctions could result in jail time [Gillespie receives year’s probation in stalking case].
2. Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor drunken driving. Buss was sentenced to five years’ probation and fined $1,900 [Lakers owner gets probation, fine after guilty plea]. He was not required to appear in court. He also admitted he drove with a blood-alcohol level of .13 percent, above the state limit of .08 percent.
3. The day after being cut by the New England Patriots, punter Danny Baugher is alleged to have turned his anger and frustration on his 54-year-old father. Baugher, released by the team on Aug. 29, has been charged with assaulting his father, Erle, in a fast-food parking lot at 4 a.m. on Aug. 30, police said. Police said Danny Baugher, 23, was drunk at the time and told them that he “was released by the New England Patriots [Aug. 29] and he was not handling it very well,” according to a police report obtained by the Boston Herald. Baugher pleaded not guilty to assault and battery last Thursday in Hingham (Mass.) District Court [Baugher pleads not guilty day after release by Pats].
4. Cleveland Browns starting cornerback Leigh Bodden is looking forward to telling his side of the story after being arrested. Bodden faces possible discipline from the league under commissioner Roger Goodell’s crackdown on player misconduct after being charged with aggravated disorderly conduct and resisting arrest as he tried to pick up his girlfriend and their two children at Cleveland’s major airport. The 25-year-old Bodden, regarded as one of the Browns’ quieter and more easygoing players, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to misdemeanor charges less than 24 hours after police accused him of driving in reverse down a one-way street and becoming verbally abusive [Bodden pleads not guilty to two misdemeanors].
5. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel, who punctuated a storybook comeback from pitching travails by homering twice with 7 RBIs Thursday, joined the list of athletes linked to a Florida-based steroids investigation. The New York Daily News reported Friday that Ankiel received a 12-month supply of human growth hormone in 2004 from a Florida pharmacy that was part of a national illegal prescription drug-distribution operation, citing records its reporters saw [Cardinals’ Ankiel received HGH supply in 2004]. That Orlando outfit, Signature Pharmacy, has been implicated in a steroids investigation run by Albany County (N.Y.) District Attorney P. David Soares, which has resulted in 22 indictments and several Florida clinic raids.