Another key development in the Tim Donaghy case occurred while I was away from the blog ... the FOX News report that Donaghy placed 134 calls to fellow ref Scott Foster between October 2006 and April 2007. That's the period during which Donaghy admitted to betting on games he officiated.
A law enforcement source told Newsday today that those calls were investigated and provided no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
"These guys could have been just good friends or they could have been any number of things," said the person familiar with the federal investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's just a lot of phone calls back and forth. There's no evidence of any criminal activity."
The problem with this story is the same as it's been all along. We -- and I include the NBA in that -- only know what we know. We won't know all there is to know until Donaghy is sentenced July 29. No one can say for sure that no one else -- Foster, Dick Bavetta, or any other referee -- ultimately will be charged with any crimes.
Phone records obtained by FOX showed that Donaghy and Foster spoke immediately before or after 54 of the 57 games Donaghy officiated during that period. Even more damning, Donaghy called Foster during that time more than any other person besides Thomas Martino, to whom he admitted providing picks on games. Donaghy called Martino 150 times, and the most he called any other ref besides Foster was 13 times.
One thing for sure that has come out of this: Donaghy wasn't quite as isolated as we've been led to believe. He had at least one close friend in the referee ranks, and it's interesting that we never heard a word of that before now. All we can say for sure about Foster and Bavetta is that they've been investigated by the NBA and the Justice Department, and they haven't been charged. You'd need a crystal ball to say anything beyond that.