Six Acquitted in Death of Driver Senna

A prominent car owner and five other men were acquitted of manslaughter charges in Imola, Italy, Tuesday in the 1994 death of star race car driver Ayrton Senna, a ruling that eliminates a threatened boycott of Formula One racing in Italy.

The decision came exactly one year after the defendants were indicted, ending a trial that had been closely watched in auto racing but left unanswered the cause of Senna’s death. He died after his car slammed into a concrete wall during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

By clearing team owner Frank Williams and five other men, Judge Antonio Costanzo ignored a prosecution request to give suspended one-year sentences to two defendants, Williams-Renault technical director Patrick Head and former team designer Adrian Newey.

“We firmly believe that this was the only appropriate outcome of the trial and now look forward to the 1998 season with confidence and enthusiasm,” the Williams team said in a statement. “. . . Clearly, we would hope that this matter will not be pursued any further.”

The case represented the first time Formula One executives were brought to trial in Europe for a racing accident, and the sport’s governing body had feared an unfavorable ruling would discourage racers from competing in Italy.

At least one major team, Benetton, had said it would boycott Italian races if there were convictions.

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Alex Barron, who won the 1997 Toyota Atlantic championship last season, was named to drive for Dan Gurney’s CART Indy car team.

Barron, 27, of Vista, will join teammate PJ Jones in Gurney’s Reynard-Toyotas, replacing Juan Manuel Fangio II, 41, who retired last month.

Soccer

Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to its record fourth World Cup title in 1994, agreed to coach Saudi Arabia through next summer’s World Cup.

Parreira also has a year remaining on his contract with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars of Major League Soccer, a team he took over last season.

The value of the contract was not disclosed, but Saudi officials, speaking on the condition they not be identified, said it was worth $3 million.

The Los Angeles Galaxy will open its third MLS season March 21 at the Rose Bowl against the San Jose Clash.

Brazil advanced to the semifinals of the FIFA Confederations Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by defeating Mexico, 3-2, to win Group A.

Romario put Brazil (2-0-1) ahead with a penalty kick in the 41st minute after Flavio Conceicao was pulled down by Salvador Carmona in the penalty area.

Jurisprudence

ESPN sportscaster Gary Miller pleaded no contest in Cleveland to disorderly conduct for urinating from a second-floor window on two off-duty police officers working at a nightclub.

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Mary Kilbane fined Miller $250, suspended his 30-day jail sentence and dismissed charges of public indecency and resisting arrest as part of a plea bargain.

The 41-year-old announcer agreed to donate $1,000 to the Ronald McDonald House, where out-of-town parents stay when their children are hospitalized in Cleveland.

Iowa women’s basketball Coach Angie Lee pleaded not guilty in Enfield, Conn., to verbally abusing and bumping a state trooper at an airport last month after her team played Connecticut.

A police report on the incident said Lee and the team were getting off their bus in front of the terminal when an airport police officer asked them to speed things up.

While a state trooper was talking to Lee to determine what had happened, the coach bumped the trooper and was arrested, the report says.

Miscellany

Five Russian swimmers, including an Olympic gold-medal winner, were suspended by the sport’s world governing organization in Lausanne, Switzerland, for using banned substances.

Vladimir Pychenko, Olga Kochetkova and Natalia Mescheriakova drew two-year suspensions for use of the anabolic steroid metandienone metabolites, FINA said.

A fourth swimmer, Olena Lapunova, was provisionally suspended pending a hearing for use of the same steroid. A fifth, Alexey Koleshnikov, was suspended for three months for use of marijuana. His ban begins Jan. 1.

A Michigan coach waited more than an hour before calling 911 the night wrestler Jeff Reese collapsed and later died, police, morgue and ambulance records indicate.

Reese, 21, died Dec. 9 after trying to lose 12 pounds in one day, according to the Washtenaw County medical examiner’s report obtained by the Detroit News.

Tara Lipinski, who became the youngest world and U.S. figure skating champion earlier this year, was chosen as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sportswoman of the Year. At 15 1/2, she’s the youngest woman to receive the award.

Virgil Hill, who has not fought in six months, will fight champion Louis Del valle for the World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title Feb. 6.

Russia and the United States will compete at the Atlanta Olympics tennis site when they meet in a first-round Davis Cup match April 3-5. . . . The United States’ first-round match against the Netherlands in next year’s Fed Cup will be played April 18-19 on the clay courts of the East Beach Tennis Club at Kiawah Island, S.C.