Legal Setback for Moceanu’s Parents

The parents of gymnast Dominique Moceanu won’t get an opportunity to question their daughter about her accusations against her father before the three meet in a courtroom this week, a judge in Houston ruled Monday.

Camelia and Dumitru Moceanu had requested that their attorney be allowed to question the 17-year-old gold medalist before a judge on Wednesday considers making permanent a temporary restraining order barring contact between the gymnast and her father.

But Moceanu’s court-appointed attorney, Ellen Yarrell, challenged the request and asked that it be blocked. Associate Judge Michael Hay complied.

“We thought it was inappropriate,” Yarrell said. “We offered to answer written questions.”

Pro Basketball

Exhibition games featuring locked-out NBA players have been scheduled Sunday at UCLA and Dec. 19 at Atlantic City, N.J.

The game at UCLA, which will begin at 3 p.m., will feature NBA players Shaquille O’Neal, Eddie Jones, Chris Mills, Charles O’Bannon, Brent Barry, Pooh Richardson, Tracy Murray and Elden Campbell, plus WNBA players Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson.

Tickets cost $10 with a new toy ($10 minimum), with courtside seats going for $25. Proceeds go to the Hollenbeck Youth Center, the Chris Mills Youth Foundation and United Way.

The Atlantic City game will be televised by Showtime. Ticket prices range from $25 to $1,000.

Agents David Falk and Arn Tellem organized the game and say the proceeds will go to charity and to NBA players in financial need.

Thirteen players have already committed to play, among them Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Penny Hardaway, Tim Hardaway, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning and Dominique Wilkins.

Michael Jordan, represented by Falk, may show up but won’t play because he hasn’t made a decision about retirement.

Olympics

Citing China’s attempts to fight steroid use, President Juan Antonio Samaranch of the International Olympic Committee said the country’s doping scandals would not hurt its chances for the 2008 Summer Games.

“I will say that maybe China is one of the countries fighting with all their strength against doping and that is quite important to us,” Samaranch said during an Asian Games news conference in Bangkok, Thailand. “We think the fight against doping in China is a real example.”

China said this year that it would impose lifetime bans on athletes testing positive for steroids.

Decreeing the stiffest penalty yet against a former communist sports official, a Berlin court fined a doctor $8,200 for giving East German athletes steroids without their knowledge. Bernd Pansold, 59, was the last of six defendants accused of carrying out systematic doping policies under a state-sponsored program.

Jurisprudence

Patricia Bibbs, Hampton University women’s basketball coach, her husband, Ezell, and an assistant coach, Vanetta Kelso, have hired defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran after being wrongfully accused by police in Lubbock, Texas, as being part of a scam at a Wal-Mart on Nov. 16.

Lubbock police handcuffed the three and held them in jail for several hours after a shopper identified Kelso as the person who tried to perpetrate the scam. All three, who are black, said they believe race played a role in how they were treated.

After studying security tapes from the store, police determined that the three had no contact with the shopper and that no charges would be filed.

Miscellany

Unbeaten heavyweight Ed Mahone of Inglewood knocked out Booker Word of Ypsilanti, Mich., in the third round in a 10-round fight at the Great Western Forum. In a super bantamweight bout, Guty Espadas of Mexico won a 10-round split decision over Ricardo Medina, also of Mexico.

Tax officials in Brussels are investigating the company that runs the Spa-Francorchamps track, site of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, as well as a promotion company involved with the race.

The promotion company is run by Slavica Malic Ecclestone, the wife of Bernie Ecclestone, who heads Formula One racing.

For 1993 alone, investigators are looking for more than $200,000 in taxes and fines that may be owed.

Two-time Olympic ski champion Katja Seizinger, 26, of Germany, injured in a training crash in June, said she would miss the season.

Mark O’Meara, Se Ri Pak and Hale Irwin were winners of the Golf Writers Assn. of America 1998 player-of-the-year awards.

Australia’s first female Aboriginal jockey, Leigh-Anne Goodwin, 27, died of head injuries she suffered in a fall during a race at Roma in the western state of Queensland.