Almonte Paper Chase Continues

A public records expert trekked to this remote farming town Wednesday to determine once and for all whether star Little League pitcher Danny Almonte is 12 or 14.

Conflicting documents about Almonte’s age have surfaced this week, even as he and his teammates were honored with a parade through the Bronx and a celebration at Yankee Stadium for their play at the Little League World Series.

“Danny! Danny!” chanted thousands of people waving Dominican flags as the Rolando Paulino All-Stars Little League team paraded through the Bronx.

“12 or 14--so what,” said a sign along the parade route. “Why investigate only us ... Why, because we are from the Bronx,” said another.

At Yankee Stadium, the Little Leaguers posed on the field with Toronto catcher Alberto Castillo and New York pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez--whose birth certificate in Cuba says he was born in 1965, four years earlier than he claims.

The search by the Dominican Republic government official in Moca, about 90 miles north of Santo Domingo, entails thumbing through books of birth records, verifying the identity numbers of the witnesses who signed the documents, and perhaps finding and interviewing those who notarized them years ago.

“We will evaluate who registered the documents to determine which of the two is false,” said Ramon Reyes, a spokesman for the national public records office. An announcement wasn’t expected until late today.

Along with her son’s gold-plated baseball trophies and newspaper clippings, Sonia Rojas Breton has a handwritten, photocopied birth certificate that says he was born April 7, 1989.

Ten blocks away, the town’s official records office has another birth certificate that says Danny was born April 7, 1987.

Still another document obtained by the New York Daily News from Dr. Toribio Bencosme Hospital in Moca states that Rojas gave birth to a boy on April 7, 1987.

Rojas, who says she gave birth to Danny at home with the help of a midwife in the nearby town of Jamao, insists all documents but hers are false.