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Tim Donaghy and Publisher Sever Ties, Threats Still In Dispute

May 19, 2010, 2:00 PM UTC

Last week, we linked to a story in the Philadelphia Daily News about Tim Donaghy’s struggles with his book publisher VTi-Media. The report centered around a claim by the CEO of VTi, Shawna Vercher, that Donaghy had repeated outbursts toward staffers at VTi including invoking his affiliation with the Gambino crime family. Donaghy denied those claims and called Vercher “vindictive.” VTi, according to the report, had taped Donaghy and was filing a restraining order.â†µâ†µObviously there had to be more to this story. Dan Devine of Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie did some sleuthing and found that there is, indeed, much more to it. First, BDL references an email on May 11th in which VTi announced the termination of their relationship with Donaghy. That was three days prior to the Daily News story being released (and two days prior to a similar story on Covers.com). Donaghy reportedly shot back at that point, indicated that it was he who severed ties. This has become like a sit-com storyline...You’re fired!” “You can’t fire me, because I quit.” “You can’t quit, because I already fired you!“â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd…scene. More from BDL:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥Vercher told BDL the relationship had broken down “over the last couple of months, coming to a boil over the last week or so,” when she alleges Donaghy began making “threats of violence.”â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“He threatened to come here,” Vercher said, claiming that the prospect of Donaghy appearing at VTi’s Largo, Fla., offices in search of royalties (which she says were not yet available, terming the fiscal turnaround “not a fast process”) rankled her employees and frightened her.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“He mentioned that someone was going to come up here and get me, that they knew where I live,” Vercher said. “He made mention of his ties to members of the Gambino crime family, saying that they were active in our area.”â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µNobody has been arrested, at least not for these most recent allegations, so take everything Vercher said with some semblance of “she said” to Donaghy’s “he said.” In fact, Donaghy told BDL, “I want to make myself very clear: I have not threatened her [or] any of her employees in any way, shape or form.” â†µ

â†µ I speculated in my post that the reason Vercher told the Daily News her company must send any proceeds from Donaghy's book to the U.S. Attorney's office was because Donaghy would be unable to profit from his own crimes. That's not exactly right, but close, as Devine notes that the proceeds from book sales are slated to go toward the $217,000-plus that Donaghy and his co-conspirators were ordered to pay as part of their sentencing in July 2008. â†µ

â†µâ†µOf course, the story continues to remain in limbo, with a Florida judge hearing the petition for an order of protection for VTi sometime today. Donaghy asserts that he’s just looking for an accurate account of how many books he’s sold, and wants whatever money he is due. And, yes, he’s acting like the victim:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“You know, it’s devastating, because I’ve done a good job moving forward, taking pride in everything that I’m supposed to be doing,” said Donaghy, who says he is now working at a gambling addiction treatment center. “It’s very discouraging, but you just have to keep walking down that straight and narrow road and in due time, all of this is going to be made public. Things are going to be rectified and the truth will be known.”â†µâ†µDonaghy has announced that in addition to putting out his book on paperback – with a different publisher – he’s writing another book. Maybe that book can have a chapter about this situation regarding his first book. It would be so meta.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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