Williams Is Sued in Driver’s Death

The family of a limousine driver shot to death inside Jayson Williams’ mansion in New Jersey on Wednesday filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the former NBA player.

Costas “Gus” Christofi’s family demanded in a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Bergen County that Williams pay damages for causing the driver’s death and covering it up, according to a statement released by the family’s attorney.

During a night of heavy drinking, Williams humiliated and cursed Christofi before showing off with a shotgun and fatally shooting him, prosecutors contend in court documents filed Wednesday.

The details of the Feb. 14 shooting came in prosecutors’ response to a defense motion seeking to dismiss charges against Williams.

Williams, 34, is accused of recklessly handling the gun that killed Christofi and then trying to make the shooting look self-inflicted. He could face nearly 45 years in prison if convicted on all charges, including first-degree manslaughter.

In their filing, prosecutors allege, among other things, that Williams had a probable blood-alcohol concentration of between 0.18% and 0.22% at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors allege Williams asked guests to lie to investigators. Two guests, Kent Culuko and John Gordnick, have pleaded guilty to tampering charges and agreed to testify against Williams.

*

A federal appeals court ordered a judge to resentence former boxing heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe to at least 18 months in prison for abducting his wife and their five children from their home in Charlotte, N.C., in 1998.

The three judges on the appeals court ruled that the judge erred in giving Bowe credit for time spent on probation, which allowed Bowe to avoid prison time.

Tennis

Marat Safin of Russia reached the third round of the Paris Masters, beating David Nalbandian of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2, and earning a spot in the season-ending Masters Cup next month at Shanghai.

Andy Roddick, seeded 11th, defeated Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), and James Blake lost to 10th-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-3, 6-2.

Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won singles matches, giving Spain a 2-0 lead over Austria in their Fed Cup semifinal at Maspalomas, Canary Islands. Italy and Slovakia were tied, 1-1, in the other best-of-five semifinal.

Baseball

Dodger left fielder Brian Jordan exercised his right to demand a trade, when his agent filed the required paperwork with the Major League Baseball Players Assn., but while the Dodgers will listen to offers for Jordan, they aren’t expected to seriously attempt to deal him.

If no deal is reached by March 15 and Jordan does not rescind his request, he would become a free agent. But in so doing, Jordan would lose free-agency rights for three years and forfeit $11.5 million on his current contract, which includes a guaranteed $9 million in 2003 and a $10.5-million option for 2004 that can be bought out for $2.5 million.

Angel reserve outfielder Orlando Palmeiro, 32, filed for free agency.

Palmeiro had a pinch double and scored a run in four World Series at-bats. He was hitless in his other two postseason at-bats. Palmeiro batted .300 in 263 at-bats during the regular season.

Pitcher Roger Clemens declined to exercise a $10.3-million player option for 2003, the New York Yankees said. But the option was really an illusion designed to lower the Yankees’ payroll figure during the last two seasons because the five-time Cy Young Award winner gets a $10.3-million buyout.

The Yomiuri Giants beat the Seibu Lions, 6-2, at Tokorozawa to complete a four-game sweep in the Japan Series. It was the Giants’ 20th title, the most in Japan, and their first since 2000.

Miscellany

USC senior center Kostas Charissis, who sat out the Trojans’ final eight men’s basketball games last season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle, has re-aggravated the injury in practice and is out for an undetermined length of time.

Tomas Kapusta’s first goal of the year at 16:33 of the third period turned out to be the game-winner in the Ice Dogs’ 4-3 victory over Anchorage at Long Beach Arena.

The Ice Dogs moved to 2-2-0. Anchorage fell to 1-7-0.