Little League father charged

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The father of star Little League pitcher Danny Almonte has been charged with falsifying a birth certificate to show his son was 12, Dominican officials said Tuesday. \nFelipe de Jesus Almonte "will be arrested as soon as he sets foot in this country," said Victor Romero, the public records official in charge of examining birth records to determine Danny Almonte's age. If convicted, the father could face three to five years in jail. \nDanny's Bronx-based Rolando Paulino All-Stars team was stripped of its third-place finish in the Little League World Series after his real age, 14, was revealed Friday. Little League also voided all of the boy's records, including a perfect game, a one-hitter and 46 strikeouts. \nDominican school officials also disclosed Tuesday that Danny finished seventh grade on June 15 at the Andres Bello Primary School, which would have prevented the boy from playing the required six Little League games to qualify for the Little League championships. \nDanny's father has not made himself available to the media and could not be reached for comment on the latest charges. \n"We can't lie," said Bolivar de Luna Gomez, vice principal of the school in Moca, a small farming town 90 miles north of Santo Domingo. "He was here, and the records show this. It is the truth, and if authorities ask us to turn the documents in, we are ready to do so." \nJoann Dalmau, spokeswoman for the team, denied Danny had lived in the Dominican Republic until June. \n"I saw him in May here, playing in a regular season game," she said. "So there was no way he was in the Dominican Republic in June." \nBut Romero, the records official, confirmed that Danny had, been in a Dominican school until June. \nDepending on the weather, Little League seasons start as early as February and as late as June 1, with the all-star tournament that leads to the Little League World Series beginning July 1. To be named to a league's all-star team and participate in the tournament, a player must have played in at least half of his team's games by June 15. \nLittle League spokesman Lance Van Auken said that would have been impossible for Danny. \n"If he wasn't in the country until after June 15, then it seems impossible that he would have been eligible under those conditions as well," Van Auken said. "It adds to the weight of evidence against Rolando Paulino and anyone else who might have known Danny was ineligible." \nThree of the boys on the team were born in the Dominican Republic, one was born in Puerto Rico, and the rest are of Dominican descent. \nVan Auken said the president of each league, in Danny's case, Rolando Paulino, signs an affidavit verifying the eligibility of each player in the all-star tournament. To be eligible this year, Little League players had to be born before Aug. 1, 1988. \nPaulino, founder and president of the league that bears his name, was banned for life from any affiliation with Little League baseball because of the age controversy, as was Danny's father. \nGomez, the school vice principal, also confirmed Danny is registered as having been born on April 7, 1987, as the government ruled Friday. \nJose Rojas, Danny's uncle in Moca who initially said the boy had been in the United States for nearly two years, retracted his earlier statement, saying it was possible that Danny had been in Moca until June. \nMeanwhile Tuesday, Danny and his father were on their way to register him to attend school in the Bronx, said Jennifer Falk, spokeswoman for the New York's Administration of Children's Services. \n"We've satisfied our concerns to make sure he's registered for school," she said