"singing, cooperating witness". Federal authorities investigated Donaghy's claims and found no evidence to support them. About this, AUSA Jeffrey Goldberg told the court, "we’ve never taken the position that Mr. Donaghy has lied to us. But there is a difference between telling the truth and believing you’re telling the truth and finding out later that a number of the allegations don’t hold any water." Sentencing On July 29, 2008, Donaghy was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York to 15 months in prison for his participation in the gambling scandal. Donaghy could have faced up to 33 months, but Judge Carol Amon reduced his sentence to 15 months (two 15-month terms served concurrently, followed by 3 years of supervised release) in exchange for his cooperation. Judge Amon noted she held Donaghy "more culpable" than his two co-conspirators and added, "Without Mr. Donaghy, there was no scheme." His lawyer, John Lauro, asked for probation, but the request was denied. Donaghy apologized in court: "I brought shame on myself, my family and the profession." Battista and Martino were sentenced earlier that month, earning sentences of 15 months and 366 days, respectively. Effect on NBA As a result of the betting scandal, Stern revised the guidelines on the behavior of NBA referees during the Board of Governors' meeting in 2007. Despite the labor agreement for referees, which restricted them from participating in almost all forms of gambling, it was revealed that about half of the NBA's officials had made bets in casinos, albeit not with sportsbooks. In addition, all referees had admitted to engaging in some form of gambling. Stern stated that the "ban on gambling is absolute, and in my view it is too absolute, too harsh and was not particularly well-enforced over the years." The gambling rules were revised to allow referees to engage in several forms of betting but not on sports. There were several other referee-related rule changes made: the announcement of the referees calling a game was moved from 90 minutes before tip-off to the morning of the game, to reduce the value of the information to gamblers; referees received more in-season training and counseling on gambling; more thorough background checks were carried out; the league declared its intention to analyze the statistical relationship between NBA games and referees' gambling patterns for those games; and the interactions between referees and NBA