GARY SHEFFIELD Prosecutor: FBI has tape linked to extortion attempt

The Yankee outfielder said he knew about his wife's previous relationship.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Federal agents have seized a videotape that's believed to be at the center of a blackmail attempt against the New York Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield and his wife, a prosecutor said.
FBI agents found the tape in searching the home of a suspect, Derrick Mosley, an assistant U.S. attorney, Virginia Kendall, said during Mosley's bond hearing. The government had said last week that it didn't know whether the videotape actually existed.
Mosley was arrested after allegedly asking Sheffield's business agent for $20,000 to destroy the tape, which he claimed showed Sheffield's wife, the gospel singer DeLeon Richards, having sex with a professional musician several years ago before her marriage.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow jailed Mosley, saying that although he was not likely to be a flight risk, he was concerned that he would try to defraud others while awaiting trial. "What's to stop him from picking up the phone and doing some other scam?" Denlow said.
The judge said he would reconsider his ruling if Mosley's family could pledge substantial property for bail.
Search warrant
Mosley's lawyer, Luis Galvan, said his client, 38, offered to turn the tape over to prosecutors after his arrest, but the government chose to seize it with a search warrant.
Mosley claims he contacted Sheffield's Chicago-based business agent, Rufus Williams, because he wanted to provide moral counseling to Richards.
"I continue to see this case as one person's negotiation is another person's extortion," Galvan said.
Williams approached the FBI after Mosley first contacted him, on Nov. 3. Later, authorities said, Williams secretly taped a phone conversation with Mosley in which he expressed hope that the tape would be destroyed and offered to pay Mosley $1,000 for his efforts. Mosley is heard on tape saying: "I think we just gotta go a little higher ... more like perhaps $20,000."
In a statement, Sheffield said his wife "had a long-term relationship with a well-known professional singer over 10 years ago," before the couple married, and that he already knew about it. The Yankee outfielder said he hoped the man involved would be prosecuted.
"I love my wife and I vow again to stand by her through any trial or tribulation," he said.
Neither the statement nor the FBI affidavit accompanying charges against Mosley identified the musician.