British-based American speedway rider Billy Janniro has been arrested in his home state of California and charged with statutory rape, according to several sources, including Sacramento-area television station KOVR, the Auburn Journal newspaper and English newspaper the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
The arrest stems from incidents that allegedly took place after the North vs. South. Speedway match at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn, California, on July 18. Janniro, 23, and Brandon Lee Dodd, 21, are the subject of a complaint from two 17-year-old girls, according to Lt. Karl Fulenwider from the Placer County Sheriff’s Department.
“It is alleged that Dodd, Janniro and three other men met three 17-year-old girls at the fairgrounds,” Fulenwider said. “It is alleged that the men took these girls out to dinner and bought them beer. The girls then accompanied them to a local motel where they drank the beer together and during the evening Dodd and Janniro were involved in sex acts with two of the girls.”
Janniro was charged with suspicion of oral copulation, furnishing alcohol and contributing to the delinquency of minors. He has been released on $10,000 bail. Dodd was released on $75,000 bail, according to the Auburn Journal.
Janniro is currently nursing an ankle injury after crashing at Auburn last Friday, and will not be able to fulfill some of his British League obligations in England. He was due back for a race against the Poole Pirates in Coventry on Monday, August 11, but that is the date upon which both men are scheduled for arraignment.
“The bail bond means he has to be in California on August 11 to be arrainged,” Fulenwider said. “To my knowledge there’s no restriction on him leaving the U.S. before that date, but if he doesn’t show on August 11 that’s when we would have problems.”
Janniro has released a statement denying the charges against him on the Coventry Bees website, www.coventrymotorspeedway.com.
“This is a big shock and I deny doing what I am supposed to have done,” Janniro said. “I went to the motel room, but all I did was have a shower, as I was still dirty after racing.”
