A motion from Assistant Story County Attorney Benjamin Matchan on Friday asks for the dismissal of remaining charges against Iowa State athletes in connection to allegedly placing illegal bets citing new evidence of possible excessive use of tracking software.
“Due to this newly discovered evidence, the State no longer believes further prosecution in this matter is in the interests of justice,” the motion from the prosecutor stated.
The Iowa State athletes still facing charges are wrestler Paniro Johnson and former football players Eyioma Uwazurike, Jirehl Brock and Isaiah Lee. The four attorneys who represent those athletes filed a joint motion Tuesday and said the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) may have “exceeded the intended outlined scope” of using a third-party tracking software.
The DCI used a product from GeoComply called Kibana, which according to the Wall Street Journal, ensures the users of DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars sportsbooks are placing bets within states where sports betting is legal. The four attorneys also said in their motion Tuesday that using the software as evidence would violate their clients’ Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
“Defendants were specifically told that officers were going after online sports betting companies, and that they were not the targets,” the joint motion from the attorneys stated. “Defendants were not read their Miranda rights and were told they weren’t under criminal investigation.”
The motion further said the “coercive conduct and promises of leniency” by DCI agents toward the athletes to give statements were “made involuntary, against free will” and “contrary” to the athletes’ “constitutional rights.”
According to the Des Moines Register, the lead investigator, DCI Agent Bran Sanger, testified in January that he did not have a warrant prior to using Kibana. According to Tuesday’s joint motion, Sanger used the software to determine if bets were being made inside Iowa State athletic facilities and once detected, Sanger then subpoenaed sportsbooks to receive the account holders’ names.
“At the time of viewing the historical data points, Agent Sanger did not have any tips or specific information suggesting that match fixing and sports wagering cheating were occurring at Iowa State University Athletic Department training facilities,” the joint motion from the attorneys stated.
Five Iowa State athletes have already seen their gambling cases resolved. According to previous reporting by the Daily, DeShawn Hanika’s case was dismissed in September and Hunter Dekkers, Dodge Sauser, Jake Remsburg and Jeremiah Williams all pleaded guilty to underage gambling in August.
