Iowa and Iowa State athletes join civil lawsuit over Sting state gambling

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ten more Iowa and Iowa State athletes and an Iowa basketball equipment manager caught up in a 2023 gambling game joined a civil lawsuit Tuesday seeking unspecified monetary damages from the part of the state and its public safety and criminal investigation agencies for violating the rights of athletes and slandering their reputations.

A federal judge granted a motion allowing the 11 new plaintiffs to intervene in the lawsuit, which was filed in April by Des Moines attorneys Van Plumb and Matthew Boles on behalf of 26 former or current Iowa and ISU athletes.

Texas attorneys Grant Gerleman and James Roberts and Chris Sandy of Iowa represent the 11 who have joined the suit, bringing the number of plaintiffs to 37.

“Matt Boles and I are extremely excited to join forces with them because the old saying is true – there is strength in numbers,” said Plumb.

Most of the athletes who faced criminal charges related to the 2023 investigation agreed to plead guilty to underage gambling and pay a fine, and instead had one count of identity theft dismissed.

But Iowa State football players Isaiah Lee, Jirehl Brock and Enyi Uwazurike and wrestler Paniro Johnson did not accept plea deals and in March had all charges against them dropped because the Division of Criminal Investigations misused the tracking software that detected open mobile betting applications. on cell phones in the ISU sports facilities.

The civil suit alleges that the investigators’ misconduct violated the athletes’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights and caused them pain, suffering, mental anguish, humiliation and harm to their personal reputations.

The suit said the investigators specifically violated their constitutional rights to be free from warrantless search and unreasonable seizure and that the investigators were not properly trained by the state, particularly in the proper use of software the Kibana tracker produced by Canada-based GeoComply.

It is against the rules for athletes to bet on any NCAA-sponsored sport. Most of the athletes involved were found to have registered their mobile betting accounts under a different name to avoid detection, usually that of a relative.

The investigation resulted in a loss of NCAA eligibility as well as criminal charges.

The new claimants are ISU wrestlers Samuel Schuyler, Carter Schmidt, Nathan Schon, Drew Woodley and Johnson; ISU football players Terry Roberts and Jeremiah “Trey” Mathis III; ISU track athlete Cameron “Cam” Jones; Iowa wrestlers Brennan Swafford and Corey Cabanban; and Iowa basketball equipment manager Evan Schuster.

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