Adam Rittenberg, ESPN
Attorneys for four current or former Iowa State athletes charged in the state of Iowa’s online sports wagering investigation filed a motion Tuesday to suppress all evidence in the case, citing an “illegal search and seizure” that violated the athletes’ constitutional rights.
Iowa State wrestler Paniro Johnson and former ISU football players Eyioma Uwazurike, now with the Denver Broncos, as well as Isaiah Lee and Jirehl Brock, have been charged with identity theft or tampering with records for making online wagers using DraftKings or FanDuel accounts registered to other people. Uwazurike was indefinitely suspended in July for violating the NFL’s gambling policy. Lee and Brock left the team before the season. Johnson is not participating in any wrestling meets attached to Iowa State this season, only unattached tournaments where he pays his own way.
Attorneys representing the four accuse Iowa’s Division of Criminal investigations, which led the sports wagering probe last spring, of misrepresenting the nature of its investigation and violating the terms of use for a software program used to capture online wagering inside Iowa State’s athletic facilities.
Tuesday’s motion noted a Jan. 25 letter sent by the geolocation security company GeoComply to Iowa DCI, stating it would be disabling DCI’s access to Kibana, the tool used to capture wagering data, because “DCI may have exceeded the intended outlined scope of its Kibana access-and-use privileges.” The defendants claim Brian Sanger, a DCI agent who led the state’s sports wagering investigation of college athletes, did not obtain a search warrant before using Kibana.
“Without Agent Sanger’s unlawful use of the Kibana tool, the defendants would never have been targeted by law enforcement, and the subsequent subpoenas and search warrants would never have been issued,” the motion read.
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