Another 11 athletes and team staff from the University of Iowa and Iowa State joined the civil lawsuit against multiple defendants concerning a sports betting investigation.
The lawsuit, originally filed in the Southern District of Iowa in April, stems from an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent who allegedly conducted a warrantless search to see whether student-athletes were using mobile Iowa sportsbooks to wager on sports. The motion to intervene was filed Monday.
The new plaintiffs are looking for punitive damages, damages related to attorneys fees and other economic losses and demand a jury trial. There are now 37 plaintiffs involved in the suit.
New plaintiffs in Iowa sports betting case
The filing outlined how the 11 new plaintiffs were affected by the investigation and case, even after charges were dropped.
Iowa State wrestler Paniro Johnson won the Big 12 Championship in the 2022-23 season but missed the entire 2023-24 season because of his involvement in the investigation after being found to use family members’ DraftKings accounts. Despite charges being dropped in March 2024, the NCAA still suspended Johnson for the first 10% of Iowa State’s 2024-25 wrestling season.
Terry Roberts was using his own accounts on DraftKings and FanDuel which he opened after he turned 21. The University of Iowa cornerback transferred to Michigan State but, despite never being charged, his involvement in the investigation led to him missing the entirety of his senior football season.
Evan Schuster was a student equipment manager for the Iowa basketball team during the 2022-23 season and had access to a family member’s FanDuel account since 2021. He was suspended as a result of the investigation, and wound up pleading guilty to underage gambling and was suspended
Details of flawed probe
Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation began its investigation into 41 Iowa State and University of Iowa student athletes in May 2023. Special Agent Brian Sanger used a monitoring tool from GeoComply called Kibana to geofence freshman and sophomore dorms to see if any underage gambling was happening.
Sanger saw that online sportsbook apps were in use but was eventually told to stop the investigation when he requested to move forward with it. But Sanger continued, and did a similar check on the athletic facilities at those universities.
Using Kibana to collect location data required the use of a warrant, though, which Sanger did not obtain. That fact led to the dismissal of the case for four Iowa State athletes, including Johnson, in January.
