Iowa Files to Dismiss College Athlete Suit Alleging Botched Betting Prosecutions
The state of Iowa has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of college athletes who claim their rights were violated when they were ‘illegally’ prosecuted for underage gambling.
Twenty-six Iowa and Iowa State athletes sued the state in April. They argue that the investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) used warrantless searches and other unconstitutional techniques.
As a result of the investigation and subsequent prosecution, the athletes’ lives, collegiate careers, and future opportunities were “severely upended,” according to the lawsuit.
The athletes were found to have placed bets while under the legal age of 21 using online sportsbook accounts belonging to friends or family members, which added identity theft charges to the rap sheet.
Most pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and dealt with the consequences for their careers. Four fought the charges and were successful.
‘No Expectation of Privacy’
In their motion to dismiss, lawyers for Iowa argued that 11th Amendment immunity shielded the state from prosecution. The amendment limits the ability of individuals to sue states in a federal court if they are not citizens of that state.
Meanwhile, the athletes who gambled on other people’s accounts had “no reasonable or actual expectation of privacy in gambling accounts they didn’t own,” according to the filings.
Lawyers for Iowa also emphasized that the damage to careers largely came from suspensions handed down by the NCAA, for which the state had no responsibility.
“Here, plaintiffs’ own rules violations caused their suspensions and related injuries,” they argued. “Plaintiffs should not gain from their own illicit activity.”
Misuse of Software
DCI agents used tracking software supplied by geolocation company GeoComply to pry into the students’ betting habits on college campuses.
The software is used by online gambling operators to ensure they are only taking bets from users located within the borders of the state in which they’re licensed.
But GeoComply made the software available to law enforcement agencies to detect “hotspots” – areas where a large concentration of bets was occurring – so agencies could monitor potential money laundering or other fraudulent activity.
The DCI trained the software on college campuses without any warrant or probable cause, possibly violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches.
DCI agents also violated some of the students’ Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, according to the lawsuit. These athletes were told during interviews, falsely, that they weren’t under criminal investigation and weren’t read their Miranda rights.
The athletes' gambling activities were conducted using casino-related online platforms, as they placed bets using friends or family members' accounts. Despite the alleged violation of their Fourth Amendment rights during the investigation, the state argues that the athletes had no expectation of privacy in their gambling activities on accounts not owned by them.
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