4 more Iowa athletes plead guilty to underage gambling
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Four former University of Iowa athletes who confronted legal costs in reference to a state investigation into unlawful sports activities wagering have pleaded guilty to underage gambling in agreements attain with prosecutors in Iowa City.
Football gamers Arland Bruce IV, Reggie Bracy and Jack Johnson and basketball participant Ahron Ulis initially had been charged with tampering with data for allegedly falsifying info used to register accounts on cellular sports activities wagering apps.
Bruce, Bracy, Johnson and Ulis finalized plea offers final week. Bruce, Bracy and Ulis had been fined $645. Johnson has agreed to pay a effective of the identical quantity, however a sentencing doc for him didn’t seem in digital court docket data Monday.
The identical plea offers and fines had been introduced Sept. 6 for Iowa soccer participant Aaron Blom, Iowa baseball participant Gehrig Christensen and Iowa State soccer gamers Dodge Sauser, Hunter Dekkers and Jake Remsburg.
Blom, Christensen and Sauser are now not members of their groups. Dekkers and Remsburg stay on the ISU soccer roster however haven’t performed this season. Dekkers, a quarterback, and Remsburg, an offensive linemen, had been projected starters.
In addition to legal costs, all athletes concerned in sports activities wagering had been topic to NCAA penalties starting from suspensions of various lengths to everlasting ineligibility.
Since Aug. 1, 9 athletes from Iowa State and 6 from Iowa have been charged within the investigation introduced in May. Two Iowa athletic employees members additionally had been charged. The state Division of Criminal Investigation has not commented on the circumstances triggering the investigation.
All of the athletes had been alleged to have registered or DraftKings sports activities wagering app accounts beneath the names of different folks, often relations, to disguise their identities as NCAA athletes and the very fact they had been beneath the authorized gambling age of 21 on the time.
Prosecutors initially charged the athletes with tampering with data, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in jail and fines.
Bruce and Bracy transferred to different faculties after final season. Oklahoma State suspended Bruce and Troy suspended Bracy after the gambling costs had been filed. Ulis transferred to Nebraska and was listed on the Cornhuskers’ roster Monday. Those three, plus Johnson, had been accused of wagering on Iowa soccer or basketball video games, or each, together with some through which they performed.
Legal proceedings have ended towards the six Iowa athletes who had been charged. Cases involving a pupil supervisor in soccer and one other in males’s basketball proceed.
Cases involving six Iowa State athletes proceed in Ames, the place the college is situated.
Football gamers Jirehl Brock and Isaiah Lee waived preliminary hearings. No future hearings for them had been listed in court docket data. Football participant DeShawn Hanika has but to make an look. Brock and Lee now not are with the Cyclones. Hanika stays on the roster.
Basketball participant Jeremiah Williams has a preliminary listening to set this week. Williams missed final season due to harm after transferring from Temple. He left final season and was listed on Rutgers’ roster Monday.
Wrestler Paniro Johnson and soccer participant Eyioma Uwazurike every face a felony identification theft cost as well as to one every for tampering with data. Both have entered not guilty pleas and are scheduled to make court docket appearances subsequent month. Uwazurike is on the Denver Broncos roster and suspended by the NFL for wagering on Broncos video games final 12 months.