New Plaintiffs Join Athletes’ Civil Suit in Iowa, Toll Reaches 37

Ten additional Iowa and Iowa State athletes together with a basketball equipment manager caught in last year’s state gambling sting joined a civil lawsuit on Tuesday. 

The new names on the list are ISU football players Terry Roberts and Jeremiah “Trey” Mathis III, together with Iowa State University (ISU) wrestlers Samuel Schuyler, Carter Schmidt, Nathan Schon, Drew Woodley, and Paniro Johnson, Iowa wrestlers Brennan Swafford and Corey Cabanban, ISU track athlete Cameron “Cam” Jones, and Iowa basketball equipment manager Evan Schuster.

All new 11 plaintiffs were granted a motion from a federal judge, allowing them to intervene in the lawsuit they expect to bring them unspecified monetary damages from the state along with its public safety and criminal investigation agencies for allegedly violating their rights and defaming them.

“There Is Strength in Numbers”: 3 New Attorneys, 37 Plaintiffs 

Since the original April filing date for the lawsuit, the number of total plaintiffs has gone from 26 to 37, with both former and current Iowa and Iowa State University athletes.

The 11 new plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Grant Gerleman and James Roberts from Texas and Chris Sandy from Iowa. 

They will be joining forces with Des Moines attorneys Van Plumb and Matthew Boles who filed the suit in the spring. 

Plumb took the opportunity to comment on the expansion, saying both he and Boles were “extremely excited to join forces with” the new attorneys, adding the old saying “there is strength in numbers” is true. 

Violated Fourth and 14th Amendment Rights

The civil suit is based on investigators’ alleged improper conduct who, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys, violated athletes’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights, which refer to the constitutional rights to be free from a search without a warrant as well as unreasonable seizure. 

The lawsuit also alleges the investigators did not receive the right training from the state, with emphasis on the use of Kibana tracking software manufactured by GeoComply in Canada.

This, in turn, triggered a series of negative consequences on athletes, humiliating them, causing pain, suffering, and mental anguish, and ruining their personal reputations.

The investigation, which looked into the way athletes allegedly wagered on sports sponsored by the NCAA, which they are banned from doing, resulted in lost NCAA eligibility and brought on a series of criminal charges. 

Most of the athletes who faced criminal charges pleaded guilty to underage gambling, paid a fine, and had a count of identity theft dismissed.

Iowa State wrestler Paniro Johnson and football players Isaiah Lee, Jirehl Brock, and Enyi Uwazurike did not agree with the plea deal. 

In March, all charges against them were dropped as it was discovered that the Division of Criminal Investigation had improperly used tracking software for the detection of open mobile betting apps on mobile phones in ISU’s athletic facilities.