A Story County, Iowa, prosecutor on Friday asked a judge to dismiss criminal gambling charges against former Iowa State University running back Jirehl Brock and three additional former ISU athletes.
As reported by the Des Moines Register, assistant Story County attorney Benjamin Matchan filed motions Friday to dismiss charges against Brock and three other former Iowa State athletes: wrestler Paniro Johnson, defensive lineman Isaiah Lee and defensive end Eyioma Uwazurike. Matchan cited an email presented by defense attorneys this week that showed the manufacturer of a bet-tracking software had pulled the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation's access to the service.
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"Even though defense attorneys pried loose evidence in recent weeks that raised questions about the legality of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s gambling probe into student athletes, Brock still worried a jury would convict him," Tyler Jett of the Register reported.
The case still cost Brock a chance to appear at last weekend's NFL Scouting Combine.
“I was supposed to be out there this weekend,” he said Friday. “That’s something that I have to live with, and that’s something that I’ll always have to live with. It’s not a good feeling. But it’s something that, in a way, I brought on myself ― but in a way I had struck on me.”
GeoComply, which makes the tracking software, told the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission on Jan. 26 that it was disabling the DCI’s account because criminal investigators “may have exceeded the intended and outlined scope of its … access-and-use privileges," according to Jett's report.
Related: Lawyer Alleges DCI Agent Made 'Warrantless Searches' in Iowa Gambling Scandal
"The attorneys for the players filed a motion this week, asking a judge to suppress any information that the DCI gathered from the software because special agent Brian Sanger allegedly testified in a yet-unreleased deposition that he did not get a warrant before using it to probe gambling activity on college campuses," Jett wrote. "They also told a judge that DCI agents lied to athletes, telling them before interviews that they were not targets in a criminal investigation."
In his motion, Matchan wrote that GeoComply “has failed to respond” to his inquires this week.
“The state no longer believes further prosecution in this matter is in the interest of justice,” he wrote, as reported by Jett.
