{"id":2071316,"date":"2026-07-31T14:22:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2071316"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:22:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:22:49","slug":"terry-roziers-attorneys-claim-2023-text-message-should-end-federal-case-against-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2071316","title":{"rendered":"Terry Rozier\u2019s attorneys claim 2023 text message should \u2018end\u2019 federal case against him"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terry Rozier has asked a federal judge to throw out two of the four charges brought against him over the last year by the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

In a new filing Friday, lawyers for Rozier said that the NBA veteran never agreed to manipulate his performance for the sake of sports gamblers and that Rozier did not know that anyone was betting on his stats during a March 23, 2023, game while he was with the Charlotte Hornets, as federal prosecutors have alleged.<\/p>\n

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For the first time, Rozier\u2019s lawyer offered what they claim is proof that he was not involved in the sports gambling scheme that led to charges for six men last October and guilty pleas by two of them so far. According to the filing, Deniro Laster, Rozier\u2019s friend and a co-defendant in the case, sent a text on March 29 \u2014 six days after the game in question and as prosecutors have said he was picking up his payment from a gambler who allegedly profited from insider information on Rozier \u2014 instructing the person not to tell Rozier about the bet on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDont tell chum bout the bet,\u201d Laster said in the message, referring to Rozier by what his lawyers say is his nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should end the case,\u201d lawyers for Rozier wrote in the legal filing. \u201cOne does not hide a bet from the person who supposedly sold it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a motion asking the judge to deny Rozier\u2019s request, federal prosecutors said that they have \u201cdeveloped evidence from multiple sources that this text chain does not relate to sports gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rozier is facing four federal charges brought out of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of New York, including wire fraud and sports bribery. His attorneys, David Markus and Anita Margot Moss, are asking the judge to dismiss counts 3 and 4 for sports bribery and honest services fraud. They took on Rozier\u2019s case last month, when he changed lawyers. Rozier asked the judge in December to dismiss the other two counts he faces<\/a> but has not yet received a decision. The attorneys also requested that the judge move the case to the Southern District of Florida.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors say that Rozier agreed to accept a $100,000 payment to take himself out early from that 2023 Hornets game so that a group of sports gamblers could win money wagering on his prop bets. He played 9:34 in that 2023 game and did not reach his season averages in points, assists or 3s but did surpass the over\/under line in rebounds.<\/p>\n

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The charges were part of a larger case that implicated 11-year NBA veteran Damon Jones and claimed that non-public insider information was being sold to and used by gamblers to profit on NBA games. Last month, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District charged two more NBA veterans<\/a>, Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, along with three others, with running a scheme to manipulate Beasley\u2019s performance in games so they could make money on it.<\/p>\n

Rozier was first arrested and charged in October, but prosecutors filed a superseding indictment in May, adding two new charges. He has pleaded not guilty and denied the claims through his lawyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerry Rozier is innocent,\u201d lawyers for Rozier wrote in a new motion to dismiss the case filed Friday. \u201cHe is a basketball player, not a gambler. He never bet on anything, never agreed to underperform, never did underperform, and did not know that anyone was wagering on his statistics in the Charlotte Hornets\u2019 March 23, 2023, game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Rozier told the judge that they believe some of the claims prosecutors made against Rozier don\u2019t constitute an offense under the federal law they cited, and that, in charging Rozier with sports bribery, prosecutors ignored that the law applies to the outcome or score of a game, not individual performance.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"League,<\/p>\n
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\n League, Hornets tell prosecutors they don\u2019t want Terry Rozier playing in the NBA\n <\/div>\n
\n Federal prosecutors said that Rozier has already texted one person on the list of people he is not allowed to contact.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Of the six people originally charged in the case, Rozier is one of four still set to go to trial, along with Jones, Eric Earnest and Shane Hennen. Hennen, who is alleged to have been one of the gamblers involved, pleaded guilty this week in a related case that claimed he was part of a rigged poker scheme which implicated Hall of Famer and former Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and 29 others.<\/p>\n

Marves Fairley, who prosecutors said paid Laster after the bet involving Rozier, pleaded guilty in May<\/a> and told a federal judge during his hearing that he agreed to pay Rozier \u201cto change their game performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rozier, Jones and Hennan\u2019s trial has been set for Feb. 8.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terry Rozier has asked a federal judge to throw out two of the four charges brought against him over the last year by the U.S. Department of Justice. In a new filing Friday, lawyers for Rozier said that the NBA veteran never agreed to manipulate his performance for the sake of sports gamblers and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2071316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2071316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2071316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2071316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2071316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}