The lawyers of Terry Rozier, in an effort to have two of the four federal charges against the NBA veteran thrown out, filed a motion Friday that a text message proves that Rozier was not involved in a sports gambling scheme.
Attorney David Markus wrote that Deniro Laster, a co-defendant and a friend of Rozier, sent a text on March 29, 2023, to a person to not tell Rozier of the bet made on him six days prior, while Rozier was with the Charlotte Hornets.
Rozier’s lawyers said he did not know anyone was betting on his statistics during that game and never agreed to change his play on the court to appease sports gamblers.
“Don’t tell chum ’bout the bet,” Laster said in the message, referring to Rozier by what his lawyers say is his nickname.
“This should end the case,” lawyers for Rozier wrote in the legal filing. “One does not hide a bet from the person who supposedly sold it.”
Federal prosecutors responded with a motion for the judge to deny Rozier’s request, writing that they have “developed evidence from multiple sources that this text chain does not relate to sports gambling.”
Markus and Anita Margot Moss, Rozier’s other attorney, are asking the charges of sports bribery and honest services fraud be dismissed from the case brought out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Markus and Moss also requested that the case be moved to the Southern District of Florida.
“Terry Rozier is innocent,” the lawyers for Rozier wrote in a motion to dismiss the case filed Friday. “He 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’ March 23, 2023, game.”
In December, Rozier asked the judge to throw out the other two counts — wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering — but the judge has not sent a decision.
According to federal prosecutors, Rozier agreed to accept $100,000 to remove himself from that March 2023 game with the Hornets so a group of gamblers would successfully wager on his prop bets. He failed to reach his season averages in points, assists and 3-pointers but eclipsed the over/under line on rebounds.
Rozier, one of six people originally charged, is set for a trial Feb. 8 along with former NBA player Damon Jones and Shane Hennen. Allegedly one of the gamblers involved in the probe, Hennen pleaded guilty earlier this week in a case that claimed he was involved in a rigged poker game scheme that implicated 30 others, including Hall of Famer and former Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups.
Rozier, 32, was arrested and charged in October before prosecutors added sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy counts to the case in May. Rozier pleaded not guilty and denied the charges through his attorneys.
