Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier to be arraigned over sports betting scheme
By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK AP Miami Heat member Terry Rozier is set to appear Monday in a federal court in Brooklyn on charges he helped gamblers placing bets on his performance in NBA games Related Articles Wall Street hangs near its records as the battle to buy Warner Bros heats up Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros challenging a billion bid by Netflix One Battle After Another leads Golden Globe nominations Washington s Mayor Bowser says the city s police chief Pamela Smith is stepping down Lucas Where was Dem outrage when Obama was ordering drone strikes The -year-old point guard will be formally arraigned in New York on federal wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges He ll also join five other co-defendants and their lawyers for a pretrial hearing later in the day on the incident Rozier previously appeared before a federal judge in Orlando on Oct when prosecutors first reported the indictment At the time he was published with conditions One of his lawyers Jim Trusty denied the charges saying the Ohio native was not a gambler and looks forward to winning this fight More than people have been arrested in connection with the sprawling federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional sports including several Mafia figures Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups has pleaded not guilty in a separate scheme to fix high-stakes Mafia-backed illegal poker games Prosecutors say Rozier conspired with friends to help them win bets on his performance in a March tournament when he played for the Charlotte Hornets They say he informed the bettors that he intended to leave the battle against the New Orleans Pelicans early with a supposed injury allowing gamblers to place wagers earning them tens of thousands of dollars Rozier played the first nine minutes and seconds of the challenge before leaving citing a foot issue He did not play again that season The other NBA figure ensnared in the research is Damon Jones who pleaded not guilty last month to charges he provided sports bettors with nonpublic information about injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis while serving as an unofficial assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers during the - season Jones a former NBA contestant is also indicted along with Billups and others in the separate poker scheme Both Billups and Rozier have been placed on unpaid leave from their teams as their court cases play out Rozier has earned about million over a -year NBA career He was a first-round pick for the Boston Celtics in after starring at the University of Louisville Charlotte traded him to the Heat last year
