The NBA and Charlotte Hornets told federal prosecutors they prefer veteran guard Terry Rozier continue to be prohibited from contacting current and former members of the Hornets while he remains out on bond and awaiting trial on four charges stemming from a federal investigation into alleged NBA gambling and insider information trading.<\/p>\n
Last week, a federal judge asked the league to weigh in as she contemplated whether to remove those bond restrictions at the request of Rozier and his lawyer, who claimed that they prevented Rozier from potentially playing in the NBA again. An attorney for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of New York told Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in a legal filing Monday that the NBA supported their desire to keep the current terms in place.<\/p>\n
Jim Trusty, Rozier\u2019s lawyer, said that would prevent Rozier from resuming his NBA career because he could not take the court against the Hornets while they remained on the no-contact list that federal prosecutors set. That list includes current and former coaches, as well as others. The Miami Heat had also been on that no-contact list but were dropped after they waived him on April 10. The NBA told federal prosecutors that if Rozier were allowed to play in NBA games again, he could \u201cbe in a position to interact with potential witnesses in or around the arena, both before and after games,\u201d according to a legal filing by an Eastern District attorney.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors said that Rozier has already texted one person on the list of people he is not allowed to contact, and they said they have received and are investigating \u201ccredible allegations\u201d that \u201cat least one co-defendant, potentially acting on Mr. Rozier\u2019s behalf, has contacted witnesses regarding the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall has not said when she would make her ruling.<\/p>\n
Trusty said Tuesday in a legal filing that the NBA had asked federal prosecutors to prevent Rozier from contacting anyone in the league as a way to dock his pay and to tarnish his case in front of an arbitrator \u2014 who could reinstate the majority of the $26.6 million Rozier was due to receive this season \u2014 claiming that \u201cthe NBA has ghost-written a parade of horribles for the Government\u2019s letter to suggest that allowing Mr. Rozier to take the court would lead to obstruction of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NBA and the Miami Heat have 26 million reasons to try to use bond conditions as a disqualification for Terry Rozier from playing basketball,\u201d Trusty wrote.<\/p>\n
He asked the judge to determine that any no-contact rules Rozier must obey only prevent him from talking his case with those on the list, but not from allowing to play in NBA games.<\/p>\n
Trusty also denied that Rozier was unfairly impugned by prosecutors in their letter to Hall. He said that Rozier texted someone on the no-contact list to tell them they had been added and he would try to remove him from the list.<\/p>\n
Rozier was arrested in October and charged for his alleged role in a sports gambling scheme that used insider information on NBA games and players to make money. The NBA put him on leave days after his arrest and he did not play this past season.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old Rozier was charged with two counts this past fall, but prosecutors added two new charges last month in a superseding indictment. They alleged that Rozier agreed to take a $100,000 payment to prematurely take himself out of a March 2023 Hornets game so that a group of gamblers could wager on his prop bets. He is now facing charges of sports bribery and honest services fraud. Rozier has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to begin in February 2027<\/a>. Two men charged alongside him, Marves Fairley and former NBA player Damon Jones, have already pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n