Federal prosecutors said Monday they intend to bring new charges against Terry Rozier in their sports gambling case, telling a judge they will seek a superseding indictment that accuses the NBA guard of soliciting and accepting a bribe.
A lawyer in the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York said the new allegations will be presented to a grand jury, and prosecutor Kaitlin Ferrell said, "We have developed evidence that Mr. Rozier solicited and accepted a bribe." Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trusty, said prosecutors told him just two hours earlier that they planned to add the new charges. Rozier has pleaded not guilty to the original counts.
The new filing would add to the two federal wire fraud charges Rozier has faced since his arrest and indictment in October. Prosecutors say Rozier told Deniro Laster in March 2023 that he would leave a game early while he was still with the Charlotte Hornets, and that Laster then sold the information to sports gamblers who used it to place wagers on Rozier's playing time. A prosecutor said Rozier deprived the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets of his honest services, and prosecutors said they will argue he committed sports bribery and honest services fraud.
The case has already widened beyond Rozier. He is one of seven men charged in the October case involving non-public information on NBA players that was allegedly sold and traded to sports gamblers, and five other men are still facing charges alongside him. Damon Jones has indicated he will plead guilty, making him the first defendant in the case to do so.
Rozier was traded to the Miami Heat the next season and was waived earlier this month. The NBA had put him on leave after the charges became public, and an arbitrator ruled that he must still be paid his $26.4 million salary. Prosecutors said they intend to file the new charges by mid-May, and Rozier is expected back in court on June 10 for a status hearing.