According to reports a criminal tampering complaint has been filed against Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers for tampering with records related to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s probe into sports gambling.
Dekkers allegedly placed 26 wagers on Iowa State sporting events, including the 2021 football game against Oklahoma State when he was a sophomore backup quarterback.
Athletes Gambling Is Inevitable
In documents filed in Iowa District Court for Story County, Dekkers and his parents “engaged in a scheme” to allow the quarterback “to disguise his identity and manipulate online/mobile transactions in order to create the appearance that sports wager transactions” were conducted by his mother, Jami Dekkers, on a DraftKings sportsbook platform.
The account controlled by Dekkers completed approximately 366 mobile/online sports wagers totaling “over $2,799.”
Online sports gambling has been legalized in 37 states plus Washington D.C., but it’s not legal in Iowa.
At this point we sound like a broken record saying “told you so.” But … what else is there to say.
Once the major sports leagues, colleges, and universities got into bed with the sportsbooks it was only a matter of time before assistants, coaches, players, recruiters, etc. would get caught up in incidents like these.
If convicted Dekkers faces up to two years in prison for tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.
“We are in the process of gathering information and will have no further comment at this time,” Iowa State senior associate athletic director Nick Joos said.
Legal Defense
Dekkers will not be participating in camp with the team while the case is still pending. His attorney says his client will plead “not guilty.”
“Hunter Dekkers denies the criminal charge brought against him. He will plead not guilty to that charge because he is in fact not guilty of that charge,” Mark E. Weinhardt of The Weinhardt Law Firm said in a statement on behalf of Dekkers.
“This charge attempts to criminalize a daily fact of American life. Millions of people share online accounts of all kinds every day. This prosecution interferes with and politicizes what is the business of Iowa State University and the NCAA.”
Based on the comments from Dekkers’ attorney it appears as though semantics and technicalities will be argued.
Weinhardt doesn’t clearly state the charge only referring to it as “the criminal charge.”
In Iowa, misdemeanors are crimes that are punishable by up to one year in a local or county jail. All public offenses that are not felonies are classified as misdemeanors. Misdemeanors are classified as aggravated misdemeanors, serious misdemeanors, and simple misdemeanors. Aggravated misdemeanors are the most serious.
So, while not as serious as a felony, this is still a crime.
The sharing accounts angle is an interesting one, as many people share streaming accounts and various other online accounts. If Weinhardt scores a victory using that argument it would be an interesting precedent.
