DETROIT — NFL coach Jim Harbaugh was added Friday to a lawsuit towards the College of Michigan and a former assistant soccer coach who’s accused of hacking into the pc accounts of faculty athletes throughout the U.S. to search for intimate images.
Attorneys declare Harbaugh, who was Michigan’s coach, and others knew that Matt Weiss was seen viewing personal data on a pc in December 2022 however nonetheless allowed him to proceed working as co-offensive coordinator in a nationwide playoff recreation roughly every week later.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and different officers had been additionally added to the lawsuit in federal courtroom in Detroit.
“The college’s delay in taking significant protecting motion till after a high-stakes recreation sends a transparent message: Scholar welfare was secondary,” stated Parker Stinar, who’s the lead lawyer in a class-action lawsuit arising from a felony investigation of Weiss.
Messages in search of remark from Manuel and Harbaugh, who’s at present the top coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, weren’t instantly returned Friday.
Individually, Weiss has been charged with id theft and unauthorized laptop entry from 2015 to 2023. The indictment says he obtained entry to the social media, electronic mail and cloud storage accounts of greater than 2,000 faculty athletes, in addition to greater than 1,300 college students or alumni from colleges throughout the U.S., to search out personal photos, primarily of girls. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Had Harbaugh carried out primary oversight of his workers, plaintiffs and the category would have been protected towards predators similar to Weiss,” the up to date lawsuit states. “As a substitute, Weiss was a extremely compensated asset that was promoted by and throughout the soccer program, from which place he was capable of, and did, goal feminine pupil athletes.”
The lawsuit says a workers member noticed Weiss viewing personal data at Schembechler Corridor, headquarters for the soccer staff, round Dec. 21, 2022, and reported it earlier than Michigan performed Texas Christian College in a playoff recreation days afterward Dec. 31.
Weiss was fired a couple of weeks later in January 2023 throughout an investigation of his laptop use.
Earlier this 12 months, after costs had been filed, Harbaugh advised reporters that he did not know something about Weiss’ troubles till after the playoff recreation. He stated the allegations had been “stunning.”
Weiss labored for Harbaugh’s brother, John, on the teaching workers of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens earlier than becoming a member of the Michigan staff in 2021.
The lawsuit says Weiss’ college laptop had encryption software program that needed to be disabled by an exterior vendor as a part of the investigation. Authorities disclosed in April that 1000’s of intimate images and movies had been discovered on his digital gadgets and cloud storage accounts.
