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Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh was added on Friday to a trial against his former employer, the University of Michigan, and a former assistant football coach accused of hacking on computer systems to acquire photos of university athletes.
Lawyers say Harbaugh has enabled Matt Weiss to continue working as a co-offensive coordinator in a national playoff game after Weiss was seen to see private information on a computer in December 2022.
“University delay to take significant protection measures until a high challenge game sent a clear message: the well-being of students was secondary,” said Parker Stinar, the main lawyer in a collective appeal resulting from a criminal investigation on Weiss.
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Los Angeles Loaders coach Jim Harbaugh at a press conference in Bolt. (Images Kirby Lee / Imagn)
“If Harbaugh had implemented the basic monitoring of its staff, complainants and the class would have been protected against predators such as Weiss,” said the trial updated. “Instead, Weiss was a very paid asset that was promoted by and in the football program, from the position he was able to and targets athlete students.”
The messages from the Associated Press requesting comments from Harbaugh and the sports director of Michigan, Warde Manuel, were not immediately returned on Friday.
The trial indicates that a staff member saw Weiss see private information at the Schembechler Hall, the headquarters of the football team, around December 21, 2022, and reported it before Michigan played at the Christian University of Texas in a eliminatory match of days later on December 31.
Jim Harbaugh denies having committed violations after the reported opinion of the NCAA: “I do not apologize”
Weiss was dismissed a few weeks later in January 2023 during an investigation into its computer use.
Earlier this year, after the accusation, Harbaugh told journalists that he knew nothing about Weiss’s problems before the eliminatory match. He said the allegations were “shocking”.
“Just shocked, completely shocked. Unmolded,” said Harbaugh in a video shared by the team. “It was after the TCU match that I discovered, we discovered, that there were allegations,” he added. “And you said it. I mean, the indictment is not a word that – sympathy for the victims and for Matt’s family. It is shocking.”
The American lawyer’s office for the Oriental District of Michigan announced this month, more than two years after Weiss, 42, was dismissed from his post as coach under Harbaugh after an investigation into alleged crimes.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Wolverines of Michigan after the Big Ten championship against Iowa Hawkeyes at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 2, 2023 in Indianapolis. (Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
According to the indictment, Weiss “has acquired unauthorized access to student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities which were maintained by a third-party supplier”. He would then have downloaded personal information and data from more than 150,000 athletes. From there, Weiss was able to access information of more than 2,000 athletes, including access to their social networks, their emails and their cloud storage.
Weiss is accused of using this information to download “intimate personal photographs and digital videos that have never been intended to be shared beyond intimate partners,” said prosecutors. The alleged crimes took place from 2015 to January 2023 and he would have mainly targeted women.
Weiss, who was dismissed in 2023 for omitting to cooperate with a school investigation, pleaded not guilty.
Weiss worked for Harbaugh’s brother John, in the NFL Baltimore Ravens coaches before joining Michigan in 2021.
The trial indicates that Weiss’s university computer had encryption software that was to be deactivated by an external supplier as part of the survey. The authorities revealed in April that thousands of intimate photos and videos had been found on its electronic devices and Cloud storage accounts.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh, Mike Morris (90), Mike Sainristil (0) and Mazi Smith (58) from the Michigan Wolverines are preparing to take the field before a match against the Spartans of Michigan State in Michigan Stadium on October 29, 2022, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Aaron J. Thornton / Getty Images)
The NCAA previously made a four-year justification prescription for Harbaugh after having determined that the coach had unacceptable contact with recruits and players during the limited period of COVVI-19. The organization determined that Harbaugh “engaged in conduct contrary to ethics, has not promoted an atmosphere of conformity and violates the obligations of responsibility of the head coaches”.
Before that, Harbaugh and Michigan were the subject of an investigation for scouting in an inadmissible person and Signs flight allegations It threw a shadow on the Michigan race towards the 2024 national championship. The Big Ten conference finally hung Harbaugh for three games.
