NFL coach Jim Harbaugh, added to the trial to hack allegations against the former assistant

Detroit (AP) – NFL coach Jim Harbaugh was added on Friday to a trial against the University of Michigan and a former Deputy Football Coach who is Accused of hacking In the computer stories of university athletes from the United States to search for intimate photos.

Lawyers say Harbaugh, who was the Michigan coach, and others knew that Matt Weiss was seen seeing private information on a computer in December 2022, but has always allowed him to continue working as a co-offensive coordinator in a national playoff game about a week later.

Michigan sports director, Warde Manuel, and other officials were also added to the trial before the Federal Detroit court.

“University delay to take significant protection measures until a high challenge game sends a clear message: the well-being of students was secondary,” said Parker Stinar, who is the main lawyer for a collective appeal resulting from a criminal investigation on Weiss.

Messages requesting comments from Manuel and Harbaugh, who is currently a head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, were not immediately returned on Friday.

In addition, Weiss was accused of theft of identity and unauthorized access to computer from 2015 to 2023. The indictment indicates that it had access to social media, emails and cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 university athletes, as well as more than 1,300 students or former students of the United States schools, to find private images, mainly women. He has pleaded not guilty.

“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 highly paid asset that was promoted by and in the football program, from the position he was able to and made, targets the athlete students.”

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.

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”.

Weiss worked for Harbaugh’s brother John, in the NFL Baltimore Ravens coaches before joining the Michigan team 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.