NEW YORK — A defendant in the NBA insider gambling case left a federal courtroom in handcuffs Tuesday after the federal judge overseeing the case revoked his bond.
The judge believes the defendant tried to obstruct justice and tamper with witnesses ahead of trial scheduled for next year. Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said Deniro Laster had broken the conditions of his bond by trying to intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice, including by sending a rat emoji on Instagram to a potential witness.
Last week, federal prosecutors asked the judge to put Laster into custody because, they said, he had tried to intimidate witnesses and had reached out to a co-defendant to tell him they could avoid a conviction by not cooperating with the investigation. After several hours of arguments and deliberation, including over the meaning of the emoji, the judge said enough probable cause existed to make her believe Laster committed a federal crime.
“It will not be tolerated by this court,” Hall said from the bench.
The decision came at the end of a long and occasionally argumentative day in the courtroom. All four remaining defendants in the case, including NBA veteran Terry Rozier, appeared in court for an update on their case. All have pleaded not guilty to charges that they were part of a conspiracy to gamble on NBA games using nonpublic information.
Rozier and Laster, federal prosecutors allege, collaborated with sports gamblers so the gamblers could wager on Rozier’s prop bets for a Charlotte Hornets game in March 2023, when Rozier was still with the team. Rozier, according to a May indictment, agreed to accept a $100,000 payment to take himself out of the game early. He is facing four federal charges, including sports bribery and honest services fraud. David Markus, a lawyer for Rozier, told the court Tuesday, “We’re going to trial,” which is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2027.
We found a member of Terry Rozier’s entourage linking on IG with indicted gamblers — with a little help from Keanu and G-Baby
Laster is facing the same charges. He and Rozier have both asked the judge to dismiss their charges.
Prosecutors said last week in a legal filing that Laster’s efforts to intimidate witnesses included contacting co-defendants when he was not allowed to. Prosecutors said Laster posted the aforementioned rat emoji as a warning to not help the government’s investigation.
Evan Corcoran, Laster’s lawyer, tried to downplay the post, first by calling it a “rat cartoon” and then by trying to diminish its significance. That argument, however, did not go far with Hall, nor did his other arguments.
“I love being mansplained to,” Hall said.
Hall also rebuked Laster for contacting a co-defendant after their indictment. Laster was not allowed to contact other defendants or potential witnesses as part of the conditions of his bond, which allowed him to remain out of custody as he awaited trial.
While Corcoran tried to argue that Laster was not aware he could not speak to the others indicted alongside him, Hall said it was clear he could not do so.
“It seems he has worked hard to violate these conditions,” she said at one point.
Corcoran declined to comment after the hearing.
The government’s accusation about Laster last week also led to an exchange of legal filings between lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Markus took issue with the prosecutors for including Rozier in their filing about Laster and what he believed was an implication that Rozier was part of a gang. Prosecutors had said that Laster and Rozier, longtime friends, were part of a group called GMB that publicly flaunted its access to guns and that Laster allegedly relied on to intimidate witnesses.
Markus told The Athletic that was a “dog whistle” by the government. Prosecutors said Markus had broken a rule governing the court that lawyers could not speak publicly about the case because it risked tainting a potential jury pool. Markus claimed that Department of Justice officials had done that as well when they announced the case.
Tuesday, David Berman of the Eastern District clarified that the Eastern District did not mean to imply through the filing that Rozier was part of a gang.
“The court made expressly clear that there are no allegations that Mr. Rozier is part of a gang,” Hall said.
