Terry Rozier Charged With Two New Federal Felonies

Rozier, who pleaded not guilty after being arrested on two wire fraud charges this past October related to the same case, has been charged with sports bribery and honest services fraud, according to Vorkunov.

As Vorkunov details, federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York allege that Rozier accepted a payment worth approximately $100,000 to take himself out of a game early when he was a member of the Hornets.

The indictment says Rozier conspired with a group of gamblers — including Marves Fairley, who claims he paid a player to alter his game performance — to share non-public information to help them win. As Vorkunov writes in another story, while Fairley didn’t identify anyone by name on Thursday when he pleaded guilty to seven felony charges, including two related to this case, a prosecutor later clarified that Rozier was the player.

Jim Trusty, an attorney who represents Rozier, denied the allegations.

“There are some desperate men in this case with terrible criminal records and tons of exposure, and they know what to say to please these prosecutors,” Trusty said. “The new indictment confirms that our motion to dismiss was a good one — it’s just new charges and new theories trotted out in the hope that something sticks.”

The incident took place on March 23, 2023. Rozier allegedly told his friend and co-conspirator Deniro Laster that he would pull himself out of a game early, citing a foot injury, so that Laster and two other gamblers — Fairley and Shane Hennen — could bet on it. The indictment says Laster then told Fairley and Hennen, who exchanged texts about the plan. Laster and Hennen have pleaded not guilty, Vorkunov notes.

Rozier, who was averaging more than 21 points and 35 minutes per game at the time, only played nine minutes and 34 seconds in that Hornets game at New Orleans. He was inactive for the final eight games of the ’22/23 season because of the same foot injury.

Fairley is the second person to plead guilty in the case after former NBA guard and assistant coach Damon Jones did the same last month, Vorkunov adds.