A federal judge entered a not guilty plea on Monday for Matt Weiss, a former assistant football coach at the University of Michigan and Baltimore Ravens, who is accused of hacking into computer accounts of thousands of college athletes to steal intimate images.
Weiss appeared briefly in federal court in Detroit, four days after a 14-count indictment was unsealed. He faces charges of unauthorised computer access and identity theft, spanning from 2015 to early 2023. Weiss and his attorney waived a public reading of the indictment and declined to comment.
According to the indictment, Weiss accessed databases of over 100 colleges and universities maintained by a third-party vendor, Keffer Development Services, downloading personal and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes. He then targeted over 2,000 athletes, plus 1,300 students or alumni, gaining access to their social media, email, and cloud storage accounts.
“Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes,” the indictment states. “He researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history and physical characteristics. His goal was to obtain private photographs and videos never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”
Separately, a class-action lawsuit was filed on Friday on behalf of a former Michigan gymnast and a former women’s soccer player. The lawsuit alleges the university failed to supervise Weiss, leading to the privacy invasion of thousands. The university has declined to comment.
Weiss spent two seasons at Michigan before being fired in 2023 for not cooperating with a school investigation. He was co-offensive coordinator in 2022 when the Wolverines went 13-1. He previously spent over a decade with the Ravens.
