On March 20, 2025, former University of Michigan football coach Matthew Weiss was indicted by a federal grand jury on fourteen counts of unauthorized access and ten counts aggravated identify theft.[1] According to the indictment, Weiss allegedly illegally accessed a database that contained information regarding student athletes from more than 100 colleges and universities across the country.[2] After accessing the information, Weiss is accused of downloading the personal and medical information of more than 150,000 student athletes and using that information to get into the social media, email, and cloud storage accounts of more than 3,300 student athletes and other students.[3]
Weiss primarily targeted female athletes by downloading intimate photographs and videos that were not made available to the public. Weiss entered a not guilty plea on all charges against him. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison on each count of unauthorized access and two years in prison on each count of aggravated identify theft.[4]
Weiss’s legal troubles have not stopped there. Nearly a day after he was indicted on federal charges, two of his alleged victims filed a civil suit against him and the University of Michigan’s football team.[5] The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are two former University of Michigan student athletes. According to court documents, one was a member of the women’s gymnastics team, and the other was a member of the women’s soccer team.
The lawsuit alleges that after Weiss gained access to the student athletes’ databases, he obtained personal information such as their social media, email, and cloud storage accounts by guessing or resetting their passwords.[6] Once he gained access to these databases, Weiss downloaded their personal, intimate photographs that were not shared with the public.
The plaintiffs have also named several other defendants in this suit, such as the University of Michigan and the Regents of the University of Michigan. They are accused of recklessly and negligently allowing Weiss to download “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos.”[7] The lawsuit further alleges that the University violated Title IX and its “deliberate indifference to protection against the invasion of privacy for female athletes created a heightened risk of sexual harassment.”[8] The final defendant in this case is Keffer Development Services, LLC, the company that maintains the database that Weiss was able to gain authorized access to. The plaintiffs allege that Keffer’s “misconduct, negligence, and recklessness also contributed to their invasion of privacy.”[9]
The lawsuit was filed as a potential class action on behalf of the other alleged victims. While there is not an exact number of class members in this case, it is estimated that it could exceed 1,000 members.[10] Although we are in the early stages of this legal fight, if the evidence is true, Weiss could not only face several years in prison, but also a large number of civil penalties.
Image Credit: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/matt-weiss-worked-as-outside-contractor-for-seahawks-in-2024
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/lawsuit-filed-former-michigan-coach-alleged-hacking-case/story?id=120109921
[2] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/before-the-bar/former-michigan-athletes-sue-ex-football-coach-over-photo-hack?context=search&index=0
[3] See supra note 1.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
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