DETROIT (AP) — NFL coach Jim Harbaugh was added Friday to a lawsuit against the University of Michigan and a former assistant football coach who is accused of hacking into the computer accounts of college athletes across the U.S. to look for intimate photos.
Attorneys claim Harbaugh, who was Michigan’s coach, and others knew that Matt Weiss was seen viewing private information on a computer in December 2022 but still allowed him to continue working as co-offensive coordinator in a national playoff game roughly a week later.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and other officials were also added to the lawsuit in federal court in Detroit.
“The university’s delay in taking meaningful protective action until after a high-stakes game sends a clear message: Student welfare was secondary,” said Parker Stinar, who is the lead lawyer in a class-action lawsuit arising from a criminal investigation of Weiss.
Messages seeking comment from Manuel and Harbaugh, who is currently the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, were not immediately returned Friday.
Separately, Weiss has been charged with identity theft and unauthorized computer access from 2015 to 2023. The indictment says he got access to the social media, email and cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 college athletes, as well as more than 1,300 students or alumni from schools across the U.S., to find private images, primarily of women. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Had Harbaugh implemented basic oversight of his staff, plaintiffs and the class would have been protected against predators such as Weiss,” the updated lawsuit states. “Instead, Weiss was a highly compensated asset that was promoted by and within the football program, from which position he was able to, and did, target female student athletes.”
The lawsuit says a staff member saw Weiss viewing private information at Schembechler Hall, headquarters for the football team, around Dec. 21, 2022, and reported it before Michigan played Texas Christian University in a playoff game days later on Dec. 31.
Weiss was fired a few weeks later in January 2023 during an investigation of his computer use.
Earlier this year, after charges were filed, Harbaugh told reporters that he didn’t know anything about Weiss’ troubles until after the playoff game. He said the allegations were “shocking.”
Weiss worked for Harbaugh’s brother, John, on the coaching staff of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens before joining the Michigan team in 2021.
The lawsuit says Weiss’ university computer had encryption software that had to be disabled by an external vendor as part of the investigation. Authorities disclosed in April that thousands of intimate photos and videos were found on his electronic devices and cloud storage accounts.
