Another lawsuit hit the beleaguered former University of Michigan quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss, this time by eleven women alleging he invaded their privacy to obtain intimate photos and videos. The women, identified as Jane Does, were student-athletes from various sports, detailed CBS News Detroit. The claim states that Weiss had unauthorized access to their personal information, including social media, email, and cloud storage accounts, from 2015 to 2023.
The total comes to 17 victims across five class action suits against Weiss and the university. The legal actions also involve Keffer Development Services, the third-party vendor managing the database Weiss reportedly hacked. The same suits include allegations that Weiss targeted student-athletes based on their school affiliation, athletic history, and physical characteristics, to obtain private photographs and videos not meant for public distribution, according to the Detroit Free Press. Weiss has been charged with 24 counts of unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft.
Yet, the breadth of the invasion is expansive, spanning more than 100 universities and implicating personal and medical data for over 150,000 student-athletes. The University of Michigan, named in the lawsuits, has stated it placed Weiss on leave and terminated his employment upon learning of potentially concerning activities. They are listed, as Kay Jarvis from U-M's public affairs office noted, the specific allegations related to their systems between December 21 and 23, 2022, detailed by the Detroit Free Press.
One of the Jane Does, also a victim of Dr. Larry Nassar's abuse through USA Gymnastics at Michigan State, shared her feelings of betrayal, stating, "Being a student-athlete has been one of the greatest honors of my life. But it has also brought some of my deepest pain. The very institutions that were meant to protect me failed—first with Dr. Larry Nassar, and now again with Matt Weiss," as per a statement obtained by Detroit Free Press.
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