NDSU Football Players Implicated In Nearly 25,000 Cases Of Fraudulent Petition Signatures

Tweet

Written By:
Rob Port

Sep 4, 2012
12:38pm

Update: A source at the NDSU press conference in Fargo tells me that these players will face no disciplinary action from the university. According to Coach Bohl, the players will “get their day in court” and he noted that the players weren’t involved in drugs or anything violent.

The question was asked at the press conference about Brandon Jemison, who was removed from the team after an incident involving indecent exposure, and why he didn’t get his “day in court” before the university took action. In response NDSU Gene Taylor said something along the lines of “each situation is unique.”

Jemison’s crime was a Class D Misdemeanor. These players stand accused of a Class A Misdemeanor. Of course, Jemison was also a bench player. These athletes are big-time players.

I posted about initiated measures to create a state conservation board and legalize medicinal marijuana getting kicked off the ballot by Secretary of State Al Jaeger earlier today, but the involvement of NDSU football players deserves its own post.

Eight current NDSU football team members, and one former members, are being charged for submitting 24,593 fraudulent signatures (the names of the player are here). Imagine the amount of time it takes to sit and copy down almost 25,000 names and addresses onto petition.

That is no momentary lapse of judgment. That’s a dedicated, planned-out case of fraud, and it comes after NDSU gave the boot to conservative political commentator Chris Berg who was to be a sideline reporter at NDSU games but withdrew after pressure from the university.

I’ve spoken with sources who say that NDSU officials are down-playing the story. They say that the student were working for a company tasked with collecting the signatures and that the players felt too pressured to get to practice and attend to other obligations to collect the signature.

So instead they sat down and spent the hours it would take to commit 24,593 cases of signature fraud.

What’s more, NDSU officials say that they have been working with investigators on this matter throughout. The investigation started well in advance of the NDSU team’s first game this last Saturday, meaning that the university knew these players were implicated in this fraud and let them play anyway.

That is a shockingly poor decision on the part of NDSU administrators.

These players should be removed from the team. NDSU administrators, fans and higher education apologists in general may want to downplay this issue, but it’s no trivial case of fraud.