Detailed in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Alameda County, a widening scandal involving the alleged violation of scholars’ privateness by former College of Michigan soccer co-offensive coordinator Mike Weiss has enveloped California State College, East Bay.
The go well with alleges that CSU East Bay failed to guard its college students from Weiss’s reported hacking of the non-public information of greater than 150,000 student-athletes throughout the nation, together with at the very least one CSU East Bay athlete recognized in courtroom filings as Jane Doe, to acquire “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos,” based on a U.S. Division of Justice indictment.
Legal professional Megan Bonanni, with the legislation agency Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers, and lawyer Lisa Esser-Weidenfeller, with the legislation agency Sommers Schwartz, are representing student-athletes who’ve allegedly had their private information breached. They collectively filed the civil go well with.
“What we’re really trying to do here is not just compensating these victims for this injury but also creating change at these schools. We are calling for policies to protect student information,” Bonanni stated. “This should never happen to any students again.”
On March 20, the Division of Justice charged Weiss with 14 counts of unauthorized entry to computer systems and 10 counts of aggravated identification theft as a part of an alleged conspiracy to hack into student-athletes’ social media accounts. Weiss allegedly gained unauthorized entry to the non-public info of greater than 150,000 pupil athletes from greater than 100 faculties and universities between 2015 and January 2023, based on the indictment.
“Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes. He researched and targeted these women based on their school affiliation, athletic history, and physical characteristics,” the March 20 courtroom submitting states. “His goal was to obtain photos and videos never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”
Final week, Bonanni and Esser-Weidenfeller filed a preservation discover to CSU East Bay compelling the faculty to maintain all data of student-athlete information between 2020-2022.
Bonanni stated universities’ “wholesale lack of oversight of private information” to protect their college students’ non-public photographs, movies, social media accounts and different delicate info exhibits a systemic failure to guard college students’ non-public information.
“We’re just seeing the first couple layers of the onion,” Bonanni stated. “We’re learning more and more. But we are noticing, in just the clients that have reached out to us, there is a trend that he’s targeting certain schools because we’re seeing groups of people come forward.”
Bonanni and Esser-Weidenfeller have a historical past of engaged on class motion lawsuits in opposition to establishments that failed to guard their members. Bonanni was a victims advocate within the case in opposition to USA Gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, who was discovered to have abused over 400 gymnasts. The case was settled by USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee for $380 million.
Esser-Weidenfeller beforehand represented victims of College of Michigan’s former athletic physician Robert Anderson. The college reached a $490 million settlement in 2022 for greater than 1,000 student-athletes Anderson reportedly subjected to pointless hernia and prostate exams throughout routine physicals.
“The centerpiece to these cases is the failure of an institution to protect people that gave them their trust and their belief,” Esser-Weiderfeller stated. “They trusted the University of Michigan and USA Gymnastics to protect them from a predator. It’s that institutional betrayal.”
Initially Revealed: April 23, 2025 at 4:28 PM PDT
