Former NBA player Terry Rozier’s childhood pal was tossed in jail Tuesday after an explosive federal court hearing in Rozier’s sports bribery case, where a judge blasted his lawyer for “mansplaining” and downplaying the seriousness of a rat emoji sent to a witness.
De’Niro Laster, 31, one of the former Miami Heat guard’s co-defendants, left Brooklyn Federal Court in custody Tuesday after U.S. District Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall revoked his bond. Laster has been accused of trying to tamper with witnesses in a game-rigging conspiracy case in which Rozier and others are accused of tipping gamblers inside information about what they would do in upcoming games.
Prosecutors accused Laster of contacting multiple co-defendants, co-conspirators and tampering with witnesses through proxies and burner phones, and by posting a rat emoji on Instagram.
His lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, got into trouble with the judge almost immediately, when he dismissively referred to the Instagram post as a “rat cartoon.”
“Oh, come on!” the judge retorted. “You think this is my first rodeo? … So don’t call it a rat cartoon.”
When Corcoran tried to interrupt DeArcy Hall, she cut him off, telling him, “Stop. Stop. Do you not hear ‘stop’ coming out of my mouth? … You don’t know me. You’re getting to know me now. When my mouth is speaking, yours will not.”
She added that if he continued to try to talk over her, “the way in which I tell you to stop will change.”
When Corcoran, who questioned the credibility of the witnesses Laster’s accused of tampering with and asked for an evidentiary hearing, started to tell the judge that “often in these cases there’s a re-arrest,” the judge stopped him cold.
“You’re telling me what happens often in these cases? I love being mansplained to!” she said.
And when Corcoran continued, “Sometimes a rat emoji is just a rat emoji,” the judge fired back, “Am I to put my common sense aside? Am I to just treat this rat emoji as innocuous? … Is that your argument? Because if it is, it’s a bad one.”
According to prosecutors, Laster reached out to one of the co-defendants in December and said they’d all be well-positioned to fight the charges if they didn’t cooperate with the feds.
Corcoran tried to argue that the co-defendant his client reached out to wasn’t on the no-contact list provided by the government, but Assistant U.S. Attorney David Berman pointed out that the co-defendant didn’t need to be on the list — because he was named in the indictment against Laster.
DeArcy Hall rejected the idea of adding conditions to Laster’s release, telling Corcoran, “I don’t negotiate with defendants. I don’t.”
“Let there be no doubt, Mr. Laster was aware at all times that he was not to contact a co-defendant,” she said.
Before revoking Laster’s bail, DeArcy Hall said she found other cases where a defendant called a witness a rat “where obstruction of justice enhancements were made at sentencing.”
Corcoran, whose attorney fees are being paid for by Rozier, according to court filings, looked stunned as he left the courtroom. He declined comment to reporters.
Rozier and Laster have been accused of taking part in a conspiracy to rig NBA games, including a Charlotte Hornets game on March 23, 2023, when Rozier let Laster know he’d be leaving the game early because of a purported injury.
In a filing last week, prosecutors wrote that Laster, Rozier and other childhood pals belonged to a “crew” called ‘GMB,’ and that members of the crew, including Laster and Rozier, posed with guns in photos posted on social media. His lawyer, David Markus, said that GMB isn’t a crew at all — it’s a reference to the former hoops star’s charitable foundation.
On Tuesday, Berman pointed out that the government is not alleging Rozier is in a gang — a point the judge emphasized, addressing the media gathered in the courtroom.
“This court made it expressly clear that there are no allegations that Mr. Rozier is in a gang,” she said.
