An Ohio baseball player and his former teammate were charged yesterday with accepting bets on professional sports, while two other baseball players have been indefinitely suspended from the team for allegedly having placed bets in an eight-person gambling ring.
Andrew Shisila, 22, a pitcher from Mentor, Ohio, and Brent DeCoster, 22, a former player from Westlake, Ohio, were both charged with bookmaking, a first-degree misdemeanor that could result in up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, City Law Director Pat Lang said at a news conference. The charges filed against both relate to alleged betting in 2007.
Ohio Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said investigators believe that eight people were involved in the gambling ring — including five current OU students. Three of those five students are baseball players, and the other two are not athletes. Shisila and DeCoster are accused of organizing the betting ring, while the others placed bets.
DeCoster was a pitcher on the Ohio baseball team in 2005 and is a current OU senior, while Shisila, also a senior, is a current member of the baseball team and has been suspended pending the conclusion of his legal proceedings and the NCAA’s investigation.
Both players will appear in Athens Municipal Court on Thursday, and Lang said he does not anticipate any more charges to follow.
“Based on this investigation, these are the only two charges that are going to come out based on the information that we have now,” he said. “Obviously if more information were to come to light, that could change the analysis somewhat.”
DeCoster’s family members said they had no comment when contacted by The Post, and Shisila’s did not return calls.
Because of privacy laws, Hocutt said he could not release the names of the two suspended players who were not charged with any crimes. He added there was no evidence that any of those accused bet on or tried to influence the outcome of Ohio sporting events.
All students involved will be referred to University Judiciaries, Hocutt said.
“The values of this department are not negotiable,” he said.
The charges to Shisila and DeCoster were the result of information obtained through an Ohio University Police Department investigation that began after Hocutt and baseball coach Joe Carbone received an anonymous e-mail in November alleging that Shisila was the “center of a gambling ring” of “upwards of 50 people.” Shisila was the only person explicitly named in that e-mail.
Hocutt said he contacted the NCAA immediately after receiving the tip, and he speculated that NCAA representatives would make a trip to Athens at some point in the coming week to conduct their own investigation now that criminal charges have been filed.
According to NCAA policy, betting on events unrelated to a student-athlete’s school, whether collegiate or professional sports, would result in at least a yearlong participation ban and a loss of that year’s eligibility.
“I’m very disappointed,” Carbone said. “As with all 18- to 22- year olds who are in college, this is that time from adolescence to adulthood, and they make mistakes. Unfortunately these young men are going to pay for their mistakes.”
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