Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, former NBA guard Damon Jones, and nearly thirty co-defendants are set to go to trial starting Nov. 2, as announced by a federal judge on Wednesday.
All defendants attended a status hearing at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, where Judge Ramon Reyes established the trial date.
Currently, the number of defendants is too large to be tried simultaneously, prompting federal prosecutors and defense attorneys to discuss how to allocate the case for trial.
Federal prosecutors indicated they plan to offer plea deals to 12 defendants in the upcoming days. Additionally, at least nine other defendants are engaged in “productive discussions” regarding potential guilty pleas, according to prosecutors.
The latest filing did not specify any individual defendants or indicate whether Billups is among those contemplating a plea agreement.
Billups and Jones are accused of enticing unsuspecting players to poker games manipulated by organized crime. They, along with the other defendants, which include alleged organized crime members and suppliers of equipment used to rig the games, have all entered not guilty pleas.
Since the last status hearing on Nov. 24, defendants have had the opportunity to examine all evidence in the case, which is under a protective order issued by the court.
In their brief submitted on Tuesday, prosecutors stated that the evidence comprises body-worn camera footage; records related to the defendants’ arrests; electronic evidence obtained from seven electronic devices and Apple iCloud accounts; over 100,000 pages of financial and telephone records; more than 800 pages of surveillance images; and pole camera footage from 147 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, one of the locations of the alleged rigged poker games.
The government has also produced around seven terabytes of electronic data from the electronic devices and iCloud accounts of individual defendants, which were confiscated during their arrests in October.
Billups has been on unpaid administrative leave from his position as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since his arrest. He entered a not guilty plea to the charges of money laundering and wire fraud against him in November.
Sources close to him informed ESPN that he has been residing in the Denver area since being released on $5 million bail.
Aaron Katersky of ABC News and ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.
