Last week, Detroit Pistons free agent Malik Beasley must have felt like a boulder had been hoisted off his shoulder. However, his Atlas days aren’t over yet. The 28-year-old remains “a subject of” a federal investigation into unusual gambling activity, Front Office Sports reporter Alex Schiffer.
Malik Beasley Remains ‘A Subject Of’ Federal Gambling Probe
When confronted about the possibility of Beasley eventually being charged in the federal gambling probe, attorney Steve Haney –one of the two lawyers representing Beasley– told Robert Snell and Coty M. Davis of The Detroit News:
“I have no idea. That is the frustrating thing. You live in a state of purgatory with a cloud hanging over your head for what? Forever? And you’re out of the league and can never play basketball again?”
Keep in mind that this isn’t a quote from when the investigation first started. This is a statement that Haney made the same day he told ESPN’s Shams Charania that Beasley is “no longer a target” of the investigation and lamented the way that the situation has affected his client’s career. Given ESPN’s (and Charania’s) popularity and reach, it’s no wonder that this news overshadowed that of those local Detroit reporters. With that being said, the ESPN report in question never revealed that Beasley isn’t out of hot water anyways, skewing the perception of the update on his case.
What’s The Difference?
As relayed by Schiffer, the term “‘target’ has a specific and narrow technical definition”:
The Department of Justice defines a “target”as “a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant.” But Beasley is still considered a “subject” of the investigation, according to a source with knowledge of it. The Department of Justice defines a subject as “a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation,” which means Beasley could still be charged with a crime…
In laymen’s terms, there isn’t enough evidence that Beasley is guilty for him to be the focus of the investigation. However, his conduct will fall in the scope of the investigation until further notice. These terms aren’t interchangeable but they are fluid. All things considered, a prosecutor’s most useful tool is information. If there is any that puts him firmly under the microscope, his designation could change from subject back to target.
At heart, there might not be anyone with enough animosity towards Beasley to hope that the situation doesn’t play out in his favor. Nevertheless, the fact that he’s still on shaky ground shouldn’t be ignored.
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