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Urban Meyer’s text messages could raise legal questions

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Text messages with work related information that may have been deleted by Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer could result in a legal issue, according to a story published by the Associated Press.

According to an open records experts, any attempt to delete or dispose of any work-related text messages on a phone that was provided by the university would be an illegal action. After a two-week long investigation conducted by Ohio State, the school acknowledged that Meyer had reached out to Brian Voltolini, director of football operations, asking how to change the settings on his phone so that text messages older than one year would be deleted.

“What happened to these text messages seems like a pretty big thing to ignore or not pay a lot of attention to,” Dennis Hetzel, an open records advocate told the AP.

In Ohio State University’s records retention policy, last updated in 2016, says that messages (including text messages, emails, and other relevant documents) should be disposed when their “administrative, legal or fiscal use has expired.”

There is no specific timeframe given in the policy.

It doesn’t appear to be a cut-and-dry case in this situation, but the idea of Meyer deleting text messages does raise some legal concerns.

“If you can get possession of the phone, with the right software, the right forensic expert, you can retrieve everything the user thought was deleted,” attorney Tom Mars told the AP.

Meyer was handed a three-game suspension for mishandling Zach Smith’s behavioral and professional problems.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB