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CLEVELAND – (Associated Press) Former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Reggie Rucker was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison for stealing from two charities, a crime his attorney blamed on a gambling addiction caused by football-related brain injuries.
Rucker, 68, pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and false statement charges after an FBI investigation found that he had stolen more than $100,000 from the two groups, with much of the money withdrawn from ATMs at casinos in Cleveland, Las Vegas and elsewhere. Rucker withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars from bank accounts he oversaw, authorities said.
Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday that Rucker would solicit donations and then use the money to pay off markers at casinos as well as personal expenses. The diversions occurred between 2011 and 2015, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster ordered Rucker to pay $110,000 in restitution, money that is expected to come from Rucker's share of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the NFL for hiding concussion risks.
Defense attorney Michael Hennenberg said after the sentencing hearing on Wednesday that Rucker's gambling addiction resulted from poor impulse control, a condition caused by atrophy in a portion of his brain's frontal lobe.
