Interesting to see how this impacts Rucker's gig with Fox. Same goes for Heal.

Logan Thunder should stand him down immediately pending his court case.

Damn, he was a good commentator too

He's not guilty yet, give the man the chance to defend himself!

Rucker? Defending?

Indeed Paul that is correct, innocent before proven guilty. However, while the charges are being tried it's hard to envisage Fox employing him to commentate, which is a shame because he was good.

Good points there from both Luuuc and KET!

Derek Rucker was an outstanding commentator last season, the best of the group.
The WNBL betting thing seems to have died.
I hope that this case will prove to be without substance.

Firstly, he's innocent until proven guilty.

Secondly, it wouldn't be the first time that enemies, having ousted somebody from a position of influence within an organisation, make all sorts of allegations against the employee. Sometimes its true, and sometimes its not. At the end of the day, we can only wait on the court case.

And why should he stand-down from anything? If he is found guilty, he'll be punished in many ways then. Possibly gaol, and certainly losing his employment. It would be the very definition of unjustified to punish him before the verdict.

Is there is a positive thing her it's that it's so far away from the start of the NBL season and by the time season comes around he should have his day in court and if he's found innocent then we will all have forgotten about it by then anyway.

Looking forward to hearing his insight again

Unfortunately this matter appears to have more substance than the allegations that were linked to Heal.

With Rucker already charged, this would indicate that Police believe the evidence before them (provided by complainant / their own enquiries) is substantive.

Heal was never charged and afaik never even formally questioned.

That's not really how it works Anonymous. The concept of "Police are charging therefore the evidence must be good" isn't as accurate as you might think.

The Police laying charges and then withdrawing due to lack of evidence or various other reasons happens on a frequent basis.

Police charge, have little evidence, Defence presses the point of evidence, Police say no then mention it up the chain and come back with a withdrawal after a few PTCs and some prodding by the Defence.

That's not to say in this case they don't have solid evidence, i'm just saying I wouldn't make the assumption that they do purely because charges have been laid.

I wouldn't saw Police charging people then withdrawing said charges is a 'frequent' occurrence. The discontinuance of charges does happen though but generally due to successful mediation between prosecutors, defence and the complainant.

If an agreement is reached to settle the matter outside of court, Police will then 'offer no evidence' when the matter is in court to finalise proceedings. To an outsider this would seem as though Police have no evidence or are unable to prove the charges.

Due to limited resources and increasing demand on the judicial system in QLD, there is a push for as many relevant cases to be settled by mediation as possible. It would not surprise me if this matter eventually travels that path. Gladstone Basketball receives a payment (the alleged amount taken) in turn for the withdrawal of their complaint.

I have no personal knowledge whatsoever of this incident, but fraud charges that have reached this stage are commonly sustainable due to relative evidence that can be/has been gathered.