OMAHA- The text between NU Regent Jack Stark and former Husker fullback Willie Miller was innocuous enough.

Stark had just learned that Miller might be testifying on behalf of an Omaha gym owner accused of sexually assaulting a teen weightlifter.

Stark, a sports psychologist, was on the opposite side, as a witness who had counseled the teen on sports performance.

“Just an FYI,” Stark wrote. “Not sure you know it but your name is listed as a character witness for a trial in two weeks on DOUG Anders. Do what you want but I will be testifying against him in the strongest language and if you want to know more let me know. Doubt if you are involved but just letting you know. Jack”

That — especially the “do what you want” part of the text — would not constitute tampering with a witness, an Omaha police investigator testified.

However, Sgt. Nicholas Yanez said, that text set up a phone call the next day between Stark and Miller. And Miller’s account of that phone call — which had Stark shaking his head in court — is the basis for the felony tampering charge. After a nearly hourlong preliminary hearing this week, Douglas County Judge Craig McDermott took the matter under advisement — a rarity for a hearing in which prosecutors have to establish only probable cause that a crime was committed.

Attorneys will file legal briefs on the matter, and McDermott will decide in a couple of weeks whether to bind Stark over for trial.

In an interview in October 2020, Miller told Yanez that the relationship between him and Stark went back 25 years. Miller was a fullback for Nebraska from 1996 to 2000; Stark, 75, is a well-known sports psychologist who worked with Nebraska athletes during that time period.

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