Two Penn State students are facing criminal charges after police said they used counterfeit passes to enter Beaver Stadium and get on the field during a recent Nittany Lion football gameday.
Nikola Georgiev, 19, admitted to Penn State police that he used artificial intelligence to create the field media passes that he and Jyot S. Sahni, 18, wore to access restricted areas of the stadium before the Penn State-Indiana game on Nov. 8, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
An athletic department staffer spotted the bogus passes at about 12:20 p.m. because they were the wrong color and found the name on them was not on the list of field media for the game, police wrote. She confiscated the passes and security escorted Georgiev and Sahni off the field.
On Nov. 9, police became aware of a Tik Tok video showing a college-aged male using a counterfeit field media pass to enter the stadium and access the field via the south tunnel on a day earlier, according to the affidavit.
A review of surveillance camera footage from the stadium showed Georgiev and Sahni enter through the All-Sports Museum entrance at 11:43 a.m., exit the Media Room at 12:17 p.m. then walk through the south tunnel and onto the field, police wrote.
Georgiev told police that after using AI to create the passes, he produced them at Staples, according to the affidavit. Sahni admitted that the pass he wore had a fake name and was not assigned to him, police wrote.
Sahni was charged on Friday with three felony counts of criminal trespass and a misdemeanor count of theft by deception for allegedly using the counterfeit pass and not paying for entry. He was arraigned by District Judge Casey McClain and released on recognizance.
He waived his preliminary hearing, and his formal arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 23.
Georgiev was charged on Nov. 14 with three felony counts of criminal trespass, two misdemeanor counts of forgery and one misdemeanor count of theft by deception. He was arraigned on Nov. 14 and released on $5,000 unsecured bail.
He also waived his preliminary hearing and has his formal arraignment scheduled for Dec. 17.
