Written by Paul Woolverton | City View Senior Reporter
Former women's basketball coach Thurston Jackie Robinson filed a civil lawsuit Thursday accusing him of unlawful sexual contact with one of his players, in a potential precursor to a criminal trial on charges of sexual molestation against three high school students. won the case.
The player, 19-year-old Mya Giles-Jones, was seeking $2.5 million in damages.
The trial was separate from Robinson's criminal charges, which are pending in Cumberland County Superior Court. In this case, he is charged with nine misdemeanor counts of sexual assault, five felonies of lewd conduct with a student, and one felony count of lewd conduct.
According to testimony this week, three girls were involved in these incidents. According to court statements, another girl came forward in the incident in Georgia, but no criminal case is pending against her.
Staff from the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office witnessed and took notes during some of the testimony in the civil trial this week.
The verdict was announced around 1:30 p.m. Thursday after just under three hours of deliberation, bringing to a close a trial that began Monday afternoon. The jury heard emotional and sometimes graphic testimony.
The abuse accusations were denied
Giles-Jones was coached by Robinson in travel basketball while playing at Terry Sanford High School and E.E. Smith High School, she and Robinson told the jury. She is currently on the women's team at Fordham University in New York, an NCAA Division 1 school, and just finished her freshman year.
Giles-Jones testified that Robinson sexually abused her almost daily from the time she was 16 until around September 2022, when she was 18. She said the sexual abuse stopped when law enforcement was investigating a report from a girl who said she had been sexually assaulted in Georgia over the summer. 2022, she said. Giles-Jones was questioned and she told detectives from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office that she had also been sexually abused.
Her claims about Robinson's conduct included kissing her neck, hugging her by grabbing her from behind and rubbing her body, fondling her breasts and buttocks, and other unwanted sexual contact. was included. The charges do not include sexual intercourse or rape.
Robinson testified that he hugged and put his arms around Giles Jones and other players like a father would, and cared for them the same way he cared for his own daughters. He said he sometimes kissed their foreheads to encourage them and celebrate their successes. He did nothing inappropriate, he said.
During Robinson's defense, his lawyer Jared Hammett tried to paint Giles Jones as someone who lied and defrauded Robinson and his wife, Charlotte Robinson, of money that Giles Jones' mother had told him. stealing from her.
Financial records shown to the jury show the Robinson family had successful businesses, including rental housing, a home health care business and a restaurant they operated on Bragg Boulevard. Hope Mills is also home to the TJ Robinson Life Center, a youth sports and recreation facility with five basketball courts.
A tearful verdict
Mr Porter said Mr Giles Jones, who was sitting near his lawyer Michael Porter, was a little teary-eyed as the court clerk read the jury's verdict and found Robinson not responsible. he later told City View.
“She's pretty devastated,” Porter said. She declined a request for an interview.
After Superior Court Judge Robbie Hicks delivered the verdict and sent the jury out, a woman stood crying in the seating area of the courtroom and yelled at Mr. Robinson. She called him a disgusting person and said he would go to jail. Porter said the woman was Giles-Jones' mother, Tawanda Giles.
Robinson appeared calm at first after the jury's decision was announced. But then he started crying, wiping his face with his hands. Afterwards, he hugged his wife and defense team.
Mr. Robinson also declined to be interviewed.
What did the jury think?
Thursday's deliberations extended into the morning and into the afternoon, leading Hammett and Porter to speculate that the jury may have deadlocked.
Around 1 p.m., the judge asked the jurors if they wanted to take a break for lunch, and the jurors said they wanted to continue working.
At 1:22 p.m., the bailiff delivered a message to the court that the jury had reached a verdict.
Porter said the jurors met with all of the attorneys after the verdict.
“They said they didn't know who to believe,” he says.
“The jury believed that Mr. Robinson's conduct was inappropriate and that he had no boundaries,” Porter said. “But they were concerned about sentencing the plaintiffs because this is a he-said, she-said case.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710. pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
This article is made possible by donations to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charity dedicated to informed democracy.