Jury finds girls’ basketball coach not liable in sexual assault lawsuit

BY PAUL WOOLVERTON | CityView Senior Reporter

Former girls basketball coach Thurston Jackie Robinson won a civil case Thursday accusing him of illegal sexual contact with one of the players. This could be a precursor to his criminal sexual harassment case against three high school students.

The player, 19-year-old Miya Giles-Jones, had demanded $2.5 million in damages.

That trial was conducted separately from Robinson’s criminal complaint, which is still pending in Cumberland County Superior Court. In this case, he is charged with nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of indecent liberties with a student and one count of indecent exposure.

According to testimony this week, those cases involve three girls. Another girl made allegations about an incident in Georgia, according to court testimony, but she is not facing criminal charges.

Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office staff attended and took notes at some of the civil trial’s testimony this week.

The verdict was announced around 1:30 p.m. Thursday after less than three hours of deliberations, ending a trial that began Monday afternoon. The jury heard emotional and sometimes graphic testimony.

Allegations of abuse rejected

Giles-Jones was under Robinson’s tutelage when she played at Terry Sanford High School, EE Smith High School and in travel basketball, she and Robinson told the jury. She is now a member of the women’s team at Fordham University in New York, an NCAA Division I school, and has just completed her freshman year.

Giles-Jones testified that Robinson abused her almost daily from the time she was 16 until about September 2022, when she was 18. The harassment stopped, she said, as law enforcement investigated the report of the girl who said she was sexually abused in Georgia in the summer of 2022, she said. Giles-Jones said she was interviewed and told a Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office detective that she, too, had been abused.

Her allegations about Robinson’s behavior included kisses on her neck, hugs in which he grabbed her from behind and rubbed her body, fondling her breasts and buttocks, and other unwanted touching of a sexual nature. The allegations did not involve sexual intercourse or rape.

Robinson testified that he hugged Giles-Jones and other players and put his arm around them like a father would – that he cared for them like he cared for his own daughters. He said he sometimes kissed her forehead to encourage her and celebrate her successes. He said he never did anything inappropriate.

During Robinson’s defense, his attorney Jared Hammett attempted to portray Giles-Jones as someone who lied to get money from Robinson and his wife, Charlotte Robinson. The latter said she found out that Giles-Jones’ mother had been stealing from her.

A financial file presented to the jury shows the Robinsons were successful in business, with rental apartments, the home health business and a restaurant they once operated on Bragg Boulevard. They also have the TJ Robinson Life Center in Hope Mills, a youth sports recreation facility with five basketball courts.

Judgment moves you to tears

As the clerk read aloud the jury’s finding that they had found Robinson not liable, Giles-Jones teared up as she sat next to her attorney, Michael Porter, Porter later told CityView.

“She’s pretty devastated,” Porter said. She declined an interview request.

After Supreme Court Justice Robby Hicks sent the jury out following the verdict, a crying woman stood in the seating area of ​​the courtroom and shouted angrily at Robinson. She called him a vile person and said he would go to prison. The woman was Giles-Jones’ mother, Tawanda Giles, Porter said.

When the jury’s decision was announced, Robinson initially appeared calm. But then he started crying and wiping his face with his hands. He then hugged his wife and his legal team.

Robinson also declined an interview.

What did the jury think?

As Thursday’s deliberations stretched from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, Hammett and Porter speculated that the jury was deadlocked.

When the judge asked the jury about 1 p.m. if they wanted to take a lunch break, they told him they would prefer to continue working.

At 1:22 p.m. a bailiff delivered the news to the court that the jury had reached its verdict.

The jury met with all of the attorneys after the verdict, Porter said.

“They said they didn’t know who to believe,” he said.

“The members of the jury felt that Mr. Robinson’s behavior was inappropriate and that he has no boundaries,” Porter said. “However, they felt that they did not feel comfortable entering judgment in favor of the plaintiff because it was a he-said-she-said case.”

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 [email protected].

This story was made possible by donations to the CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charity committed to an informed democracy.