Left: Thurston Jackie Robinson (Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Miya Giles-Jones scores over a defender (PhenomHoopReport/YouTube).
A basketball player will get a second chance to convince a civil jury she was sexually assaulted by her high school coach after a bizarre instance of juror misconduct overturned the verdict of an earlier trial.
Miya Giles-Jones, 19, previously played for Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as a distinguished, superstar point guard. Last season, she was a redshirt freshman — who did not play due to an injury — on the Fordham Women’s Basketball team.
In a sexual misconduct lawsuit, Giles-Jones claims her now-former high school coach, Thurston Jackie Robinson, 61, inappropriately touched her on numerous occasions and once exposed himself to her.
A trial in May ended in a victory for Robinson. On Monday, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks ordered a do-over.
Less than a week after the loss, Giles-Jones’ attorney filed a motion for a new trial based on juror misconduct, according to a copy of the filing obtained by Fayetteville-based news website CityView.
As it turned out, one of the jurors in the proceedings broke court rules and contacted one of the witnesses — to ask them out on a date.
“This juror-initiated contact with one of the Plaintiff’s witnesses occurred with several days left in the trial and well before jury deliberations,” the motion reads. “The fact that a juror initiated electronic contact with and propositioned one of Plaintiff’s witnesses for a romantic encounter and was rejected has tainted the trial that occurred in this matter (that otherwise would have been error free), and prevented the Plaintiff from having twelve unbiased and impartial jurors.”
After she testified, Sarrayyah Kennedy received a Facebook Messenger message from a longtime Facebook friend — who happened to be a juror sitting in judgment on the case.
Though the two had never actually met in person, the juror, Keem Cook, asked Kennedy out twice — once in 2017, and then, minutes after her testimony on day two of the trial, he said she was “prettier in person” and tried his luck again, still to no avail, CityView reports.
Kennedy, for her part, ended the conversation, she said, because of her knowledge of the rules from “court shows.” Even though she had been released, she told the outlet, she knew the juror still had a job to do and should not be speaking with her.
The witness did allow Cook to message her again after the verdict was returned. In one message, he kept at it, referring to her as “pretty lady.” And, perhaps notably, the juror and Kennedy both spoke in highly negative terms about the accused coach, messages show.
Regardless of their opinions, however, Tar Heel State court rules prohibit “any conduct that would interfere with ensuring a fair and impartial trial, such as having contact with the parties, talking with other people about the case, or allowing outside information or evidence to influence the jury’s decision.”
During the trial, the judge, in perfunctory fashion, also made clear jurors were to have no contact with anyone involved in the case.
The plaintiff’s attorneys were made aware of the improper contact only after the trial ended. Kennedy told Giles-Jones’ mother about the juror interaction the next morning — the plaintiff’s mother relayed that information to her daughter’s attorneys after the verdict. Then, Kennedy and Giles-Jones’ attorneys got directly in touch about the issue.
The defense and the judge were apprised of the violation in short order, respectively, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys told CityView.
Now, a new trial is currently slated for Nov. 13 to re-litigate Giles-Jones’ claims against Robinson.
The ladies hoops phenom claims that, when she was between the ages of 16 and 18, her then-coach sexually molested her almost every day until sometime in September 2022.
The alleged sexual abuse did not rise to the level of rape but included kissing, hugs from behind where the man rubbed himself against her body, fondling her breasts and backside, and other sexual touching.
Giles-Jones says Robinson only stopped molesting her when he became the subject of a criminal investigation.
The now-former coach was arrested by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in January 2023 on nine counts of sexual battery and six counts of taking indecent liberties with a student, just days after Giles-Jones filed her civil lawsuit against him.
In the aftermath of his arrest, the Cumberland County school district said the accused man’s contract had expired.
Robinson made bail and now stands accused of 10 counts of misdemeanor sexual battery, five counts of felony taking indecent liberties with a student, and one count of felony indecent exposure, according to court records. The criminal allegations concern both Giles-Jones and two other former players.
As a defendant in both criminal and civil cases, Robinson has consistently maintained his innocence.
Robinson was previously awarded court costs when he won the first go-round, according to The Fayetteville Observer.
If he does not appeal the grant of a new trial won by the plaintiff, he’ll face her renewed request for $2.5 million in damages.
Law&Crime reached out to attorneys for both Giles-Jones and Robinson but no responses were immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
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