The Cumberland County district attorney’s office has dismissed sexual misconduct charges against Thurston J. Robinson, a former high school girls’ basketball coach for Cumberland County Schools.
The criminal trial had been scheduled to begin Monday, April 7. But now there is “insufficient evidence to proceed at this time,” several court filings say. The charges were dismissed on March 28.
A prosecutor told CityView two of the three former basketball players who Robinson was charged with molesting stopped cooperating with the district attorney’s office.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office arrested Robinson in early 2023 after investigators said he inappropriately touched three players and exposed himself to one in incidents from August 2018 to May 2022. He was charged with 10 counts of misdemeanor sexual battery, five counts of felony taking indecent liberties with a student and one count of felony indecent exposure.
One of the players, Miya Giles-Jones, sued Robinson and his wife, Charlotte. In the lawsuit, Giles-Jones alleged the coach molested her nearly every day for two years and that his wife was aware of it, or should have been aware of it, and did not intervene.
A jury ruled in the Robinsons’ favor in May. A judge threw out the verdict, however, in light of evidence that a juror behaved inappropriately during the trial by asking a witness for a date. The Robinsons appealed, and now the case is pending in the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Robinson has maintained his innocence, and rejected an offer to plead guilty to reduced charges, his wife said on Thursday. Charlotte Robinson told CityView that the investigation, criminal charges and lawsuit have taken a toll on the family emotionally and financially.
“He’s not broken — he’s shattered behind this,” she said. “Because he was somebody who gave his whole life to making a difference for, not only kids in this community, but kids all over. And then to have something like this happen.”
Thurston Robinson declined to be interviewed, she said.
Robinson, known as “Coach Rob,” coached girls’ basketball at E.E. Smith High School and Terry Sanford High School, and he also coached girls’ travel basketball. He and his wife opened the T.J. Robinson Life Center, a sports, recreation and community center, in 2022 in Hope Mills. The 57,000-square-foot space has five basketball courts and other facilities for youth and seniors.
Charlotte Robinson said some youth sports organizations canceled events at the center after her husband was charged.
“Millions of dollars,” she said. “We lost millions of dollars.”
Case needed strength in numbers
Assistant District Attorney Kara Hodges decided to drop the case, she told CityView on Tuesday, because all but one of five young women she hoped would testify against Robinson stopped responding to the district attorney’s office.
“The strength in the cases was the similarities between the multiple victim statements, and many of the victims were no longer cooperating with the state or returning phone calls when we were trying to reach out,” she said.
Michael Porter, an attorney for Giles-Jones, said she was still working with Hodges.
“I talked with her about the fact that they were strong cases when everybody was together,” Hodges said. “It was not a strong case with just one.”
Hodges said she does not know why the women stopped working with her.
The charges can be re-filed if the district attorney’s office gets sufficient evidence, she said.
For the Robinsons: Vindication
Charlotte Robinson said the dismissal exonerated Thurston and her following what she believes was a lack of investigation by the sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office.
“It didn’t have to happen the way that it did,” Charlotte Robinson said.
Charlotte Robinson said Giles-Jones falsely accused her and her husband “in an attempt to extort money, and she has now lost in both civil and criminal court.”
During the civil trial in May, Thurston Robinson testified that he did not touch his players inapproriately, and he cried on the stand. “Because I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “I’ve been a good person.”
While out of jail on bail and under house arrest, Thurston Robinson could only go to his office at the sports center and to certain appointments, his wife said. Later, he was prohibited from going to the center following an allegation he had been seen in the gym while children were present, she said.
Thurston Robinson could not attend his brother’s funeral last year because he was on house arrest, she said.
For Giles-Jones: Disappointment
Giles-Jones is now a guard for the women’s basketball team at Fordham University in New York City.
Her lawyer issued a statement on her behalf.
“Miya is disappointed in the district attorney’s decision not to move forward with the charges wherein she is the victim, because she was willing to come back home from out of state to testify against the defendant regarding his conduct, just like she did in the civil trial, and just like she will do in the new civil trial whenever that occurs,” Porter said.
“As her attorney, although I have the utmost respect for the district attorney’s office, other than testimony from a victim in this type of situation, I don’t really understand what other evidence there could be. However, the civil matter will move forward, regardless of this outcome in the criminal matters.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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