A Cumberland County jury is being asked to decide this week whether former Terry Sanford girls’ basketball coach Thurston Jackie Robinson sexually molested Miya Giles-Jones, one of his former star players.
Robinson’s lawyer, Jared Hammett, is trying to persuade the jury that Giles-Jones made up the accusations in an effort to extract money from him after her mother was caught stealing money from Robinson’s wife. Giles-Jones’ mother had been an administrative assistant at Charlotte Robinson’s home health business, Charlotte Robinson testified.
The jury in this civil lawsuit heard testimony from both Thurston Robinson and Giles-Jones on Tuesday. This lawsuit is separate from the related criminal indictments pending against Robinson that accuse Robinson of sex crimes involving Giles-Jones and another female basketball player that he coached.
Giles-Jones is seeking monetary damages, Giles-Jones’ lawyer Michael Porter told jurors in opening statements on Monday.
Robinson, Giles-Jones and other witnesses testified that a third girl leveled an accusation of sexual misconduct in 2022 against Robinson following a basketball team trip to Atlanta, and that police investigated. There is no criminal case against Robinson pending with the third girl, Porter told CityView this week.
In his criminal case, Cumberland County court records say Robinson is charged with five felony counts of indecent liberties with a student, and nine misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. He also faces a felony count of indecent exposure.
Robinson stopped coaching at Terry Sanford after misconduct allegations surfaced in 2022. The Cumberland County Board of Education in January 2023 said his contract had expired.
He previously was an assistant coach at E.E. Smith High School, he testified. At the same time, he had been coaching youth in Amateur Athletic Union — AAU — basketball, he said. He has more than 30 years of coaching, he and his wife said.
In addition to the couple’s home health business and Thurston Robinson’s basketball coaching, the Robinsons have other business enterprises and prominent community roles. They own rental homes, they used to operate the now defunct All Stars Bar & Grill on Bragg Boulevard, and they have the T.J. Robinson Life Center in Hope Mills. This is a youth sports recreation center with five basketball courts, Robinson said.
Giles-Jones, now 19, was a top player in Cumberland County and is a scholarship athlete for the NCAA Division I women’s basketball team at Fordham University in New York. She has just completed her freshman year, though she was sidelined due to injury.
“That was my biggest dream,” to be a Division I athlete, she said.
According to testimony from the Robinsons and Giles-Jones, the Robinsons had been close with Giles-Jones’ family for years prior to the alleged sexual misconduct. This included Father’s Day cards that Giles-Jones gave to Thurston Robinson.
Thurston Robinson had coached the family’s children in sports, they said, and Giles-Jones had given him Father’s Day cards. Jurors saw text messages in which the two said “I love you” to each other.
The jury is considering the nature of Robinson’s “I love you” texts.
Charlotte Robinson testified that she hired Giles-Jones’ mother Tawanda Giles about 10 years before the allegations were made against her husband. She said she hired Giles so Giles would have more job flexibility to take care of her children when they were having problems in school. Charlotte Robinson said she had given Giles money to help the family with rent, car repairs and other expenses, including travel expenses when Giles and Giles-Jones visited universities that were recruiting Giles-Jones.
‘He would say he loved me’
Robinson is not accused of having sex with the girls or raping them. Giles-Jones testified that Robinson hugged her from behind and “dry humped” her through their clothing on multiple occasions and that he fondled her breasts and buttocks. She recalled an incident on a couch where he held her down and rubbed on her, and said he once exposed himself to her at his house.
“He would say he loved me, how much he needed me, how much he cared about me, kissing me on my neck area from behind,” Giles-Jones said, describing one of the incidents.
These activities began when she was age 16 and ended in September 2022 when she was 18, after the Sheriff’s Office began investigating allegations involving one of the other two girls, Giles-Jones said.
“It was happening every day,” she testified. She saw him frequently as he drove her to and from practices, to the All Stars grill (where she said he gave her alcohol), and to his home, where she sometimes stayed with the Robinsons overnight in a guest bedroom.
Robinson was the third adult to engage in inappropriate sexual activities with her, Giles-Jones said.
The first was an 18-year-old boyfriend she had when she was 14, she said. “He got some charges pressed against him,” she said.
The second was her father, Giles-Jones said. “He approached me about wanting to have sex with me,” she testified.
She said she recorded her father twice making these statements, then told the Robinsons. They had Giles-Jones tell her mother what her father did, and then the police were contacted.
“He went to jail,” she testified.
She testified Robinson began molesting her after she told him about her father.
Giles-Jones never reported it, she said, because she was worried that Robinson would hurt her chances of playing college basketball. She followed him from E.E. Smith to Terry Sanford, she said, to continue playing with her teammates from the AAU team.
‘I shouldn’t be here’
Giles-Jones’ lawyers Porter and Antonio Gerald called Robinson on Tuesday as their first witness.
Instead of invoking his 5th Amendment constitutional right not to testify against himself, Robinson answered questions for about 70 minutes. He said he never inappropriately touched the young women he coached. At one point, he lost his composure and began crying. “Because I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “I’ve been a good person.”
Regarding the girl in Atlanta who made accusations against him, Robinson said he put ointment on her arm, as directed by the hospital, after she punched a piece of glass and cut herself.
This girl, he said, later asked for a “stack” — a large sum of money.
Charlotte Robinson said the couple consulted a lawyer because they felt the girl was attempting to extort them.
The other girl who accused Thurston Robinson of wrongdoing alleges he touched her buttocks inappropriately while treating her for an injury, he said.
Giles-Jones raised her allegations in September 2022 when a Sheriff’s Office detective was interviewing members of the team in light of the previous allegations, according to testimony.
While testifying, Charlotte Robinson said she discovered in September 2022 that Giles-Jones’ mother had paid her rent with funds from Robinson’s business. Charlotte Robinson later learned, she said, that Giles had rented a home in her name with an electronic copy of Charlotte Robinson’s signature.
Giles resigned from Charlotte Robinson’s employment in October 2022, Charlotte Robinson said.
Thurston Robinson said he saw a threatening text message from Giles-Jones to Charlotte Robinson. He said it was words to the effect of, “You want to f with my momma, then you bring it on.”
The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in room 3B of the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
