What happened with former Kansas basketball player Arterio Morris’ court case in Texas
LAWRENCE — Arterio Morris was dismissed from the Kansas basketball program last week, following an arrest and a charge of rape for an alleged incident in Douglas County.
It means Morris will never play in a regular season game for the Jayhawks, following his transfer into the program earlier this year. His participation in the team’s trip to Puerto Rico, which included some exhibition games, will be the only time fans will have seen him competing in uniform outside of practice settings. But it is not the first time Morris, whose college career started with the Texas Longhorns last season, has been involved with a court case.
Here’s what we know about a previous case in the state of Texas, which was recently resolved, and how KU handled it:
Arterio Morris was arrested in June of 2022
Before Morris played a game for the Longhorns, he was arrested in June of 2022 after an alleged altercation with an ex-girlfriend in Denton County, Texas. He was charged with committing assault that caused bodily injury to a family member — with that explanation also including someone with whom there was a dating relationship. He was facing a Class A misdemeanor.
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self acknowledged the existence of the case after adding Arterio Morris
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self announced the addition of Morris this past May. In that release, it was noted that Morris was immediately eligible. Morris, a former 247Sports Composite five-star point guard in the 2022 recruiting class, was going to be a sophomore guard for the Jayhawks.
“We are aware of the charge that Arterio is facing in the State of Texas,” Self said in a separate statement. “In addition to working with our athletic department and campus administrators, we have also spoken at length with Arterio, his family, his former institution's University Student Affairs office and his former institution's Department of Athletics' Compliance and Administration offices. Based on these discussions, we are comfortable welcoming Arterio to the University of Kansas, and he is well aware of the high standards and expectations that come with being a member of the Kansas Men's Basketball program. We fully expect him to meet those daily.”
The complaining witness in the case later recanted
As the case continued to progress, the complaining witness in this case is dated in July to have signed an affidavit of non-persecution that concerned Morris’ charge — which was described as Class A assault family violence. The witness stated a desire to no longer pursue charges against Morris and recanted past statements that had been made to law enforcement. Although the witness understood the charges wouldn’t necessarily be dismissed because of the affidavit, and there could be a compelling to testify, the witness asked that the prosecution be eliminated and did not want to testify.
A plea agreement was reached
A plea agreement was signed and entered by a judge last month, in which Morris’ charge was pled to a Class C misdemeanor for assault. Morris pled no contest and was responsible for a $362 fine. In the agreement, the state abandoned the finding of family violence.
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Jordan Guskey covers the University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: What happened with former KU player Arterio Morris’ Texas court case
