Jury acquits Mateen Cleaves of sexual assault

FLINT, Mich. — A jury has acquitted former Michigan State basketball player Mateen Cleaves on charges alleging he sexually assaulted a woman in a motel room four years ago.

The verdict announced Tuesday in a Genesee County courtroom in Cleaves’ hometown of Flint came after a nearly two-week trial that included the testimony of the Mount Morris woman, who told jurors that she had wanted to leave the motel room but Cleaves continued to force himself on her.

Evidence against Cleaves included a video that prosecutors contended showed the woman pulling away from Cleaves. Prosecutors argued she tried twice to escape from the motel room.

Cleaves did not testify. One of his attorneys, Frank Manley, said Cleaves had consensual sex with the woman and that she was in the motel room “of her own free will” after a charity golf tournament and visit to a bar. Cleaves’ attorneys told jurors that the woman lied about what happened because she felt guilty about cheating on her boyfriend.

Cleaves, 41, was acquitted on all charges, including unlawful imprisonment and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual penetration. He had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison had he been convicted.

Cleaves has long denied the allegations, saying in a March 2016 tweet that he was “innocent and the allegations are without merit.”

The trial itself came after a long legal battle that started in late 2016 when a district judge dismissed the charges, saying that there were a number of factors that suggested “something else was going on” between Cleaves and the woman.

But in 2017, the charges were reinstated after the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal that contended the judge had abused her “discretion of power” in dismissing the charges. Then last year, the Michigan Supreme Court refused to review that decision, clearing the way for the trial.

Cleaves was an integral part of a Michigan State team that won the national championship in 2000 before his six-year NBA career.

Michigan State Tom Izzo was in the courtroom Tuesday. He told The Detroit News that he did not know the details about the allegations against his former player, but he wanted to be in the courtroom to support Cleaves as he would “any of my guys.”