Jalek Felton, ex-UNC basketball player, was expelled for sexual assault, documents show
Jalek Felton was suspended from UNC-Chapel Hill and its basketball team in 2018 because he was found to have violated the university’s policy on sexual assault and sexual violence, according to information the university released on Thursday.
A 6-3 guard, Felton was expelled from the UNC system, ordered to have no contact with the person who filed the complaint against him, and was banned from campus for four years, according to the UNC documents obtained by The News & Observer.
UNC released the student disciplinary records as a result of a lawsuit that stemmed from a 2016 records request filed by The Daily Tar Heel campus newspaper, the Charlotte Observer, the Herald-Sun and Capitol Broadcasting, which owns WRAL.
UNC has refused to release public records related to sexual misconduct, including rape and sexual assault, on campus since 2007. UNC-Chapel Hill repeatedly denied the request, arguing that the records were protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal student privacy law known as FERPA.
In May, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled UNC could not withhold the information and ordered the university to hand over the records. Still, the university fought the decision and did not give the news organizations the records by the agreed-upon June 30 deadline. That same day, UNC announced a $1.5 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Education over its failure to properly report statistics about campus crimes, including sexual assaults and offenses.
On Thursday, UNC released the names of students found responsible for sexual misconduct, the violations committed and any sanctions imposed by UNC on those students. Felton was one of 15 students listed in the records.
Of the 15 students, 10 had “sexual assault or sexual violence” violations, 4 had “sexual misconduct” violations and 1 had a violation of “deliberate touching of another’s sexual parts without consent.”
The nephew of former UNC and NBA star player Raymond Felton, Jalek Felton played 22 games as a freshman with the Tar Heels in the 2017-18 season. The university suspended him on Jan. 30, 2018, and cited federal privacy laws as the reason for not giving details about why he was suspended.
Felton was not charged with a crime. He retained Durham attorney Kerry Sutton, who told the News & Observer at the time that UNC was gathering information related to a misconduct case involving Felton.
Attorney said Jalek Felton ‘kicked out’ of UNC
By March 1, 2018, Sutton told The News & Observer that Felton had withdrawn from UNC, saying “essentially they kicked him out without giving him his rights.”
After considering a transfer to another school to continue his college career, Felton opted to turn professional in July 2018. He joined Petrol Olimpija, a professional basketball team in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Sutton told The News & Observer that month that Felton turned professional because, per NCAA transfer rules, he would have had to sit out a full season at a new school. After starting his career in Slovenia, Felton has played for teams in Finland and Mexico.
He was eligible for the 2019 NBA Draft but was not selected.
In a May 2019 interview with the Charlotte Observer following a pre-draft workout with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, Felton said he made “a couple of bad decisions” that led to his departure from UNC.
Prior to his brief UNC career, Felton started his high school basketball career at Mullins High School in South Carolina before playing his senior season at Gray Collegiate Academy in West Columbia, South Carolina.
Staff writer Kate Murphy contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 5:13 PM.