RICHMOND, Va. -- VCU Rams basketball player Mo Alie-Cox was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery after an incident involving a woman at a Richmond nightspot, according to Richmond court documents. Cox was officially charged April 30. The woman who accused Alie-Cox of assault and battery detailed the April 3 incident in a criminal complaint filed in Richmond court. The woman said it began when she walked by a group of men and another woman at Society in Shockoe Slip. The other woman, she said, told her not to look in her direction.
"I said I could look where ever I pleased and she responded with a comment I did not here [sic] and got in my face," the complainant wrote in the court document. "A VCU basketball player made a comment with me responding 'it's not my fault Shaka Smart left. Is that why your [sic] mad?'"
Former VCU head basketball coach Shaka Smart had just informed his team he would be leaving the university to take a job with the University of Texas. That was the night of April 2. Smart left VCU and flew to Texas on April 3.
After the Shaka Smart comment was made, the complainant said the other woman shoved her. The complainant said she then accidentally grabbed the other woman's hair. That is when Alie-Cox allegedly entered the picture, the woman said.
"Mo Alie-Cox punched me in the face," she wrote in the criminal complaint. "I went to the bouncer to ask for help and Mo Alie-Cox left."
The woman said when she later approached Alie-Cox about the incident, he denied touching her. The woman then filed the criminal report.
Cox, a criminal justice major, is due back in court May 20.
"We are aware of the charge against Mo Alie-Cox and we will continue to monitor the situation closely," VCU Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said. "We will allow the legal process to run its course and act appropriately within our VCU Athletics Student-Athlete Code of Conduct as more details become clear."
A request for comment from Alie-Cox sent via email has not yet been returned.
With his long hair and fiery style of play, Mo Alie-Cox is one of VCU's most recognizable basketball players. The 6'6" redshirt sophomore from Alexandria, Virginia, averaged 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds a game in the 2014-15 season.
This is a developing story.
