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Ex-football player Auston Robertson requests venue change for trial

March 28, 2018
<p>Former MSU football player Auston Roberston looks to his attorney on June 22, 2017, at the 55th District Court in Mason, Michigan. At the hearing Judge Thomas P. Boyd ordered an additional count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct be charged against Robertson for his alleged role in a sexual assault in April.</p>

Former MSU football player Auston Roberston looks to his attorney on June 22, 2017, at the 55th District Court in Mason, Michigan. At the hearing Judge Thomas P. Boyd ordered an additional count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct be charged against Robertson for his alleged role in a sexual assault in April.

Photo by Jon Famurewa | The State News

Former MSU football player Auston Robertson requested a venue change for the criminal trial he currently faces.

He had a pretrial conference Tuesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Courthouse. 

A motion to change the venue was filed and a motion hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. May 2 at Veterans Memorial Courthouse.

Robertson is charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after allegedly raping a woman in her apartment while his girlfriend waited in the car back in early April 2017.

If convicted, Robertson could face up to 30 years in prison.

The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office announced it had filed charges against Robertson on April 21, 2017. Later that day, MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio released a statement saying that Robertson is no longer part of the program.

Robertson was allowed to play for Garden City Community College in Kansas after a judge allowed him to play in July 2017.

A separate sexual assault probe from January 2017 that saw three ex-football players dismissed from the team found Robertson was the whistle-blower who reported the incident to Dantonio.

MSU Trustee Mitch Lyons was the one who outed Robertson, later saying he "deeply regrets" the comments at a MSU Board of Trustees meeting in June 2017.

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