photo by: Chance Parker

Kansas' Arterio Morris dribbles the ball during the Bill Self Basketball Camp scrimmage on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at Allen Fieldhouse.

The alleged victim in Kansas basketball player Arterio Morris’ assault case filed an affidavit of non-prosecution Monday, but the Denton County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday it will continue to pursue the assault charge.

The charge, for a Class A misdemeanor, dates back to a June 2022 altercation in Texas between Morris and an ex-girlfriend prior to Morris’ freshman year at the University of Texas, as the AP and other outlets have reported. An affidavit of non-prosecution is a signed document in which a complainant states that they no longer want to pursue charges in a given case. First Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck told the Journal-World in a brief interview Tuesday that the DA’s office has been in touch with the alleged victim over the last couple weeks, and that the alleged victim is aware that the affidavit “hasn’t changed anything” in the DA office’s plans.

Following the filing of an affidavit of non-prosecution Monday — which Beck as well as Morris’ lawyer Justin Moore individually confirmed to the Journal-World — Morris’ side filed a motion for continuance Tuesday, which was granted, according to Denton County court records.

That motion resulted in the postponement of Morris’ pending jury trial, which had been scheduled for Aug. 2.

Beck said the DA’s office had also expected the continuance, which had been discussed informally in previous weeks: “Everybody already kind of knew that it wasn’t happening now.” She added that there is no definitive date for a new trial yet but that it could take place in October.

“It’s solely up to the Denton County DA’s office if they want to extend resources to prosecute a case with a non-prosecuting witness,” Moore wrote in an email to the Journal-World.

KU Athletics had no comment on the developments in the case.

The case was filed on Nov. 15 of last year; since then, it has undergone three instances of an “Order on Motion for Continuance.”

KU has in recent days reaffirmed Morris’ availability for the upcoming basketball season, which begins officially in November. On July 17, when Morris’ trial had still been scheduled for Aug. 2 (during KU’s eight-day preseason trip to Puerto Rico), head coach Bill Self said, “Arterio’s part of our team. There’s nothing about that. This thing happened before he even went to Texas, and Texas went through everything, we’ve gone through everything, so Arterio, he’s definitely going to play for us.”

This story has been edited to remove one use of the word “plaintiff,” which is more frequently associated with civil cases.