Court Watching: Former track coach bound over for trial in alleged rapes of student

Jamaul Bohannon, 48, formerly of Van Buren Township and now of Southfield, was bound over to circuit court for trial after a live preliminary exam on Feb. 23 before 34th District Court Chief Judge Brian Oakley.
Bohannon, a former track/cross country coach at Robichaud High School in Dearborn Heights, is charged with criminal sexual conduct – first degree (relationship) and criminal sexual conduct- third degree (student) on April 1, 2012 in Van Buren Township.
He is due at Wayne County Circuit Court at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit on March 9 for an arraignment on the information. He currently is free on $10,000 personal bond and is to have no contact with the alleged victim.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Sarah Greene called just one witness at the exam: the alleged victim, now 25 years old, who was a 15-year-old high school student at the time the sexual encounters began.
The witness testified he was in his sophomore year at Robichaud High School when, in March 2012, he heard an announcement over the public address system that there was a meeting for those interested in the track team with the head track coach and administrator (principal) of the Ombudsman alternative education program in the Westwood Community Schools.
The witness said he joined the track team and Bohannon was coach. One day he needed a ride home and Bohannon drove him home and then he regularly gave him rides home and began touching his right thigh and rubbing his groin. At one point, he testified, the coach texted him and asked if he wanted to hang out outside of track and watch TV and have sex at his Southport apartment.
The witness said he lied to his parents that he was going to a track practice on a Saturday and walked six blocks toward the high school and then was picked up by the coach. Then they went to Bohannon’s apartment in Belleville (Van Buren Township), he testified.
The witness gave detailed accounts of that encounter and the many more that continued throughout his high school years. He said he went to the Southport apartment three times a week.
He testified Bohannon moved to Dearborn and the encounters continued and the witness said he was considered to be the coach’s “boyfriend.”
He said after the boyfriend relationship ended, he tried to break it off but it continued because the coach threatened to hurt or harm himself. He said he left for college at the University of Michigan Dearborn, where he stayed on campus.
The witness said he turned down a scholarship to Michigan State University to stay close to the defendant because he was afraid he would hurt himself.
He testified Bohannon began to take him to the Oakland County Health Center for STP (sexually transmitted disease) checks and vaccinations if he was behind. He said the coach pretended to be his father. He said you could get a STP check without a parent but needed a parent’s signature for vaccinations. The health clinic records were presented as part of the evidence, along with the employment records of the defendant and photos of Southport and other evidence provided by the victim.
He said Bohannon would pop up at his dorm room door which interfered with his college life. He testified he had to block the coach’s phone number, but the coach’s friends would call him.
He said one night in the middle of COVID he was at Bohannon’s home and Bohannon kicked him out. “He put his hands on me,” the witness said, noting the coach could become violent, he had a temper, and he was afraid.
He said Bohannon told him he was starting a track program with a former track star and the witness said he was afraid he would start doing to him what he did to the witness.
He testified that when he was 15 and 16, the coach began giving him alcohol at his place and he would go to social clubs as well with the coach’s family.
Under cross examination from defense attorney Nicole James, the witness said he became aware that Bohannon was serious with someone from Africa and was looking to marry him to bring him to America. They were engaged.
He testified that after the coach threw him out of his home last summer, where he had just paid rent for the month, he went to a hotel, hired a moving company to take his things from his home, and then went to Van Buren police.
After the lengthy testimony was over, defense attorney James said he was not a credible witness and that he gave a roundabout answer for why he went to police. He only charged Bohannon after he found out he was engaged to someone else, James said.
Judge Oakley said the only way he would not bind this over to the higher court would be if he found the witness to be uncredible.
“But he is an extremely articulate and believable witness,” Judge Oakley said and then ordered the bind over.