Jeff Graves, coach and owner of women’s basketball team, faces municipal assault charge

Jeff Graves, the former Kansas men’s basketball player who’s the coach/owner of an area women’s professional team, has a Kansas City Municipal Court hearing scheduled next month involving cases of alleged assault and destruction of property.

According to the court, Graves, 35, did not appear at a June 23 trial date and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. A court official indicated Friday that both cases are no longer in warrant status and are scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. Aug. 11.

“It (missing trial) was a miscommunication and it’s now been taken care of. There’s no warrant any longer,” Graves’ attorney, Josh Allen, said Friday. “(We) will be working with the prosecution to find out exactly what the allegations consist of and will be addressing them immediately, and am confident the situation will be resolved in the near future.”

According to a Kansas City Police Department narrative, Graves is accused of kicking in the back door at his former girlfriend’s residence on July 17, 2016, and slapping her in the face, causing her to fall to the ground.

When asked about the charges, Graves said: “It’s false allegations and the court date is for Aug. 11 and hopefully we’ll resolve the problem then.”

Graves is full-time owner and temporary head coach of the Midwest Reign — one of eight franchises in the Women’s Minor League Basketball Association. The Reign opened the league’s 16-game, three-month season last month at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

A native of Lee’s Summit, Graves played power forward professionally in Slovenia, Turkey, Croatia and in the NBA D-League before retiring from basketball following ankle surgery. He played forward at Kansas from 2002-04.

This story was originally published July 7, 2017 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Jeff Graves, coach and owner of women’s basketball team, faces municipal assault charge."