Woman recants domestic violence claim against Jovon Robinson

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A woman recanted her claim that former Auburn running back Jovon Robinson physically assaulted her by smashing her head in a door, causing injuries to her knees, shoulder and face, later telling school officials she lied about the incident that factored into his dismissal from the football team, according to documents and interviews with AL.com.

Emails sent from the accuser, whose identity is being protected by AL.com, to Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn and between Auburn's football coach and the university's Title IX coordinator were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The accuser and Robinson also signed letters waiving their protections under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), granting AL.com exclusive access to the documents.

The accuser first emailed Malzahn at 5:56 a.m. on July 16 and claimed that at approximately 3 a.m. that morning she and Robinson "had a disagreement that turned physical."

According to the accuser's email, the disagreement between her and Robinson began when he "unintentionally broke my necklace, but proceeded to laugh about it and not apologize."

After requesting to be brought back to her dorm, to which she said Robinson refused, the young woman watched TV with Robinson in his room, she wrote in the email to Malzahn.

"After about (five) minutes, without being provoked in any way, he frantically gets up and shoves me out the door, not giving me a chance to gather my things before doing so (phone and keys)," the accuser wrote to Malzahn. "In the process to physically throw me out, Jovon managed to smash my head in the door and skin both of my knees on the hallway carpet. I now have two bloody knees, a bruised shoulder, and a knot above my eye.

"Although I have every reason to, I chose to not get the law involved; as I know how nasty things could get; especially for someone in his position. Therefore, I am trying to keep the situation as private as possible. With this being the second or third time an incident of this sort has happened with him, I believe that it is time he be held responsible for the way he has been acting toward not just me, but women in general. Although were [sic] are very close, as I said before, I will make sure to stay away from and not contact him."

ETA:At 7:50 p.m. that evening, the accuser emailed Malzahn for a second time, telling him directly that she had lied about what happened between her and Robinson.

"I'm not sure if your decision today had anything to do with my situation a few weeks ago, but I just wanted you to know that I made up the entire thing simply because I was upset with Jovon at the time," the accuser wrote to Malzahn. "I haven't had any contact with him in the past few weeks but I do not think my lie should have costed him his spot on the team. Please consider changing your mind because I would really hate to see a person with so much potential lose his opportunity because of my silly fib. Jovon didn't do anything to me that night but ask me to leave his room and I was upset about that."