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As of Friday afternoon, according to UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez, both players remain members of the Lobo basketball team and are still enrolled in the university.

“J.J. is innocent and we ask the public to withhold judgment until all the facts can be heard in a fair forum,” said Caldwell’s attorney Paul Kennedy, who along with Justine Fox-Young is representing the 22-year-old Houston native. “We are confident when the truth can be brought to light, he will ultimately be vindicated.”

Neither player has been charged with a crime, though according to a report obtained by the Journal, “a summons to appear will be sought” for Caldwell as the investigation progresses into the allegation made on Dec. 16.

A spokesman confirmed the case has been referred to the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office and it is “under review.” The initial police report classifies the battery against a household member allegation as a misdemeanor, but the District Attorney’s Office reviewing the evidence would ultimately decide on what charge, if any, to pursue in the case.

UNM, meanwhile, is also reviewing protocol as allegations of the woman and Caldwell having a potentially violent past, beginning prior to the season, were reported to members of the athletic department — but never to police prior to this month.

And on Friday evening, the 22-year-old woman who filed the complaint spoke with the Journal saying the police report, which was both forwarded to the DA’s Office and used in reporting this article, has inaccuracies. The woman said she in fact has obtained a restraining order against Caldwell despite the police report indicating she has not. She also took exception to the police report indicating she did not have visible markings consistent with the injuries she described from the incident.

According to an Albuquerque Police Department report filed Dec. 16, the woman told police she and Caldwell, whom she described as an ex-boyfriend, saw each other at Posh Nightclub the night of Dec. 14 and began to argue. She told police she and Caldwell then left the club together and argued outside, where Caldwell pushed her against a vehicle, and then he left to go home.

The woman then took a Lyft ride to her friend’s apartment in the same complex where Caldwell lives. When her friend wasn’t responding to calls, she went to Caldwell’s apartment, where they argued again.

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The report states the woman “said (Caldwell) struck her in the face several times with an open hand … then grabbed her by both arms and pushed her up against a wall … then took his hands off her arms and applied them to her neck and strangled her.” She told police her airway was not obstructed, she never lost consciousness and the two then stopped fighting. She later left when Caldwell fell asleep, the report states.

“Let it be noted that I observed minor bruising on (the woman’s) arms,” the reporting officer wrote in the report. “She had no visible injury to her face where she said (Caldwell) struck her and no signs of strangulation on her neck.”

The woman told the Journal she did, in fact, have visible injuries after the incident.

The APD reporting officer also wrote: “(The woman) would not advise why she did not call police immediately and waited two days before reporting the incident.”

The report also notes that on Dec. 3, in a separate report, the woman told police of the interaction with Caldwell from before the season. She was advised to get a restraining order, but she did not do so.

She told the Journal that is not true and she does have an active restraining order with Caldwell.

UNM has not commented on the details of what it knew of the allegation from before the season and hasn’t said when it plans to do so.

Records requests for the case have been filed with UNM, which has a note posted on its public records request home page that the office is closed until Jan. 2.

Attempts via social media to reach both players for comment went unreturned on Friday, though Kennedy reached out on behalf of Caldwell. UNM has not made either available to the media.

Caldwell and Bragg both were suspended prior to last Sunday’s 107-88 home win over Houston Baptist. Each had played in the previous 13 games for the 12-2 Lobos, who host UC Davis this coming Sunday at 2 p.m.

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The list of defendants in Lobo basketball player J.J. Caldwell’s due process lawsuit against the University of New Mexico grew by two on Monday as the suspended point guard is still awaiting a ruling on whether his emergency ban from campus can be lifted, potentially allowing him to return to the team.

UNM’s Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez and the landlords of Caldwell’s Lobo Village apartment, who seem to be amping up their efforts to evict Caldwell from the facility, were added Monday to a Jan. 2 lawsuit filed for the UNM junior point guard by his attorneys Justine Fox-Young and Paul Kennedy.

Nuñez said Monday he is aware he’s been added to the lawsuit, but could not comment on pending litigation while UNM, on behalf of the UNM-associated defendants named in the suit has also declined comment on the specifics of the case other than confirming the emergency ban is still in effect and that Caldwell remains suspended indefinitely from the Lobo basketball team. After starting the first 13 games of the season, he has now missed the past five.

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According to an Albuquerque Police Department report, a battery against a household member report was taken Dec. 16 from an ex-girlfriend alleging Caldwell and the woman got into a fight at his apartment on Dec. 14 and he hit her, grabbed her by her arms and at one point put his hands around her neck – allegations he has denied.

He has not been charged with a crime and the case is under review by Alamogordo’s 12th Judicial District Attorney John Sugg, who on Monday said the matter is still under review with no timetable for a decision on whether criminal charges will be pursued.

On Jan. 2, Caldwell sued UNM stating, in part, “This case arises out of the University of New Mexico’s unlawful action banning Joseph Caldwell from the University campus, evicting him from his residence, disallowing him from playing basketball for the University and banning him from registering for courses for the 2020 Spring Semester.”

The suit alleges Caldwell was called to a meeting Dec. 19 run by Nuñez with “several other individuals from the athletic department and from the UNM administration” on hand.

It was there, the lawsuit states, that Nuñez told Caldwell “he was banned from campus indefinitely and also banned from playing or practicing with the basketball team.” Nobody at the meeting, Caldwell’s attorneys say, told the junior point guard what the allegations against him were at that time.

That was the same day Caldwell received an eviction notice from Lobo Village stating, according to the lawsuit, he was being evicted because of his “unlawful action causing serious physical harm to another person.”

Lobo Village is described on the UNM website as an “on-campus private partner housing” facility, though leases are signed directly with ACC OP LLC, the other newly named defendant in the case. Caldwell’s lease states he is “subject to UNM’s judicial process procedures.”

The amended complaint states that Lobo Village has been trying to evict him for weeks despite UNM not yet having ruled on his case and his still not having been charged with a crime. He received an email on Thursday from Lobo Village counsel that read, in part: “If you do not contact management and turn in keys and vacate your unit prior to 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday), I will file against you. In it, I will not only place an eviction against you, but will put a money judgment against you for my attorney fees and court costs incurred in the eviction, pursuant to your lease agreement. So as you can see, this WILL affect your credit, and future housing options, which I do not believe that you want.”

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The suit also alleges that in a Dec. 20 meeting with UNM’s Office of Equal Opportunity, Caldwell denied the charges against him and later met with Nasha Torrez, who Caldwell’s attorneys allege said the student would have to wait until at least after the university’s holiday break concluded on Jan. 2.

Caldwell and Torrez met again last Friday. In that meeting, according to the suit, Nasha Torrez “refused to provide any basis whatsoever for the interim ban” and also stated she was “entirely uninvolved in that process” to ban Caldwell, which was decided on by a student conduct officer in her office. Torrez is hearing his appeal to have the ban lifted.

UNM, while not commenting on Caldwell’s case specifically, said Monday that interim bans are “not common, nor done lightly since it can have a major impact on a student’s life,” wrote UNM spokesperson Cinnamon Blair. She added UNM had seven such bans in 2019, four of which fell under Title IX guidelines.

She added that a student conduct officer and the university’s Title IX coordinator, based on national “best practices” guidelines, consider such factors as whether the alleged incident happened on campus, have there been multiple such allegations and to what level the allegations rose to before issuing a ban.

There is not a timetable on Torrez’s decision on Caldwell’s appeal.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – New details reveal why Lobo basketball player Carlton Bragg was suspended from the team last month.

According to a police report, Bragg is accused of attempted rape.

According to that report, a woman says in August after a night of drinking, Bragg held her down, kissed her and kept trying to unbutton her pants.

She says she kept saying no and told him she was his girlfriend’s best friend. She told police she was afraid she was going to be raped and recorded the alleged incident on her cellphone.

Bragg has not been charged with a crime and the District Attorney in Alamogordo is investigating because the wife of Bernalillo County DA Raul Torrez is the University of New Mexico’s Dean of Students.

Bragg served a three-game suspension from the Lobos, but has since been cleared to play and is expected to play Tuesday when the Lobos take on Fresno State.