Former Central Michigan basketball player Damarion Bonds has filed a federal lawsuit against the school in an attempt to lift his ineligible status, which his lawyers say is unfairly preventing him from transferring to another Division I university and earning NIL money.
Bonds played this past season for Central Michigan, averaging 6.6 points and 3.2 rebounds before he was kicked out of school in early February for answering a question on enrollment paperwork that CMU officials said showed a discrepancy from what Bonds’ previous university reported.
Bonds’ lawyers are arguing there was no discrepancy.
“He’s trying to complete the transfer-portal process and has several offers to play, several schools throughout the country. There’s NIL money on the table,” said Tarik Turfe, Bonds’ Dearborn-based lawyer.
“The NCAA is technically holding him out as ineligible due to Central’s erroneous decision.”
Bonds’ lawsuit against Central Michigan University, along with his former school, Rochester University, and several officials at both schools was filed in federal court in Detroit on March 31, days before Central Michigan fired head men’s basketball coach Tony Barbee after four seasons. The lawsuit and Barbee’s firing are not related in any way, Bonds’ lawyers stressed in an interview with The Detroit News.
Bonds, a Pontiac native who attended Waterford Mott High School, entered the transfer portal on March 26. His lawyers fear he could be stuck there with no place to go when the portal officially closes for the cycle on April 22.
Bonds’ lawyers are seeking an immediate injunction that would allow Bonds to pick his new school, as well as unspecified damages from lost NIL wages and even the value of a professional contract, like in the G League or Europe.
Central Michigan officials declined to comment on Bonds’ lawsuit, saying “it does not comment on pending litigation.” Officials from Rochester University, where Bonds first played college basketball before he moved to Henry Ford College and then Central Michigan, did not respond to multiple messages for comment.
The Bonds saga began in 2022, when Bonds was found to have been in the dorm room of a female college student. That’s not allowed at Rochester, a Christian university. The two had sex, his lawyers said.
The female student reported the encounter to school officials, who said he violated the student code of conduct. In April 2023, as Bonds was preparing to transfer to Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Rochester officials wouldn’t sign off on the transfer unless he signed a sanction notice, according to the lawsuit. The sanction notice declared he would be suspended from Rochester University housing for the 2023-24 school year, and that he’d be on probation. With Bonds set to transfer anyway, he signed the notice.
Bonds averaged 8.5 points in 18 games for Rochester, before playing the 2023-24 season at Henry Ford, where he averaged nearly 15 points per game. He transferred to Division I Central Michigan for the 2024-25 season.
In mid-October, CMU’s Office of Civil Rights and Institutional Equity was informed that Bonds hadn’t completed a required Previous Institution Verification Form (PIVF). On Oct. 14, less than two weeks before CMU’s first exhibition game of the season, Bonds completed the form, and on Oct. 15, Rochester University completed the form on its end. According to the lawsuit, on a question that asked if Bonds was the subject of a Title IX or sexual-misconduct investigation or grievance process that was not completed, Bonds answered, “No.” Rochester answered, “Yes.”
On a question that asked if he was suspended or dismissed from a previous school, according to the lawsuit, Bonds responded, “No.” His coach at Rochester, Klint Pleasant, told CMU officials he had been dismissed from the basketball team. Mary Martinez, CMU’s Title IX coordinator and assistant to the president of the OCRIE (and a defendant in the lawsuit), declared Bonds’ answer technically correct because he was not suspended as a student, but as a student-athlete. Still, the discrepancies between Bonds’ and Rochester’s answers triggered CMU to deem Bonds gave false information.
Bonds’ lawyers say he answered the questions correctly, in that the residence-hall suspension was just for one year, and he didn’t believe the investigation to be ongoing.
Bonds’ lawyers said the female student with whom Bonds was with in the dorm room has since left the university, and there were no police charges filed against Bonds.
“(The) allegation was there and it was refuted,” Edmond Salem, Bonds’ co-counsel, told The News. “This is what led to Bonds showing text messages between him and the girl (showing a) consensual relationship.
“There was absolutely no finding of sexual assault, rape, whatever.”
Said Turfe: “They (Rochester) sat on the claim. … He never was punished.”
Still, the discrepancies between answers from Bonds and Rochester officials set off a series of hearings with Bonds at CMU, the first of which was in November 2024 with CMU’s Office of Student Conduct. The committee hearing ruled in early December that he violated the code of student conduct. Bonds appealed, and another hearing was held in mid-December, and the decision was upheld. Bonds appealed again, this time, to interim CMU vice president Stan Shingles, who upheld the decision on Feb. 5, and Bonds was dismissed from the team ― on the day after he scored 17 points, with five 3-pointers, in CMU’s 76-70 loss to Miami (Ohio).
Bonds had another appeal, to the university president, but new president Neil MacKinnon didn’t officially start until Nov. 1, after the initial claims that Bonds provided false information. MacKinnon declined to hear the appeal.
Bonds, 6-foot-6 and 180 pounds, played 21 games for CMU this past season, all coming off the bench, averaging 18.6 points. Bonds shot 39.5% from 3-point range, and he made a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to propel the Chippewas to a signature 70-69 win at George Mason in November.
“I’m thinking he’s going to make it,” Barbee said after that game, which improved CMU to 2-2 on a season in which it would ultimately finish 14-17, leading to the coach’s exit after four seasons. “He’s just a gamer.”
In addition to CMU, Rochester and Martinez, defendants in the lawsuit include Scott Samuels, vice president of student life, admissions and marketing and Title IX coordinator at Rochester, and Thomas Idema, who was the director of student conduct at Central Michigan.
Bonds’ lawyers say they have been trying to come to a resolution with CMU for months, before filing the lawsuit. They’ve run out of time, they said, with the clock ticking on the transfer portal and Bonds’ future in college basketball.
“We gave Central Michigan every opportunity (to resolve the issue),” Salem said. “They weren’t having it.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
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