Charges dropped against former UNC tutor Jennifer Wiley Thompson

The Orange County District Attorney has dropped charges against Jennifer Wiley Thompson, the tutor at the heart of the academic misconduct case against North Carolina.

Thompson, who is cited as Jennifer Wiley in court documents, was one of five people accused of violating the state's agent-athlete inducement law by providing money and gifts to former North Carolina football player Greg Little.

"After looking at the facts and sitting down with Ms. Thompson, (district attorney) Mr. (Jim) Woodall determined that the cases against her should be dismissed. Ms. Thompson committed no crime at any time and we commend Mr. Woodall for doing the right thing and dismissing these cases," Joe Cheshire, Thompson's attorney, said in a statement. "Ms. Thompson has suffered too much over the last four years and hopefully can now begin to put all of this behind her."

Initially, Thompson faced four felony charges, including purchasing a round-trip airline ticket for Little in May 2010 and delivering packages to Little containing $2,000 and $150 cash. Investigators claimed Thompson was trying to persuade Little to join sports agent Terry Watson of the Georgia-based Watson Sports Agency.

Thompson’s lawyer claimed that Thompson was a naïve college student who was just trying to help out the players she tutored.

During an investigation, the Secretary of State’s office learned through Thompson’s phone records that she had extensive contact with UNC student athletes as well as sports agent Peter Schaffer.

Each one of Thompson’s felony charges carried a maximum penalty of 15 months in jail.

Thompson was banned from helping student-athletes, having contact with them and was not allowed to enter any UNC athletic facilities.

Watson still faces 14 felony counts — 13 for athlete-agent inducement and one for obstructing justice. Patrick Jones, a Georgia-based real estate agent and longtime associated of Watson, is accused of providing money to former North Carolina player Robert Quinn through a third party and former North Carolina Central quarterback Michael Wayne Johnson Jr., is facing a charge of arranging a meeting between Watson and Little and providing a mailing address for Watson to send cash to Little.

For more North Carolina news, visit TarHeelIllustrated.com.

- - - - - - -

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook

From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Charges dropped against former UNC tutor Jennifer Wiley Thompson