When Ricky Green left the University of Maine men’s basketball team on Nov. 7, the school issued a brief statement citing “personal reasons” for the decision.

But a court case heard in Bangor District Court on Feb. 20 shows that Green’s departure from the team came just more than a week after he’d been arrested on the Orono campus. His former coach, John Giannini, said on Tuesday that that arrest was the catalyst for Green’s departure.

“I told him it was in his best interests to leave as soon as possible, and if he chose to stay, he wouldn’t have a choice,” Giannini said.

According to Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts, Green, a 21-year-old from Louisville, Ky., pleaded no contest to charges of unlawful sexual contact, two counts of assault, and one count of criminal trespass. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

The charges stemmed from two incidents that took place in a UMaine dormitory on Oct. 27, Roberts said.

“I can tell you generically the allegations involved him being present in a dorm room with one female victim,” Roberts said. “There was an assault on her. The assault was unwanted physical contact … it involved him touching her, either on the breast or the genitals.”

Roberts said that Green was charged with a similar incident that involved a different victim in another room in the same dormitory.

“Later that same evening he went to another dorm room, went in uninvited, and had similar contact with the occupant of that room,” Roberts said. “That contact did involve contact with the genitals. The second victim was basically in bed for the night and he walked in and engaged in this contact.”

Roberts said either or both victims may have known Green “on a very minor level, but there certainly wasn’t any relationship with him.”

Giannini said the decision to cite “personal reasons” for Green’s departure was made for two reasons.

“It’s debatable whether someone’s role as a student athlete makes it necessary to have the good, bad and ugly all made public,” Giannini said.

“At the time the legal situation was up in the air and it was unsure what would be pursued and to what level it would be pursued.”

Regardless of how the legal system dealt with Green, though, Giannini said he knew how he had to deal with the situation.

“The seriousness of the legal situation grew after he left school,” Giannini said. “But before the legal situation became clear, we knew that he was not going to have a future with us.”

Green left the team just five days before the Bears played Arkansas in their season opener, and subsequently left school. The Black Bears played two exhibition games between Green’s arrest and the Arkansas game, but Green was suspended for both of them for an “unspecified violation of team rules.”

Green averaged 22 points per game at Shawnee (Ill.) Junior College before enrolling at UMaine.