LAWRENCE — Arterio Morris appeared in Douglas County District Court through Zoom remotely on Friday, as the former University of Kansas men’s basketball player’s case encountered another development.

Although the appearance was originally scheduled as a preliminary hearing, the state and defense jointly requested a continuance. Joshua Seiden, a deputy district attorney for the district attorney's office in Douglas County, explained in court that they are scheduled for an independent assessment conference — and through that attempting to make an effort to resolve the case short of an evidentiary hearing. The case itself stems from Morris being arrested and charged with one count of rape in 2023.

Morris, who is now next scheduled for a status conference on April 10, is alleged to have committed the crime around late Aug. 2023. He was arrested in Sept. 2023, and subsequently dismissed from the KU men’s basketball program after only transferring in from the University of Texas earlier that year. According to the complaint document, the “severity level 1 person felony” he’s facing carries a penalty range of “a minimum of 147 months to a maximum of 653 months in prison and/or a fine of up to $300,000 and 36 months of post-release supervision, pursuant to K.S.A. 21-6804, 21-6807, 21-6611(a)(2), & 22-3717(d)(1)(A), and amendments thereto.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Former Kansas basketball player Arterio Morris' court case continues