James Holmes: Was he banned from CU or not?

James Holmes.

Yesterday, in her courtroom coverage of the latest James Holmes hearing, Melanie Asmar quoted prosecutors as saying the accused Aurora theater shooter had been banned from the University of Colorado after he'd made threats -- and so did pretty much every other media outlet on the planet. Now, however, CU is denying that's the case. Why the disconnect?

Asmar opened her piece about the hearing with this paragraph:

Suspected Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was banned from the University of Colorado in June after he made threats that were reported to the campus police, prosecutors said in court today. That month, he also failed his oral board exams, was told by professors that he should perhaps find a different path and began to withdraw from the school's neuroscience program.

She elaborated on this information with an allusion to prosecutor Karen Pearson:

Pearson said Holmes wasn't doing well in school and suggested that he wasn't living up to his own academic expectations. She said he failed his oral exams on June 7, which she said was "very much relevant to what happened afterward" -- including that Holmes bought guns and ammunition and rigged his apartment with explosives. Pearson said CU shut off Holmes's ID card after he made threats, but she didn't go into detail.

Yesterday evening, however, University of Colorado Denver spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said in an Associated Press piece that Holmes hadn't actually been banned from campus for making threats. Rather, his access to portions of the campus not open to the general public had been nixed because he was in the process of withdrawing from the neuroscience program.

This quick about-face has led to plenty of confusion in the press, as well as some awkward juxtapositions. Take this image from the CBS website, which features a link to a story about Holmes being banned from campus above an article saying that's not the case:

Hover to enlarge.

Continue reading for our interview with Jacque Montgomery about James Holmes misinformation.