Second arrest in four months for UGA football player

Jonathan Ledbetter was an early enrollee at Georgia as a freshman last year and was looking for more playing time as a sophomore this season.

Credit: Joshua L. Jones

Credit: Joshua L. Jones

Jonathan Ledbetter was an early enrollee at Georgia as a freshman last year and was looking for more playing time as a sophomore this season.

Jonathan Ledbetter, the Georgia defensive lineman who had alcohol charges dismissed earlier this year, was arrested again on Sunday morning.

Ledbetter was charged with DUI and underage possession, both misdemeanors. He was booked at 6:05 a.m. and released on $2,000 bond at 10:24 a.m., according to the Athens-Clarke County jail web site. The Athens-Clarke County police was the arresting agency.

Ledbetter was arrested March 20 on two misdemeanor charges related to trying to get into a club with a fake ID and underage possession of alcohol. But the district attorney declined to press the charges because he wasn't sure he could make the evidence stand up in court.

Initially after that first arrest, Ledbetter was due to serve a one-game suspension, as per UGA student-athlete policy for arrests. But after the charges were dismissed head coach Kirby Smart declined to confirm whether Ledbetter would still be suspended.

A two-game suspension is mandated for a DUI, per the school’s drug and alcohol policy. But it’s also not clear whether Ledbetter’s March arrest would figure into the decision.

Ledbetter, who is now a sophomore, was a highly-recruited four-star prospect who was in line for major playing time this season, if not a starting spot.

This is the seventh known arrest of a Georgia football player since March 20, and the eighth since Smart took over. Three players (Ledbetter, Chad Clay and Chauncey Rivers) accounting for six of the arrestes. Clay and Rivers have since been dismissed.