Georgia defensive lineman Jonathan Taylor was arrested and charged with aggravated assault/family violence on Tuesday morning.
The arrest was executed by UGA Police and Taylor was booked into the Athens-Clarke County Jail at 6:08 a.m. Since it is a felony charge involving violence, Taylor will have to go before a judge for a bond hearing. He remained incarcerated as of late Tuesday afternoon.
A UGA spokesman said no one from the athletic association would have any comments on Tuesday.
UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said the charges stemmed from a third-party complaint that Taylor physically assaulted his girlfriend during a domestic dispute around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“At 2:47 a.m., our dispatcher received a third-party call about a female individual who was injured by her boyfriend,” Williamson said. “Police officers and EMS were dispatched. We met with the victim at Busbee Hall along with the third-party caller. After interviewing her, we determined the incident had occurred at McWhorther Hall. We made contact with the primary resident there, Jonathan Maurice Taylor. After talking to Mr. Taylor, the victim and evidence at the scene, officers determined they had significant probably cause to make the charge of ag assault/domestic violence.”
According to the incident report filed by Officer R. Edwards, Taylor and the victim had been “living together for several weeks.” At the time of the interview, officers observed “visible scratched and red marks to her neck and bruises on her arm and leg.”
“I determined that her boyfriend, Jonathan Maurice Taylor, had offensively used his hands to choke her and had also struck her several times with a closed fist,” Edwards wrote.
The 20-year-old victim was listed as 5-foot-11, 170 pounds. She was treated at the scene and released. Taylor is 6-5, 340 pounds, according to the identification he submitted to police.
It is the second arrest of the year for Taylor, a redshirt sophomore from Millen. He was one of the four UGA players jailed on theft by deception charges in March. Taylor accepted a pretrial intervention sentence in that case last month and UGA announced he would not miss any playing time as a result.
Taylor was listed as a third-team nose tackle on the Bulldogs’ preseason depth chart. That position is also manned by senior Mike Thornton and junior Chris Mayes. He had nine tackles and a sack as a redshirt freshman last season. He was a 4-star prospect coming out of Jenkins County High School.
About the Author
