University of Georgia football players Justyn Rhett and Joenel Aguero were weaving through Athens traffic, police said, when they were pulled over the night of Feb. 16.
As they sat parked side by side in their Dodge Chargers off West Broad Street, the officer who had stopped the pair approached Aguero’s car and began scolding him. He had clocked them driving 19 mph over the speed limit.
“There are families in those other vehicles,” the officer said, according to body camera footage acquired by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Toward the end of the stop, as the officer stood between the players’ cars, Aguero asked if the ticket was a super-speeder citation — a more serious speeding infraction under Georgia law.
“I know Coach Smart be tripping about that,” Aguero said of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.
Apparently unaware he had pulled over two Georgia football players until that moment, the officer’s demeanor shifted and he immediately brought up the January 2023 crash that had killed two members of the program.
“January, last year, what happened? People died, right?” the officer said, later adding, “Let’s not be a statistic, because guess who is going to show up and work that? Me.”
The traffic stop is one of two dozen speeding incidents and arrests involving Georgia football players and staff since the January 2023 championship celebration that culminated in an early morning crash that killed UGA lineman Devin Willock and recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy.
Although the players who were directly involved in the crash have since left the program, Georgia football continues to be plagued by incidents of speeding, reckless driving and racing — a pattern highlighted by the arrests of two players this month for reckless driving. Meanwhile, Victoria “Tory” Bowles, a former Georgia football recruiting analyst who was severely injured in the crash, and the Willock family remain locked in lawsuits as they seek accountability from the athletic association, among others.
At the SEC Media Days event in Dallas, Smart told reporters last Tuesday that the program has instituted a variety of measures to clamp down on speeding, including defensive driving courses and suspensions.
“We do as much or more education than anybody in the country. We have discipline in the form of suspensions, and we will continue to do so because we’ll have suspensions coming out of some of these,” Smart said. He declined to give further details about upcoming suspensions.
But it is unclear what, if any, effect the program’s measures are having on the speeding issues plaguing Georgia’s football program.
Credit: Hyosub Shin / Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Hyosub Shin / Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA football players and staff have been involved in at least 24 incidents and arrests related to speeding, reckless driving and driving under the influence in the year-and-a-half since the January 2023 championship celebration.
In the 18 months before the crash, that number was 23, police records show.
When reached for comment, athletic association spokesman Steven Drummond referred the AJC to Kirby Smart’s comments in Dallas.
The dangers inherent to speeding were most recently highlighted in the July 9 reckless driving arrest of Johnathan LeMonte Hughley. The offensive lineman, also known as “Bo,” lost control of his car as he tried to make a turn on Carlton Street in an area of UGA’s campus known as East Campus Village, according to police.
Hughley told police he was driving the speed limit, 25 mph, shortly before the single-car crash, a UGA Police report shows.
But video evidence reviewed by police revealed Hughley had accelerated around another car at an estimated 42 mph before he left the road and hit a speed limit sign as his car slid across the sidewalk.
The sign was found 65 feet from where it was hit, and the force of the crash was powerful enough to shear the front passenger-side wheel off his car, according to the police report.
“Those areas are commonly used by pedestrians that could have been seriously injured or even killed by an out-of-control vehicle,” the arresting officer wrote in his report.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The following day, freshman defensive back Demello Jones and senior linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. were pulled over by an Athens police officer who said he had observed the pair racing each other going west down Broad Street.
Driving a gray 2021 Porsche Panamera, Jones began to slow down as the police car pulled in behind him. Mondon, on the other hand, accelerated and pulled out in front of Jones in a black 2022 Dodge Charger, police records show.
Mondon denied racing and told the officer he did not know Jones, records show. Jones, though, confirmed to police that Mondon was his teammate. Both were cited for racing and Mondon was arrested for reckless driving.
Mondon’s involvement with the latest incident is especially noteworthy, as he was questioned by police at the scene of the January 2023 crash.
He was at the Athens strip club, Toppers International Showbar, the night of the crash, where LeCroy, Willock, Jalen Carter, Bowles and others with the football program were celebrating just before the accident.
Credit: Compilation
Credit: Compilation
Mondon was not charged in the aftermath of the crash. He and teammate Jamon Dumas-Johnson, who now plays for Kentucky, had only arrived at the crash scene after receiving a call from Carter, police records show. Carter was later charged with reckless driving and racing in connection with the crash. He pleaded no contest in March 2023 and was sentenced to 12 months of probation, a $1,013 fine and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service. A month later, he was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Other notable player incidents since the fatal crash include the September reckless driving arrest of UGA staffer Jarvis Jones, who at the time was the program’s player-connection coordinator. Police officers clocked Jones traveling at 86 in a 40 mph zone, records show.
Former UGA players De’Nylon Morrissette and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint were stopped three times each for traffic-related violations last year while they were still at Georgia.
Smart confirmed on Tuesday that Rosemy-Jacksaint, who signed with the Washington Commanders in April, was suspended last season. He also confirmed that David Daniel-Sisavanh, who was charged with reckless driving earlier this year, was no longer with the team.
Survivor, family seek accountability
While the program continues to wrestle with speeding, the question of who is responsible for the death and injury arising from the January 2023 crash continues to be litigated in a Gwinnett County court.
Roughly a year after they were filed, a pair of lawsuits brought by Bowles and the Willock family against Carter, the athletic association and LeCroy’s estate among others, have been beset by delays.
Attorneys for the Willock family and Bowles allege the athletic association was negligent in entrusting LeCroy, who had a history of speeding violations, with the Ford Expedition rented by the athletic association to ferry recruits and their families around Athens during the weekend’s national championship celebrations. They also allege Carter was negligent for racing LeCroy moments before the crash.
Credit: Toppers International Showbar
Credit: Toppers International Showbar
A police investigation found LeCroy was traveling at more than 100 mph shortly before the car left the road, collided with a tree and slammed into an apartment building on Barnett Shoals Road. A toxicology report later revealed LeCroy’s blood alcohol level was .197, more than twice the legal limit.
Investigators, relying on video footage along the route from downtown Athens to the crash scene, found that Carter aggressively switched lanes and drove at speeds up to 100 mph.
Attorneys for Carter and the athletic association have denied liability.
Bowles was fired last August by UGA shortly after filing her lawsuit, a move her attorneys described as retaliation. In January, Bowles’ attorneys in a bombshell filing said Georgia coaches and staffers regularly drove UGA athletic association rental vehicles after drinking. The allegations rely on text messages from Bowles’ phone and have not yet been tested in court.
They further allege that UGA’s coaches spent cash during unofficial recruiting visits. Such spending by coaches may have violated NCAA rules at the time.
“We are reviewing the amended complaint, but we dispute its claims and will vigorously defend the Athletic Association’s interests in court,” Drummond, the athletic association’s spokesman, said at the time.
The cases are now in the fact-finding stage of discovery, as both sides trade evidence and seek to take depositions of key figures, which could include Smart.
“Sounds about right”
In Dallas last Tuesday, Smart also made another revealing comment: Classic City Collective — the group that distributes Name, Image and Likeness payments to players — has been fining players for transgressions that involved breaking the law.
Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Depa
Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Depa
“I do think the effective way in curtailing some things is when you go to their wallet and you fine them, because these fines have been substantial and it’ll make you think twice about the mistakes you made,” Smart said.
Classic City CEO Matt Hibbs did not respond to a call and message seeking to confirm Smart’s comments and details about the fines.
Still, some blame NIL, and the ease with which players can get ahold of high-powered cars, as a factor in the recent speeding phenomenon.
Carter, for instance, was driving a 700 horsepower Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk the night of the crash. He had acquired the vehicle through an NIL deal with a car luxury car dealer in Ohio, court records show.
When Rosemy-Jacksaint was pulled over on Atlanta Highway in May 2023 for driving 90 in a 45 mph zone — the third time he had been cited for speeding in a nine-day span — he was driving a 2020 Dodge Charger he got with the help of an NIL agent, vehicle registration records show.
The Athens police officer who arrested Rosemy-Jacksaint brought up the January fatal crash as he drove the player to jail, police video footage acquired by the AJC shows.
“This is crazy how much y’all are speeding around here,” the officer said. “Me and my unit are the ones that worked on that case.”
The officer then shared his own theory as to why players seemed to be increasingly stopped for speeding:
“I think one of the reasons why this has been such a big problem for y’all, and I don’t think it’s just y’all, I think it’s all over the country, is that you’re getting these NIL deals, these fast cars that you can’t drive fast in around here,” he said. “Because we’ve never had this issue before.”
Rosemy-Jacksaint seemed to agree.
“That sounds about right,” Rosemy-Jacksaint replied.
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