Caleb King's bench warrant for a failure-to-appear charge was noticed when King showed up to drive home the car of his brother, who was also being arrested, according to the incident report.
Caleb King, a 22-year-old tailback for Georgia, was charged with failure-to-appear in court, stemming from a speeding charge in Walton County.
Brandon King was cited for driving without a valid driver's license, after being pulled over at around 3:59 a.m. on Monday morning in Athens. Brandon King, 23, was driving a Ford Explorer owned by Georgia defensive lineman Brandon Wood, a roommate of Caleb King.
Before being handcuffed, the officer asked Brandon King to call the owner of the vehicle. Wood showed up five minutes later, at around 5 a.m. with Caleb King.
At that point Caleb King stated he would be driving the car back to their apartment. The officer ran the driver's licenses of Wood and King, and while Wood's came back with no problem, King's showed it was suspended.
King told the officer that he had taken care of the problem, according to the police report. But while filling out paperwork the officer was notified by central booking that there was a bench warrant out on Caleb King, and the player was subsequently held.
King was pulled over on June 20 for going 76 MPH in a 55 zone, according to Walton County officials, on Highway 78, near New Hope Road.
He then missed the court date of Aug. 6, and a bench warrant was issued.
"You have two choices: Pay the fine, or appear in court. He did neither," Walton County sheriff Joe Chapman said.
The bench warrant was not acted on until early Monday morning, when King showed up to drive his brother's car.
Chapman said he hoped that King would be bonded out in Athens and the matter handled there. But if not he was prepared to send a deputy to the Clarke County jail to pick up King.
UPDATE: Caleb King posted bond at 10:45 a.m., according to the Clarke County jail web site. Brandon King posted bond three minutes later.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
26 comments:
I'm surprised he was able to pick up his brother since I'm sure Caleb had a mensa meeting to make it to.
I really don't understand how some of our guys keep making bonehead decisions like this (or indecisions). If you can't afford the ticket, at least go to a coach, tell them what's going on, and I'm sure they will help get it paid and you can pay them back.
On a side note, as someone who grew up in Athens and Oconee, the 55mph on 78 is BS. Such a speed trap, they love to sit up in the trees and nail you. If the Athens bypass is 65mph and has more curves and narrower lanes, there is no reason that 78, which is much straighter, can't be 65 as well. Other than the fact that they love the revenue off tickets. However, I'm not dismissing the fact that you either pay the fine or show up in court like you're supposed to and plead your case.
The incidents really are getting out of hand, but I wouldn't say it's Richt's fault. These guys are responsible for their own actions. I had many indiscretions in my high school and college days, and never once would I say it's my parents, friends, or coaches fault. Unfortunately, we have a group of kids that are making some bad decisions, but that burden lies on them, not Richt.
Anon 10:50 -
Generally, if you can't pay a ticket, you can at least (a) go to court and plead not guilty to buy more time or (b) plead guilty at court and they will put you on a payment plan. Option (b) costs more, but at least you don't get arrested.
I've known good people that forgot to pay a speeding ticket. I don't see the big deal.
PTC -
This situation, standing alone, is not a big deal. You're 100% right.
This situation, when added to the 10 other arrests since March, IS a big deal for the team/UGA. It's inexcusable because I KNOW that Richt has talked to the players about getting their licenses fixed and actually going to court for traffic tickets. Rennie Curran did the same stupid thing last year.
"ye who is without sin may cast the first stone"
"If you can't afford the ticket, at least go to a coach, tell them what's going on, and I'm sure they will help get it paid and you can pay them back."
Nope, that's an NCAA violation. I'm not being snarky, either--it really is.
Tickets aren't that big of a deal. Sort of like an offsides penalty. But if you have 20 freaking offsides penalties in a game, there's something wrong. And if the coach tells the team, the next one to jump offsides their ass is mine and the team continues to jump offsides then you have a coaching/leadership problem. They don't care. This is a true test for Mark Richt because Caleb is important to our success. But enough is enough with the arrests.
Richt would not talk with ealey after his arrest. Let's see how long it takes Richt to talk to King.
Three ideas:
1) instead of having alumni "donations" to the school, create a separate account labeled "bail for the bulldawgs", which in turn allows us to keep the Dawgs in and out of jail much more efficiently
2) On East Campus by the athletes dorm, open up a DMV office for the team so that they can get their drivers license and pay fines quicker, since it seems that they just cant make the 10 mile trek to the DMV on the other side town and never cared that normal adults learn to drive at 15/16 and take care of citations when told to.
3) Lastly, instead of giving the players all that excess scholarship money up front to go buy booze, cars, and useless stuff, have the a person associated with the team disburse a fixed amount per month to the players. This way they won't burn through ALL OF THE MONEY and have a way to pay their fines when, not if, they get arrested.
Sounds like Coach Richt and UGA didn't know about Caleb's ticket. He got it months ago. Isn't it a prerequisite for graduation that you get a speeding ticket on 78 in Walton County?
What were they all doing out and about at 3 and 4 in the morning? We were all passed out by then when I was in school. Except we didn't pull stuff like before class.
At least nobody was driving a Prius.
Easy Bulldog Nation. I think this arrest highlights the issue.
"According to Athens Clarke County Police spokesperson Hilda Sorrow, King's arrest came after his brother Branden, 23, was arrested for driving without a working tag light.
Caleb King was not with his brother, but later came along with teammate Brandon Wood to pick up the car. After police checked their licenses, it was discovered that King did not have a valid license due to the outstanding warrant issued in Walton County on Aug. 9."
Who has ever been arrested for a tag light? When i was in Athens, I had several friends who visited me get thrown in jail for something stupid. the law has always been uber strict in CC. I think the police department is overly strict and the result are these BS arrests. I have been cited for an expired license before and didn't get arrested. Ridiculous. Go Dawgs.
To Anon @ 11:15: What kind of pointless Christo-babble are you talking about? We've all sinned. But we haven't all gotten speeding tickets and then failed to appear in court or pay the fine!
So, I think there plenty of folks who could pelt Caleb with paper-stones and criticism for either (a) being a bonehead or (b) thinking he doesn't have to comply with the law because he's a football player. It comes down to one of those two, and I'm not sure which one is worse...
Why did the cop run a license check on Caleb & Brandon.
I wouldn't live in that podunk county if it was the last one on earth.
I also suspect 90% of the speeding tickets are given in VIOLATION of standards set by the state and federal government as they relate to line of sight - % of grade etc.
Bunch of good ole boy redneck cops running wild in and around these whistle stop towns.
and we wonder why this team at 2-4 has underachieved?
Kick him off the team, what he did by itself is not that bad but knowing all the trouble others on the team have gotten into over traffic violations he should know better. This will lead to a couple of things. One then Ken Malcome(sp?) will have his redshirt taken off of him so that he can backup Ealey this year and be ready to compete for the position next year. Also with one less player on the depth chart ahead to compete with it will give Isiah Crowell another reason to come to UGA next year. It sucks for King but with the way Richt acted after the incident with the freshman LB who was arrested the night of the Miss St. game it would not be a stretch to say that the players knew what the result of any new problems would be.
Some random thoughts:
You have to wonder what percentage of Georgia residents must be driving around with suspended licenses if our football team is representative of the populace...
Since there apparently are a lot of ways to have your license suspended, it would appear there is an opportunity for someone to start a business searching county databases and advising those who always are surprised to find out they are in that circumstance
I travel through Walton County to/from Athens 20-25 times a year from Conyers, and there does seem to be an abnormally high number of cars pulled over in that 25-mile stretch between Monroe and Athens - and while the 55MPH limit (versus the Athens Bypass) is I'm sure driven by the lack of limited access, the highway will lure you to sleep if you don't use cruise control
Someone mentioned they knew "good people" who had overlooked paying speeding tickets - not sure I can buy that - being involved in a traffic stop, whether its ends with ticket, warning or nothing, is not something the average person easily forgets - should be a surprise and eye-opener, and make the average "good" person a better driver, citizen, and if they are of limited means, worry incessantly about how to pay the ticket until its behind them
I've wondered for months now about how we recruit the same players as UF, FSU, UT, Bama, AU, SC, Clemson, etc., but we magically get lucky enough be the only school to sign a disproportionate number of bad drivers or players who drink, especially our starters? People offer that other coaches scare players into non-action; I can accept that to a point, but no program can be completely bullet-proof on this, which at times almost seems to be the case. If there is an no-tolerance or other (Adams?) agenda out there, I keep hoping that McGarity may be able to take steps to improve the relationship with our Administration and the local authorities to dispell such thoughts
If we, as supporters of the UGA programs, are as befuddled and frustrated by all of this as is certainly the case, I cannot imagine what the coaches must be going through....with only a few exceptions, our athletes never are quoted as expressing any remorse or taking responsibility for their actions. Case in point - how in the world could a starter (or any player for that matter) not do something about an outstanding traffic situation given all that has transpired with our players in the last 6 months involved in such situations? Yes, Caleb could not have anyone from the university settle the problem financially, but he could have at least stepped up and told his family to see if they could find a solution
I doubt he gets kicked off the team. I'm sure the zero tolerance policy relates to Alcohol/Drug violations and not failure to pay a ticket or appear in court. He may get suspended a game or two, but I'm sure Richt's zero tolerance arrest policy was centered around alcohol. Especialy in light of Damon Evans transgressions.
I agree though. Ken Malcome will probably get his redshirt pulled this weekend against Vandy, or we will see a heavy dose of the undersized gnat like Thomas and fumble prone Ealey.
I thought the UGA admin was actively monitoring the driving records of all of their players. They knew Ealey wasn't supposed to drive. I guess they didn't know King had a warrant though.
Shouldn't UGA have a policy that all traffic violations be paid or be reported? I know that this sounds like overkill, but with all of the petty traffic violation arrests, we have to do something to prevent this.
I agree with dawgfan17. Kick King off the team and this will help us get Crowell.
King told the coaching staff about this. he got a speeding ticket and he followed protocol and someone dropped the ball. He was told it was taken care of.
Shocking, the coaching staff messed up.
Seth, Can you ask other reporters in other SEC college towns how this stuff is handled by other coaching staffs? The SAT scores for LSU and Auburn are lower than our students and I would assume for football players.
"King told the coaching staff about this. he got a speeding ticket and he followed protocol and someone dropped the ball. He was told it was taken care of.
Shocking, the coaching staff messed up"
Where did you get this information? The coaching staff can check on things but they have no influence over the law and cannot pay the ticket for him. Your statement does not add up to me. However in light of everything that has happened maybe the football team should require that all football player turn in a DMV record before reporting to summer camp. Then all outstanding tickets etc. they must show proof they have been taken care of. After that point any player that hides/fails to report etc. any problem of that nature will know how important it is and is putting his scholarship at risk. I have defended Richt and the staff as not being able to keep up with every little detail of what is happening with the time limit they have with the players but obviously traffic violations/failure to appear in court is a major issue and so should be dealth with in a way that shows the players that enough is enough. It is easy to look back at what has gone on this season and realize that the talent is there, the coaching is actually better than what most people give it credit for but the focus of the team has not been there throughout and a lot of that can be traced to off field issues (arrests/suspensions/talk about Richt's job). 18-22 year old college students have enough distractions, add to that all the extra distractions they have had and you get a formula for a 1-4 start.
I just want to be bejillionth poster to concur that that area, especially Between, is a speed trap. I once had a radio stolen out of a car on the Loganville side of Walton County and was told by the deputy who showed up 2 hours later that they only have three deputies on duty at night, one around Monroe, one around Loganville and one around Social Circle. But they have plenty of time for speed traps.
I don't want to act like this isn't anything but come on guys! Is this really that big a deal? A little stupid considering all the players that have gotten into trouble over almost the same thing but this really isn't anything bad. This by no means makes Caleb a thug. If so many players weren't arrested for this before him it wouldn't even be a story at all.
Like a few other people have said the zero tolerance rule is more about drugs and alcohol. I will be extremely disappointed if he gets kicked off the team for something like this. This is kings future were talking about here! You guys think it will help with getting crowell???? It won't! Also like I said this is kings life! He's an actual person guys! He is a victim of bad timing.
If this happened to a friend of yours you were going to school with would you be saying he should get kicked out of the dorm, he's stupid? We can't hold every player to standards that do not allow them to make any mistakes at all.
Nobody is perfect and while with everything going on I think king should of had better judgement here this by no means tells us that king is a bad kid. This is a small mistake and king will be a victim of timing here. Again like I said this is his life and he's a real person. I don't want to hear any of this" kick him off the team it will help us get crowell" crap!
Coach Richt has ALREADY
FORGIVEN
Caleb King.
"I can’t say that it’s some kind of awful act that we all should just be ashamed of,” Richt said.
"If they have a ticket, they need to pay it. If they don’t, they need to show up to their court date. Those things are certainly obvious, and we have got to get better at those kinds of things,” Richt said.
WEAK Coach Richt, DAMN weak son. And, I see your players AGAIN are reporting to the press that which you do not AGAIN Coach Richt, that you allowed Caleb King to PRACTICE tonight, having spent all morning in
JAIL.
This is just lovely. 2-4 and ARREST Number 11 since March 7.
Post a Comment