According to College Football Talk, Georgia Bulldog running back, Washaun Ealey, was arrested and jailed on a hit-and-run charge last night. He was placed into the custody of Athens-Clarke County law enforcement and is being held in jail on a $3,000 bond.
Ealey was charged with hitting a parked car in a university parking deck and then leaving the scene—Ealey's license was later found to be suspended and the vehicle he was operating did not belong to him.
University police chief, Jimmy Williamson stated that the gold Chevrolet Impala that Ealey was driving was registered to his roommate.
Ealey remains in jail at this time and the natural question for the Georgia Bulldogs is, what now?
This charge is sure to warrant some time off the field and, depending on how Athens law enforcement chooses to handle Ealey's blatant disregard for following procedure, there could be a need to make an example of this behavior.
Ealey was the team's leading rusher last season and there were high expectations that he would be a major part of the running game this year. Georgia no longer has Dontavius Jackson—he transferred in order to gain more playing time.
That means the depth chart for Georgia includes only Caleb King, Carlton Thomas, and Ken Malcome—King being the only player with on-field success.
That said, there was some indication that Caleb King was going to be the No. 1 tailback at the end of summer practice. Mark Richt stated that both running backs were doing well, but he was more impressed with King's pass-blocking ability. Ealey was lagging behind a bit in that area and, as is well known, the Bulldogs want to be sure that Aaron Murray has all the protection he needs this season.
Either way, this is not good news for Mark Richt as his team was finally gaining some positive momentum heading into the first week of the season and seemed to finally have recovered from the mishaps and disappointments that surrounded the team earlier in the summer.
More info as it becomes available, but, just as a side note, my mama always told me to never let anyone drive my car unless I knew for sure that they 1) had a license, and 2) were able to tell me where they were going when they left—there was no open policy where car-borrowing was concerned.
Of course I know that not everyone subscribes to that ideal, but, it does make you wonder if Ealey's roommate knew that he was without a license before he allowed him to drive his car and, if he did, the natural question would have to be...why?
(UPDATED 1:45 PM): According to Tim Tucker of the AJ-C:
Ealey, 21, was booked into the jail at 5:22 a.m. and released at 11:18 a.m. on bonds totaling $3,480.
In addition to $1,500 bond on each of today’s two misdemeanor charges, Ealey was required to post another $480 bond because of an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in July in Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court on speeding and vehicle registration charges. A bonding company posted Ealey’s bonds (it was Ealey's failure to appear for said earlier violation, that triggered the suspension of his drivers license).(UPDATED 4:55 PM):
...jail records show the first charge against Ealey as hit-and-run of a parked vehicle, Williamson said the charge technically will be violation of the “duty-upon-strike” law. The law, Williamson said, is that “you have a responsibility when you hit another car to report it, same as if you hit a fence you have a responsibility to report it. . . . You can’t drive off.”
Williamson said officers determined that alcohol was not involved in the incident. No one was injured. (Tim Tucker, AJ-C)
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