ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia guard Billy Humphrey was suspended
for three games Thursday after being arrested for underage
drinking, his second arrest in less than three months.
The team's second-leading scorer was arrested early Thursday morning, a few hours after
the Bulldogs lost their fourth straight game.
The 20-year-old junior will miss Georgia's game at Florida on
Saturday, as well as home contests next week against South Carolina
and Tennessee.
It was another major blow for a program that has already lost
two key players this season. Takais Brown and Mike Mercer were
kicked off the team by coach Dennis Felton for unspecified
violations of team rules.
"I'm extremely disappointed any time one of our players fails
to live up to being a reliable part of our team and our family,"
Felton said.
Hilda Sorrow, a public information assistant with the Athens-Clarke
County police, said Humphrey was stopped by an officer about 1:30
a.m. Thursday when he failed to obey a crosswalk signal on a busy
downtown street near campus.
"The officer on patrol had to stop for the offender in the
roadway," Sorrow said, reading from the arrest report. "He failed
to obey a pedestrian traffic control device. He had the 'Don't
Walk' sign."
Suspecting Humphrey had been drinking, the officer tested him
with a hand-held alcohol detector before making the arrest, Sorrow
said.
In November, Humphrey was jailed for a felony weapons charge
after campus police discovered a knife while investigating a tip
that marijuana was in his dormitory room.
No drugs were found, but Humphrey told police he had a souvenir
knife from a trip to South America in the room. The player's
attorney, Kim Stephens, said it was nothing more than a "little
butterfly knife," but Humphrey was charged under a state law that
prohibits a blade longer than 2 inches on school property.
Humphrey was suspended for one game, then reinstated to the team
after accepting pretrial diversion that required him to serve 80
hours of community service and stay out of trouble for 18 months.
He also was placed on one year of probation by the school's student
judiciary.
Kim Stephens, Humphrey's attorney, doesn't believe the latest
arrest will result in further legal sanctions in the weapons case.
"I hope that something like this wouldn't result in him being
terminated from those programs," Stephens said. "That would be a
possibility, but I'm 90 percent confident they won't."
Under Georgia athletic association policy, a first
alcohol-related offense calls for a player to be suspended for up
to 10 percent of his team's games.
The police report said Humphrey registered a blood-alcohol
content of 0.03 percent, well below the legal limit of intoxication
for someone 21 or older. But Sorrow said any positive reading was
sufficient for a charge of underage possession and consumption of
alcohol.
Humphrey also was charged with failing to obey a pedestrian
traffic control signal. He was booked into jail, posted a $1,000
bond and released less than two hours later.
Humphrey's arrest came after he scored eight points in a 67-59
loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday night. He is second on the
team in scoring at 13.1 points a game, trailing only
Sundiata Gaines (13.2).