UGA aware of accusations in Columbus that could affect eligibility of Jarvis Jones, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
A police investigation in Columbus has uncovered alleged illegal activity in the parks and recreation department there that may or may not affect the eligibility of Georgia football player Jarvis Jones and basketball signee Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Sunday that an unauthorized bank account controlled by the parks director and one of his associates was used to pay for flights to and from Los Angeles for Jones while he was playing football for Southern Cal, and for the cell phone bill of Caldwell-Pope’s mother. Both Jones and Caldwell-Pope played AAU basketball for the Georgia Blazers, a “city-funded, Nike-sponsored” group overseen by parks director Tony Adams and Herman Porter.
Adams allegedly used the team’s credit card to pay for four flights for Jones to or from Los Angeles worth a total of $828 from June to October of 2009, according to the police investigation. Also, police allege Porter paid the $280 Verizon phone bill of Rhonda Caldwell in July of 2009 with some of the money coming out of the team’s account.
Eric Baumgartner, Georgia’s compliance director, told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I have not received or heard of anything” from the NCAA regarding the matter.
Reached Sunday, athletic association spokesman Claude Felton told the AJC, “We are aware of it and will do our due diligence in looking into the matter.”
Jones, a sophomore linebacker out of Carver High, transferred to UGA last year and is slated to start at outside linebacker this season. Caldwell-Pope, a five-star shooting guard, signed with the Bulldogs out of Greenville High last November and is scheduled to enroll at UGA this summer.
Whether or not this activity would affect either players’ eligibility at UGA is unclear. The newspaper cited a similar case with a Baylor basketball this past spring. Forward Perry Jones was declared ineligible after an investigation determined that, while he was in high school, an AAU coach provided his mother with three 15-day loans that did not total more than $1,000 and paid for the player to travel to a preseason pro football game in San Diego, which cost $4,100. Perry Jones was suspended from Baylor’s first-round Big 12 tournament game the first five games of the 2011-2012 season.
CLICK HERE to read the full report from the Ledger-Enquirer. Check back for further developments.
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281 comments Add your comment
Stinger2
June 27th, 2011
3:57 am
After reading this blog and the responses, I see this as nothing.
I know…its a slow time for college football news.
More importantly, after reading the story about the Richt`s trip to Honduras, I believe it tells the real story about your Coach. UGA fans should rejoice that you have a man like this.
1962 Dawg
June 27th, 2011
4:23 am
Stinger2
I for one am extremely proud of our Coach and what he stands for.
As far as the Jarvis Jones situation, if taking a free trip to USC, shouldn’t this be a problem for USC instead of UGA?
I for one see no problem.
David Hoffman
June 27th, 2011
5:49 am
The phone bill payment seems to be the most serious violation. Unless they can prove it had something to do with supporting the entire city athletic program, that is going to be some form of misappropriation or embezzlement of funds. The round trips are curious. They may have had legitimate athletic program supporting features. $828/4=$207. $207 for a round trip is a low fare.
AlphaTiger
June 27th, 2011
6:22 am
Wow, sounds eerily similar to Cam Newton not knowing what his dad had done with Miss State while he was attending a completely different school. UGA should not be in trouble, just like Auburn in Cam’s case.
JKemp
June 27th, 2011
6:34 am
What are the player’s GPA’s? When are they planning to graduate?
AAU curious
June 27th, 2011
6:50 am
Don’t punish the kids check the adults, does Tony Adams and Herman Porter still coach AAU.
Bulldawg78
June 27th, 2011
6:58 am
This sounds like a set-up by other jealous SEC schools.
ace
June 27th, 2011
7:05 am
UGA pays the players, the bank tellers know. One day they will get burned.
GT
June 27th, 2011
7:06 am
Wasn’t it a Columbus crowd that rifled a few things out of the player’s lockers while being recruited by Georgia this year? Seems there is a lifesytle going on down there that requires a lot of money. But you know something I am starting not to care. As long as the kid has no physical enhancement on the field and is around the right age lets play some football. There is cheating like baseball and then there is cheating like college football. In this day and time none of them could qualify for the particular college they are playing for anyway. The colleges have gotten harder to get into and the players dumber if that is possible. What is a few bucks in this atmosphere. This paper should that the 1990 high school All American team and show what they are doing now. You talk about a front loaded life most of these kids live. This is all most of them will ever have even with the big pro contracts a few get. 80% of those guys are broke in 10 years. . .
JB
June 27th, 2011
7:15 am
Slow news day. This was two years ago and UGA was nowhere around. Now, the NCAA may go after Jarvis Jones but UGA has done nothing wrong. I hate it for Jarvis. Someone just trying to help him. Maybe USC got wind of this and pushed up the divorce between them, who knows. Georgia or any booster had anything to do with this.
KJ
June 27th, 2011
7:25 am
LOL…doesn’t matter if UGA had anything to do with it or not…they’re UGA’s program…just some more high character players that come to play at UGA…it’s no surprise that when CMR was at FSU they were known as the criminoles and he has brought that same tradition to UGA…argue if you want but the facts are the facts and it’s just one after another for this program, hell they should just make UGA part of the criminal justice system
12 CRIMINAL CHARGES, 6 wins, 7 LOSSES
June 27th, 2011
7:41 am
More questionable activity from a shady program.
collegeballfan
June 27th, 2011
7:50 am
“Well the University of Georgia has absolutely nothing to do with this so no idiot should come in here trying to tie UGA to this situation.”
Correct. This is entirely the players, not the university. But the university may need to hand out some suspensions without NCAA involvement just to show they are in charge of the situation.
Jay
June 27th, 2011
7:51 am
Looks like the big dawgs are being eaten. As they say, every dawg has his day. Beyond these two “people,” anybody else surprised about the coach’s having a$2 million lake house, as University System students are asked to pay higher tuition?
commonsense
June 27th, 2011
7:54 am
Doesn’t matter if UGA was involved or not. If the player is ruled ineligible, he still can’t play for UGA while he’s suspended.
Given the precedent of the Jones case, you can just about count on at least a 5-game suspension coming down for the basketball player and at least a couple of games for the football player.
JackDennis
June 27th, 2011
7:57 am
downward spiral. Bwahahahaha
Long Time Dawg Fan
June 27th, 2011
8:02 am
I agree with Red. It seems this program continuously attracks players of suspect character. I realize that we must obtain the best talent available in order to compete. However, looking at the 5 Star Athletes of the past 5 years, we haven’t accomplished a great deal in doing so. The list is long with 5 Star wrong doers and seems to be growing. I am beginning to wonder about the coaching ability of this staff. If we have to recruit 5 star athletes in order to compete or win where does coaching come in. There are teams in the Top 10 that don’t have many (if any) 5 Star athletes. Maybe those coaches actually know how to coach. Also, a comment on recruiting, are we evaluating the committment and heart of the player as much as the talent??
As much as I hate to say it, this is really beginning to look a lot like the Florida State teams of the ’90’s. As long as the kids continue to be treated like Hall of Famers in High School this will be an issue.
hobby
June 27th, 2011
8:09 am
Dawgs could have had A J Johnson…all they had to do was ask him….
The Mark Richt farewell tour
June 27th, 2011
8:18 am
haha typical reactions from dumb redneck uga fans. any other college school all you dumb rednecks be jumping all over it.
Paddy
June 27th, 2011
8:20 am
If anything this should be an investagation again of USC. UGA was not in the picture and seems to have no involvement. Maybe further reports will give us a better idea as to this revelation. Don’t know about the basketball players momma? That could be another story, but who knows!
Chong Li
June 27th, 2011
8:25 am
When in Rome
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2011
8:32 am
Long list of 5-star wrongdoings? Such as?
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2011
8:36 am
As far as recruiting evaluation, I can’t imagine a kid that was more well thought of, from a great family, and more committed to coming to Georgia, than AJ green. (who is really the only 5-star recruit I can name that ever got into any kind of trouble)
Gainesville Dawg
June 27th, 2011
8:38 am
Chip, you must stay up nights trying to connect anything to UGA. “Might or Might Not……” Yes, it is almost July, time for AJC attacks on UGA.
gcs
June 27th, 2011
8:50 am
Columbus-Carver, you say? Isn’t there a particular overhyped running back from that part of the world at UGA? You better hope he doesn’t play AAU basketball.
.
JB
June 27th, 2011
8:50 am
Jay on here must be a Democrat coming from the school of if he can’t have a lake house, nobody should…or better yet, Obama ought to insure everyone has a lake house…..Geez.
JB
June 27th, 2011
8:54 am
Long time Dawg fan at 8:02……..RE: attracting certain players…..no, the answer is all these schools pull from the same pool. The difference is they don’t have a big city Liberal newspaper pointing out every sneeze UGA makes….In fact , just the opposite……every fish wrapper in Bama looks the other way.
Laugh if you want, but that is pretty dang close to the truth.
Tim Hired
June 27th, 2011
8:55 am
The momentum of the downward spiral continues. An O-lineman and now JJ. We just can’t catch a break!
cALEB THE kING
June 27th, 2011
8:57 am
Beware of Columbus. That’s a dirty town.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 27th, 2011
8:58 am
A lot of these comments are typical of UGA haters that come onto these blogs and then accuse supporters of everything under the sun. Can you people not read? The football player might be, might be, involved in some shady activity involving trips to Los Angeles. Now haters, where exactly is USC located? I don’t care who you are, a college staff is not going to be able to control the actions of some AAU club, or an individual within that club if they do something illegal. Do you even know how the NCAA found out about it? Did it get revealed because some other member of the AAU club has a dislike of the individual? Did this AAU club report it upon an internal audit? Did the individual do this for a lot more athletes? In any case, I would believe it would be darn hard for a college, to have any knowledge of something that happened when this kid was in high school, over 2 years ago.
Now, when you folks tart showing some maturity, you will see how stupid your remarks truly look. I can’t see any reason to respond to such stupidity in the future. Get a summer job cutting grass or something you are suited for and if you are actually an adult, and typing this crap; You need help with some issues.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 27th, 2011
9:00 am
Correction.
Tart=start, for all of you grammatically expert typist on here.
Golf Ray
June 27th, 2011
9:02 am
4X to and from L.A. for 800 bucks? Get me the name of the travel agent the Park and Rec uses.
JB
June 27th, 2011
9:03 am
It’s mostly under employed Tech Nerds working from home ( parents) in a yellow wig, in the basement, wearing spock ears, picking their nose, looking at their faded Farah Fawcett poster wondering if they need to go to the store and buy more coco puffs and milk. That’s the haters on here Mr. It ain’t rocket science.
The son of a preacher man
June 27th, 2011
9:13 am
The Columbus Ledger Auburn beat writer has enough to keep him busy with the NCAA investigations going on with his team, that he shouldn’t have enough time to dig up erronious findings at a rival SEC school.
CynicDawg
June 27th, 2011
9:15 am
Kentavious? Really? Even I want to slap his mom.
DC
June 27th, 2011
9:19 am
Im confused…is this article about UGA or AU? You UGA fans pass off all issues onto AU b/c you can’t face the issue at hand. Guess what UGA fans? Cam is gone. Guess what UGA fans? Nick Fairley is gone…you can’t blame him for this issue…
Heck its not like UGA is to even blame for this..they recruited knucklehead kids..they don’t know their past…
PS no money changed hands…
It is what it is
June 27th, 2011
9:19 am
No story here as usual folks. AJC and it’s tabloid headlines.. slow news day again.
DC
June 27th, 2011
9:25 am
It is a story…for the simple fact that the kids will probably have to sit games..thats why its an issue…
observer
June 27th, 2011
9:31 am
Just the beginning! The UGA house of cards will crumble before Boise State gets here.
just sayin'
June 27th, 2011
9:32 am
JB,
A little jealous are you? I bet you didn’t even go to college.
partisay
June 27th, 2011
9:35 am
JB…You convienently left out “2 million” out of your lake house comment regarding Jay’s post. His point is how can he afford a 2 million dollar lake house? Yet you want to turn it around somehow and insert Obama into it? I missed the part where he stated, or insinuated, that if he can’t have a lake house, nobody should. Talk about reading things into what people post! Oh, and i love how it’s a “liberal” newspaper that is causing all of UGA’s problems. That’s it! It’s all the liberals fault! Pathetic.
This is a sports blog. If you want to bash Obama, go over and continue kissing Wooten’s butt.
K from Da Wood
June 27th, 2011
9:35 am
These guys aren’t just AAU coaches. The scandal had more to do YBOA than AAU. The gentleman that ran the YBOAGA was involved as well. There were separate accounts, money being redirected from tournaments, and all kinds of thing that give this summer basketball a bad name. All those who aren’t familiar with these details and especially the summer basketball circuit should stop commenting. We have somehow turned all summer basketball activities into AAU and that is just a generalization. Most of the events and teams on participate in select events and a majority of the events have no affiliation with any organization. Please be careful with the generalities! This still should not be NCAA business, IMO!
BIG JOE
June 27th, 2011
9:37 am
Yeah, just follow Cam’s lead & say ‘I don’t know anything about it’. Worked for him.
partisay
June 27th, 2011
9:41 am
The Knoxville News Sentinel is about as conservative as it can get, as is all of east Tennessee. They report on ANY sneeze the University of Tennessee athletics does. Yet JB wants to blame the AJC? So JB, how is it that such a conservative newspaper would report on EVERYTHING going on at UT athletics? It’s called reporting. And it’s called how pathetic and partisan your argument of blaming the AJC for things going on in U of G athletics. JB – Just Babble
Reagan
June 27th, 2011
9:43 am
partisay
I agree that polotics should be left out of the sprots blog. Obama is a liar though
Fred Sanford
June 27th, 2011
9:48 am
Hey partisay, I want to know where the heck my moneys is at. I voted for him because I was supossed to get some checks in the mail, but they ain’t come yet. You tell that sucka that he ain’t getten my vote next time he run.
partisay
June 27th, 2011
9:49 am
Yeah…but not as big a liar than Ronald “I can’t recall” Reagan. And of course he’s a liar, he’s a politician!!
bitter lead georgia football recruiter
June 27th, 2011
9:50 am
alot of aau/personnel high school coach’s on usc and all-burn pay-rolls—————
——————-lay down with a down dog with flies and end up with flies——————-
————————–NCAA has been turning its back on pay for play for to long————-
————————————-death penalty coming for ALL-BURN——real soon
——————the dead oak trees dont count allburn will loose much more———crystal ball
——————————hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah———war crows stink
aprilglaspie
June 27th, 2011
9:51 am
How in God’s name was this a police matter? There aren’t real crimes to investigate in Columbus?
K from Da Wood
June 27th, 2011
10:01 am
@aprilglaspie There was some real large sums of money being stolen. Like $200-$300k or more from the Columbus Parks & Rec!