Back in January, the college football world was shocked by the news that Georgia offensive tackle Devin Willock, and Georgia football staffer Chandler LeCroy had passed away in a car accident.
Willock was a redshirt sophomore who played in every game in 2022, and LeCroy was only 24-years-old.
As more details were released about the accident, it was learned that they were reportedly street racing with star defensive lineman Jalen Carter, who was a potential first round draft pick.
He reportedly left the scene, and then came back.
An arrest warrant was issued for Carter for reckless driving and racing, and he turned himself in. After spending 16 minutes in jail, he was released on a $4,000 bond.
However, Carter agreed to plead no contest to the two misdemeanors, which resulted in one year probation, and he had to pay a fine of $1,000, along with completing 80 hours of community service. He also had to partake in a defensive driving course.
His attorney Kim Stephens said in a statement:
“With entry of his plea, the State is forever barred from bringing any additional charges against Jalen Carter for conduct alleged to have occurred on January 15, 2023.”
Stephens also denied that Carter caused the wreck, saying he:
“Stopped his car immediately after the accident occurred and ran toward the wrecked vehicle while his passenger called 911.
Even after being informed that he could leave, Mr. Carter returned to the scene at the request of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to answer additional questions and continued to cooperate throughout the investigation.”
With that being said, it appears that the incident is not officially over for Carter, as he’s now reportedly being sued by Georgia football staffer Victoria Bowles, who was a survivor of the accident.
According to ESPN, Bowles is also suing the UGA athletic association of negligence and contradicts public statements from head coach Kirby Smart and other officials who have said that LeCroy shouldn’t have been driving the leased SUV when it wrecked.
The lawsuit says:
“On the evening of the Championship Celebration, LeCroy told Ms. Bowles that she had ‘permission’ to keep the SUV ‘until tomorrow.’ Numerous text messages from recruiting staff supervisors to LeCroy, Ms. Bowles and other staff members show the Association’s statement is false.
Recruiting staff were regularly informed they could leave their personal vehicles overnight at the Butts-Mehre football facility and permissively use Association rental vehicles through a specified cut-off date and time, unrelated to their assigned recruiting activity duties.
The UGA Athletic Association would have reasonably concluded that LeCroy regularly drove at extreme speeds when law enforcement was not present. While LeCroy may have been legally intoxicated, the proximate cause of the crash was street racing and extreme speed.
The Association’s negligent entrustment of the large rental SUV to LeCroy, with knowledge that she was a reckless and habitual speeder, concurs with LeCroy’s primary negligence-traveling 104.2 mph.”
She is also suing Carter for leaving the scene without speaking to law enforcement, and failing to render aid.
The lawsuit claims that another UGA football player at the scene told him he “get the f*ck on,” due to the situation potentially hurting his draft status:
“Despite LeCroy’s passenger, stating to him that he could not locate Devin Willock, Defendant Carter left the scene after less than 10 minutes when another UGA football player at the scene yelled at him: ‘Yo…hey, JC…you might want to go ahead and go get the f— on yo….’
As Defendant Carter was aware at the time, he was jointly responsible for the crash, and had a legal duty to remain on the scene. Instead, in part obviously fearful of bad publicity and the effect on his NFL draft status, he hoped not to be questioned or take any responsibility for his actions.”
Carter was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.
