Georgia quarterback Zach Mettenberger's abrupt dismissal from the team earlier this month drew some head-scratching. The redshirt freshman had been allowed to continue practicing with the team following an arrest for underage consumption over spring break, despite earning a one-game suspension for his transgressions, and had earned positive reviews for his performance in the Dawgs' spring game just the day before. The sense around the campfire has been that there had to be more to the story, and here it is: Mettenberger pled guilty this afternoon to two counts of sexual battery he apparently racked up in the same incident. What does this mean, exactly?
“The sexual battery counts were the result of Mettenberger grabbing the breasts and touching the buttocks of the victim,” [Southern Judicial Circuit district attorney] Miller said in an e-mail to the AJC.
According to the district attorney, Mettenberger “was sentenced to two concurrent 12-month periods of probation under the First Offender act, is to pay $35 per month for a probation supervision fee, pay a fine of $1,000 on each count, must consent to searches of his person, vehicle and premises at any time by any law enforcement officer without a search warrant and without probable cause and must not object to any item seized during any such search from being admitted into evidence in any court proceeding, must not drink any alcoholic beverage, nor be at any place where alcoholic beverages are sold, is banished from the city of Valdosta and must have no contact, direct or indirect, with the victim in the case.”
Being kicked off the team is bad enough, but banished from Valdosta? That's just mean-spirited, y'all.
For more on this story which is apparently never, ever going away, please patronize SBN's fine Dawg Sports.