UGA WR Jeremiah Holloman No Longer with Team After Assault Allegations Arise
ATHENS - UGA will be without one of its rising stars this fall.
Jeremiah Holloman, the Bulldogs’ leading returning receiver, is no longer with the team according to team sources. The news was later confirmed by a statement by UGA.
Holloman’s exit from the team stems from an incident from more than a year ago on April 22, 2018, in the early morning following Georgia’s annual G-Day game. The incident accuses Holloman of two crimes—aggravated assault and battery, though he has not been charged with either at this time. Although the event happened more than a year ago, the accuser filed a report for the first time on June 2, 2019.
UGA coach Kirby Smart said the following in a release to Dawg Post:
“Jeremiah Holloman no longer represents the University of Georgia football program. We expect every member of our team to uphold the highest standards and values of the University of Georgia and Georgia football. It is disappointing when this does not happen.”
In the police reports, which were acquired by Dawg Post via an open records request, Holloman admitted in a written statement to investigators that he struck his girlfriend of the time in the face above her right eye. In an interview with the police, Holloman said that it had occurred in his dorm room at Rooker Hall with only Holloman, his brother Lafeayatte Jr. Holloman and the accuser at home through the night. After suffering the injury, the victim “lounged around” the dorm, according to Holloman, before going to receive medical attention on the wound.
After leaving Holloman’s dorm, the woman went to Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital at 5:34 a.m., according to the report. There, she received six stitches on the wound above her eye. When doctors asked though, she at the time told them that she sustained the injuries from falling in the shower, not from Holloman. According to one of the reporting officers, the scar from the cut on her eyebrow “was still visible when I met with [the victim],” more than a year later.
The accusations from the woman in the police report go far beyond one strike to the face, however. The accuser says that she was left with a concussion as a result of the incident. The police report states that Holloman allegedly choked her and that she “couldn’t breathe and felt like she was going to die.” The report goes on to say: “Johnson advised that she even tried to mouth to (Holloman) that she couldn’t breathe, and he told her ‘I don’t care.’”
Holloman, however, told police that the choking took place during sex that happened earlier that night, and that the accuser hit him on numerous occasions, including punches to the face as she stood over him.
After returning to Atlanta, the accuser (who is a Division I athlete), returned to her campus where she was examined by the school’s physicians, who determined she suffered a concussion.
The police report states that the accuser produced five photos taken at the date of the incident inside the room of Holloman where her “face appeared to be flushed, her eyes red, her right eye was swollen and almost closed.”
The report goes on to say that the accuser “did not want to pursue an investigation for this incident.” Still, UGAPD “decided to look further into this incident as a safety measure to try and prevent others from possibly being victims of violence at the hands of (Holloman).”
Police also accuse Holloman of changing his story regarding the event. At first, he said that his ex-girlfriend had sustained the injury to her face after he “pushed her real hard,” according to the police report. But later in the interview, Holloman said that one hand “might have slipped up and hit her in the face.” The officer then asked Holloman to show him the way he pushed her off of him. While Holloman demonstrated, the officer clarified that the slip of the hand was more of a strike, to which Holloman said yes.
For nearly a year, the incident was kept low-key by both parties. Holloman did not say if he had discussed it with anyone outside of those present at the event. The accuser said she only confided the event to her best friend. According to the report, only recently she divulged the secrets to her sister’s boyfriend, a police officer with the Atlanta Police Department.
On June 1, one day before she went to the University of Georgia Police, the victim talked to her sister’s boyfriend and her sister, who then told her mom. They all agreed that she should bring file a report with UGAPD.
The loss is a significant one. After losing guys like Riley Ridley, Mecole Hardman and Terry Godwin, Holloman was expected to become Georgia’s go-to receiver this fall. Holloman had emerged as one of the top playmakers for the Bulldogs. Now the Bulldogs not only lose his playmaking ability, but they drop to only 10 receivers on scholarship for 2019. Georgia’s newcomers will be forced to fill the void left by Holloman, who ended 2018 with 24 catches for 418 yards and five touchdowns.