A Georgia player finds himself both in hot water and, likely, on thin ice after an arrest earlier this week. Redshirt sophomore safety Latavious Brini was taken into custody on February 28 and charged with simple battery. The news was first reported on Twitter by Seth Emerson of The Atheltic.

He was booked into the Athens-Clarke County jail at 8:18 p.m. by the Clarke County Sheriff's Office. He was released on $1,850 bond at 10:19 p.m.

Simple battery is defined by LegalMatch.com as "the unlawful use of force" to the body of another person. It can result in physical harm to the other person or include "offensive touching."

It's not Brini's first run-in with the law although previous charges against him were dropped. His first experience with Athens-Clark County law enforcement came shortly after his freshman season in 2017. He was alleged to have produced a counterfeit $100 bill at Pet Supplies Plus but those charges were later dropped because of what his lawyer, Mark Wiggens, termed a case of mistaken identity.

The Mater Academy Charter (Hialeah, Fla.) product was a signing-day addition to Georgia's 2017 class and redshirted in his first season at UGA. He appeared in five games as a sophomore and registered just one tackle. He also traveled with the Bulldogs to the Florida and Kentucky games in 2018 but only appeared in the latter.

This time a year ago, Kirby Smart was looking for Brini and fellow safety Tray Bishop, who also redshirted in 2017, to take the next step and provide depth at the position.

"Our depth at safety is a very serious concern," Smart said while discussing Bishop and Brini. "They are part of that depth. They’re not ready to play yet. I don’t necessarily think they should be ready to play but they should be on their way because where they were unique last year, you didn’t see them play but they took a ton of reps in practice. The growth hasn’t been what I want to see out of he and Brini. So I challenge them every day, ‘are you going to get where we can trust you to put you in the game? Because you are one play away,” and we’re not where we need to be there.”

Instead of becoming a bigger part of Georgia's defensive plans in 2018, Brini was essentially passed by a pair of true freshmen in Otis Reese and Christopher Smith. Reese started one game in his freshman season while Smith ended up as one of the top four options at the position and saw a large portion of the mop-up duty.

Bishop, who was arrested last summer for filming a sexual act without the other party's permission, is not currently enrolled in school and his name was in the NCAA's Student-Athlete transfer portal in January. Deangelo Gibbs, also a 2017 signee, has also transferred from the program and is currently enrolled at Tennessee.