Georgia wide receiver Rara Thomas was arrested Friday morning and charged with one count of cruelty to children, which is a felony, and two counts of battery, both of which are misdemeanors. All of the charges carry a “family violence” tag.

Thomas was booked at Athens-Clarke County Jail at 3:20 a.m. Friday. He still was awaiting bond as of mid-morning Friday.

This is not the first time Thomas has been arrested on a family-violence charge during his time at Georgia. In January 2023, just after arriving from Mississippi State, Thomas was arrested on a misdemeanor count of family violence and a felony count of false imprisonment. Both of those charges eventually were dropped, with Thomas entering a pretrial diversion program. He also was required to complete anger-management work and community service as part of his deal.

Thomas played in 11 games for Georgia last season, catching 23 passes for 383 yards and three touchdowns. Thomas was not suspended after last year’s arrest. The wide receiver did miss Georgia’s last three games of the 2023 season because of a foot injury. He was expected to be a key contributor for the Bulldogs in the coming season, and possibly a starter for the Bulldogs.

Georgia has not officially commented on Thomas’ status following his arrest. Georgia coach Kirby Smart has preferred not to announce publicly any sort of punishments as far as suspensions.

“We don’t talk about the suspensions. We have them,” Smart said at SEC media days. “I think it’s pretty obvious that we’ve done them in the past. You guys know when we do them. Each of those cases is very different and they’ll be handled in different ways.”

Georgia is set to start preseason camp next week. The Bulldogs open the season against Clemson at noon Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.