UK Football

Updated: Kentucky football player arrested on DUI, possession of marijuana charge

Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Dekel Crowdus.
Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Dekel Crowdus.

University of Kentucky wide receiver Dekel Crowdus was arrested Sunday on a DUI charge, according to an arrest citation.

Crowdus, 20, was charged with DUI, careless driving and marijuana possession, according to court records. He was booked Sunday morning at the Fayette County Detention Center and has since been released, said Maj. Matt LeMonds, the public information officer at the jail.

Crowdus was pulled over by a UK police officer on Bolivar Street at Plunkett Street after an officer saw Crowdus crossing over lane lines in his vehicle, according to court documents. Crowdus allegedly had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and a smell of alcohol coming from his vehicle during the traffic stop.

Crowdus performed field sobriety tests and showed signs of impairment, court documents say. A search was conducted afterwards, which was when the officer allegedly found that Crowdus had a small amount of marijuana.

Crowdus volunteered to do a breath test at the jail and registered a 0.074 blood alcohol content, according to court documents. The legal limit in Kentucky is 0.08 for drivers who are 21 or older, but it’s 0.02 for drivers under the legal drinking age. Crowdus declined to do a blood and drug recognition test. The officer who filled out Crowdus’ arrest citation indicated that Crowdus showed signs of marijuana use.

UK Athletics spokesperson Susan Lax told WKYT the program was aware of the issue and will be “dealing with it internally.”

Crowdus appeared in 10 games last season, making four catches for 82 yards. The sophomore graduated from Frederick Douglass High School.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the legal blood-alcohol content for people under the legal drinking age.

This story was originally published June 25, 2023 at 3:04 PM.

Rick Childress
Lexington Herald-Leader
Rick Childress covers Eastern Kentucky for the Herald-Leader. The Lexington native and University of Kentucky graduate first joined the paper in 2016 as an agate desk clerk in the sports section and in 2020 covered higher education during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He spent much of 2021 covering news and sports for the Klamath Falls Herald and News in rural southern Oregon before returning to Kentucky in 2022.
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