By Joe Johnson
A University of Georgia student was recently arrested for using a wrestling move to slam arrested Friday night after he reportedly used a wrestling move to slam a man’s head into the ground.
Hudson Ford Newton, 23, of First Street was charged with aggravated battery,
According to an Athens-Clarke County police report, an officer was on patrol at about 11:20p.m. Friday when he was flagged down by a 23-year-old man who said that his friend had been assaulted on North Lumpkin Street.
The victim, a 23-year-old UGA student, was located in a parking lot on Hancock Avenue near Lumpkin, according to the report.
He reportedly told police that he was walking when two males passed and said some “derogatory things” to him, and that when he responded one of the males hit him and slammed him into the ground.
A witness told an officer that he heard a disturbance behind him, and when he turned around, he saw Newton pick up the victim by the waist and then he “slammed him backward in a ‘suplex’ type move, driving (the victim’s) head and neck into the ground, according to the police report. The witness said that the assault left the victim “out of it” and was unable to recognize anyone, the report noted.
Police said the victim had a large lump on his head near the temple.
According to the police report, Newton is 5-feet-11 and 210 pounds; the victim is listed as being 5-feet-7 and 135 pounds.
Pro Wrestling Wiki states the suplex move “consists of one wrestler picking up his or her opponent off the ground (or mat) and then using a large portion of his or her own body weight to drive the opponent down on the mat. Nearly all suplexes have the attacker going down to the mat with the opponent landing on his or her back.”
After witnesses gave descriptions of the suspect, police viewed surveillance video from a bar near where the assault occurred and subsequently saw the suspect, later identified as Newton, according to the police report.
The witnesses to the assault positively identified Newton as the suspect.
Newton was taken to the Clarke County Jail, and he was released the next morning upon posting a $2,500 security bond.
The police report makes no mention of the victim being taken to the hospital or requiring medical attention.