UA basketball player Dustin Thomas cited on drug charge weeks before dismissal from team, records show

Razorbacks forward Dustin Thomas, who started 44 games the past two seasons, was dismissed for an
undisclosed violation of team rules, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Coach Mike Anderson announced Monday.
Razorbacks forward Dustin Thomas, who started 44 games the past two seasons, was dismissed for an undisclosed violation of team rules, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Coach Mike Anderson announced Monday.

Several weeks before being dismissed from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville men's basketball team on Monday, Dustin Thomas was cited on a drug possession charge in Fayetteville, records show.

According to a Fayetteville Police Department report, an officer spoke with Thomas shortly before 2 a.m. on Feb. 9 after seeing a white Ford Expedition with its brake lights on in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 1500 block of South Razorback Road.

Thomas told the officer he lived at the complex, the report said, noting the officer smelled "burnt marijuana" before asking if there was anything illegal inside the vehicle.

[DOCUMENT: Read the full Fayetteville Police Department report]

Police wrote that Thomas initially said there wasn't anything illegal in the vehicle and that the cigar he was smoking was a Black and Mild.

"I told Thomas that if there was anything illegal in the vehicle and he handed it over at this time, I might be able to work with him to keep him [from] going to jail for the evening," the officer wrote. "Thomas handed me a small yellow envelope containing a small amount of unburnt marijuana."

Thomas was issued a citation on a charge of possession of marijuana "in lieu of arrest," the report said.

The status of the case wasn't clear on Tuesday. It also wasn't immediately known if the citation was the cause for Thomas' dismissal, which was announced on Monday for an unspecified violation of team rules.

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