Chief's Daughter Fails Breath Test, But No Arrest - Investigates News Story - WSB Atlanta
Chief's Daughter Fails Breath Test, But No Arrest
Posted: 12:33 pm EST February 3, 2011
Updated: 10:52 am EST February 4, 2011
TOCCOA, GA -- A north Georgia district attorney is investigating whether the Toccoa police chief’s daughter got special treatment after being pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving.
“Just advise, they’re all over the road,” is what the Toccoa officer said to dispatch before pulling the driver over. When he got to the window, the driver told him she was Police Chief Jackie Whitmire’s daughter.
“I had a glass of sangria about five hours ago and a glass of wine about three hours ago,” Kristen Whitmire Thomson said. In the breath test, Thomson blew over the limit, a 0.083, according to police.
The officer was dispatched after a 911 call from a local McDonald's. “I have a drunk lady harassing my customers in the drive-through,” the caller said. The drunk lady was one of Thomson’s passengers.
By the time the officer pulled Thomson over, the car was outside the city limits and in the county’s jurisdiction. The officer got permission from a supervisor to pull her over.
“We’re just going to call somebody to come get her,” the officer told dispatch. The county deputy who arrived didn’t arrest Thomson, either.
Channel 2’s Jodie Fleischer confronted the chief about whether his daughter should have gone to jail.
“If she was in the city limits, she would have gone to jail; my officer would have taken her,” Whitmire replied.
The chief said the deputy should have arrested Thomson because she was in county’s jurisdiction. Sheriff Randy Shirley told Fleischer he disagrees.
“My deputy is saying that the Toccoa police officer said that they had everything under control, that they didn’t need him.”
Shirley said the police officer witnessed the driving, did the breath test, and decided to allow the chief’s daughter to call someone to pick her up. When asked if he thought Thomson got special treatment because she is the chief’s daughter Shirley replied, “Obviously, she did.”
District Attorney Brian Rickman told Fleischer this would be a prosecutable DUI case.
“It was on the tape that the deputies were told not to come on out there,” Rickman said.
The police officer also asked for the chief’s home number on the tape, but he said Whitmire didn’t answer when the officer called. Two minutes into the recording, the officer turned off the audio on his dashcam.
The police chief reprimanded the officer for turning off the microphone but found no other wrongdoing in the internal investigation.
“It probably isn’t criminal, but it’s something we need to know, we need to find out,” said Rickman.
Shirley is also investigating the incident. Shirley told Fleischer the deputy who arrived at the scene had only been on the job for a few weeks. He said a more experienced deputy might have overruled the police officers and taken the chief’s daughter to jail anyway.
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