UPDATED STORY. POSTED 1:45 TUESDAY:
The attorney for suspended Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch emphasized in a statement issued Tuesday following his client’s arrest in Dawson County Monday night that Couch was not drunk.
“Last night, Sheriff Couch was arrested…on charges of failure to maintain lane and violation of the conditions of a limited driving permit,” Blake Poole said.
“To be clear, the Sheriff was sober last night and has remained sober since his February arrest. He has complied fully with every condition imposed by the court system, including the random testing required as a condition of his bond, and has passed every test administered to him. He has continued to obey every regulation he has been clearly instructed to follow.”
Couch was suspended by Gov. Kemp in February following his arrest on DUI and other charges a few weeks before. He trial has been tentatively set for the fall.
Poole also took issue, at length, with the limited-permit charge.
“The limited-permit charge is a different matter. It is the direct product of a systemic failure within the Georgia Department of Driver Services. At one point DDS told him his license would remain valid until May 27, 2026. Another time DDS told him he needed a limited permit to drive. And just last week, DDS wrote that he was not required to have a limited permit at all. These contradictions appear to confuse the local DDS personnel as much as anyone else, which is precisely the problem.”
Sheriff Couch does in fact hold a limited permit, he added. “But the conflicting DDS correspondence did not indicate that there were any limitations on where he could lawfully travel. He cannot be expected to comply with conditions DDS has never clearly communicated.
“Compounding the problem, DDS’s records system did not display accurate information in the Criminal Justice Information System for deputies to view on the side of the road. It took multiple attempts by multiple officers to even verify the existence of the permit. Accountability is meaningful only when the person being held accountable can understand how they will be held accountable. The correspondence DDS generates is, at times, incomprehensible even to its own staff.”
Poole said his statement is not a complaint about the people working at DDS. Instead, he said, it is a call for the State to fix a system that produces contradictory instructions and unreliable records. “The sad reality is that this happens to ordinary Georgians every single day, without the visibility to call attention to it. Perhaps this case will prompt a review of DDS’s regulations and correspondence so that this does not continue to happen to Georgians throughout the State.”
EARLIER STORY. POSTED 11:30 A.M. TUESDAY:
Suspended Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch was arrested Monday in Dawson County during a traffic stop and charged with failing to maintain lane and violating the conditions of his court-approved driving permit.
Couch was suspended by the governor in March following his arrest on a DUI charge. He is free on bond pending trial. Kemp suspends Couch
A statement released by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office says, “During the stop, the driver, Gerald Couch, 63, of Gainesville, was found to be operating the vehicle on a limited driving permit outside the allowed conditions He was arrested and cited for driving outside the conditions of his limited permit and failure to maintain lane.”
A request has been made of Couch’s attorney, Blake Poole for any comment or statement he has on behalf of his client.