DAWSON COUNTY, Ga. - The suspended Hall County Sheriff, Gerald Couch, was arrested Monday for a second driving offense this year, according to the Dawson County Sheriff's Office.
What we know:
Couch, 63, of Gainesville, was pulled over on Georgia 400 after a Dawson County Sheriff's deputy noticed him swerving outside his lane. During the traffic stop, officials said the deputy learned Couch was driving on a limited driving permit and was violating those conditions.
The deputy arrested Couch for driving outside the conditions of his limited permit and failure to maintain a lane. He was booked into the Dawson County Jail and later bonded out, according to sheriff's officials.
The backstory:
Couch was previously arrested by one of his own deputies on Feb. 27 and charged with driving under the influence, failure to maintain a lane, and possession of an open container. According to arrest records, his blood alcohol level during that incident was 0.212%, well above the state legal limit of 0.08%.
Following that arrest, Gov. Brian Kemp suspended Couch on March 17. That suspension is currently set to last until May 17.
What we don't know:
It remains unclear whether Couch will be removed from his position permanently following this latest incident.
What they're saying:
Couch's attorney said he was sober when he was pulled over last night, and has been sober since the February incident.
"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," attorney Blake Poole said.
The statement went on to say the charge related to the limited driving permit is due to "systemic failure" at 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. 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.
This is not a complaint about the people working at DDS. 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."
The Source: Information in this article came from the Dawson County Sheriff's Office and previous FOX 5 reporting. It has been updated with information from the Couch's attorney sent to FOX 5's Rey Llerena.