I-Team: How one December night threatens longtime GA chief's job

By Randy Travis Published March 15 EATONTON, Ga. - Police body cam video obtained by the FOX 5 I-Team shows what led to the surprise arrest of Eatonton’s longtime police chief. Kent Lawrence has served as the town’s top cop since 1986, one of the longest tenures of any police chief in Georgia. But the events of a single night last December may cost the chief his career. "I do pray that he won’t do this to anyone else," said Tina Childress, 58, of Eatonton. Childress admitted drinking "too much egg nog" while wrapping presents on December 8, 2020. After eyewitnesses saw her buying wine at a local grocery story and stumbling to her car, they called Eatonton police. According to the police report, an officer pulled Childress over after she almost hit a train tressel in town. Childress would be taken to the small police department opposite the Putnam County courthouse where Bowman tried unsuccessfully to conduct a breathalyzer test. On the video, Childress was emotional, crying about the handcuffs, asking for her daughter and begging police to let her go. She later dropped to the floor of the police department as officers tried to move her to the hospital for a blood draw. That’s when the 61-year-old chief Lawrence would get involved. When Childress complained she couldn’t get up, officer Bowman wrote in his report "I then saw chief Lawrence strike Ms. Childress several times in her head with his open hand and also pulled her hair (up and forward)." "I felt him hit me in my head and drag me," Childress told the FOX 5 I-Team. "It’s like he was watching, you know smiling like it was funny. It wasn’t." Her attorney says Childress’ blood alcohol level would later register a 0.3, nearly four times the legal limit. On the bodycam video, Childress reacts to the chief’s actions. EMTs would eventually help get Childress into a police car. The chief later arranged for her daughter to pick up Childress at the hospital rather than have her spend the night in jail. Ironically, the only one to go to jail would be chief Lawrence. A few days later the GBI charged him with three misdemeanor counts of battery. "Given the outcome, I’m sure he’d like to go back and make a different choice," said the chief’s attorney Mo Wiltshire of Athens. "But in the moment at that time the intent was to help this lady and get her to come to her senses and quit acting the fool on the floor." No trial date has been set for either one. Since the arrest, chief Lawrence has been suspended with pay. The city says it has no record of any other citizen complaints in his tenure. Could this single incident mean the end of a career for one of the longest serving police chiefs in Georgia?