Video shows Ga. commissioner who claimed to be drugged had 5 drinks at metro Atlanta bar, police say

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — “You better get him out of my face. You better get him out of my face, I don’t give a [expletive[. Get him out of my face.”

Those were the words caught on body camera video after a Clayton County Commissioner was found passed out outside of a club and later behaved combatively in a Morrow Fire/EMS ambulance.

Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne started digging after Commissioner Felicia Franklin claimed she was drugged at a bar in Morrow. Franklin ended up being taken to the hospital via ambulance after her night out at the 404 Sports Bar and Grill on Sept. 29

Channel 2 Action News can now show you drink by drink-by-drink by drink what happened, according to a Morrow police investigator. Winne also obtained video of Franklin’s interview with the police sergeant, which gives her side of the story.

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Parts of the incident was caught on camera.

Police records show Franklin passed out outside the club after spending a night at the club with friends.

An officer summoned help after it appeared Franklin hit her head outside of the club.

“I don’t know what they gave me,” Franklin said on video obtained from police.

A friend of the commissioner’s told Channel 2 Action News that she had been on medication for two weeks.

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A document from the Morrow Police Department said, “There is no evidence to support the claim of Ms. Franklin having something put in her drink. This is obtained from video at 404 Sports Bar and Grill.”

Morrow Police Sgt. Scott Stewart told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne that he reviewed hours of police bodycam video and security video from inside the bar and grill to determine what caused Commissioner Franklin to pass out while outside the club, and later behave combatively while in a Morrow Fire/EMS ambulance.

“We are pending a subpoena for blood to see if blood work was done at the hospital when she went,” Stewart said.

The commissioner confirmed that “they didn’t draw blood for whatever reason.”

Franklin told Channel 2 Action News that her doctor said her behavior and symptoms were consistent with someone having drugged her with GHB, commonly known as a date rape drug.

In fairness, one video shows Franklin saying “I don’t know what they gave me. I don’t know what they gave me!” When someone asked her if she was OK, she said “No I’m not, I don’t know what they gave me.”

Stewart told Winne a receipt collected from 404 Sports Bar and Grill indicates Franklin pad the tab at the bar with a credit card called “Committee to Eelct Felicia.’ He suggested a document indicates she had three of the bar’s That’s a Home Run drinks, which police documents indicate contain 40-proof Hennessy and Gran Marnier.

“Plus a glass of wine was ordered? A nine-ounce pour was ordered,” Stewart said, describing the bar receipt.

On video, a waitress is seen delivering the first drink of wine the commissioner ordered, then later showed her delivering first one, then two of the That’s a Home Run drinks to Franklin, as described by the police sergeant.

The footage shows the waitress leaving the drink on the table, where nobody touches it. More video from the bar showed eventually a fourth drink delivered to Franklin by the waitress, according to Stewart’s viewing of the video. The drink was a third That’s a Home Run drink.

“We believe it’s her fourth drink,” Stewart said.

“Fourth drink your evidence indicates ordered and received by Commissioner Felicia Franklin?” Winne asked Stewart.

“That’s correct,” the sergeant confirmed.

In video of Franklin’s interview with police, Stewart tells her it appeared she’d had several drinks while at the bar.

“I just want to be very blunt with you, um, you had five drinks,” he said on camera.

“I didn’t drink five drinks,” Franklin told him. “I didn’t order five drinks or I did order five drinks.”

Stewart said the fifth drink referred to during his interview with the commissioner was a swig of someone else’s beer, which he observed on the video.

“I’m assuming that picked up with the Corona to me, whatever it was, a beer bottle,” Fraklin said during the police interview. “That’s when I started feeling funny after the band left is what I told you when I first walked in. That’s when it got fuzzy because I don’t remember.”

Stewart said Franklin was adamant, repeatedly, that she did not consume five drinks and that she suggested some of the drinks on her bill must have been for other people. He said she did not consume all or at least her first Home Run drink but did confirm some consumption of the other drinks.

“Didn’t even order food, he put everybody on my bill,’ Franklin said during the interview.

“I don’t care who Patty is, you are my patient,” a first responder is heard saying on body camera footage.

A report from the Lake City Police Department says “Morrow EMS requested I follow behind them to the hospital,” and says the ambulance stopped at an intersection, where the commissioner apparently became aggressive.

“You better get him out my face I don’t give a [expletive]. Get him out my face,” the commissioner said on the video.

Someone is heard saying “Stop, Felicia. Get your hands off him my face. Ma’am you’re about to go to jail!”

“I don’t give a [expletive], get him out my face,” Franklin continued on the body camera footage.

It seems the commissioner did not go to jail, but to a hospital. Comments on the video, if accurate, indicate she had been ill recently, with a sinus infection or bronchitis and had been on medication, including prednisone.

A quick Google search suggested possible side effects of the drug were loss of contact with reality and confusion.

One site suggested checking with your doctor immediately if you experience side effects of aggression or agitation.

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