HALL COUNTY, Ga. — The suspended Sheriff of Hall County, Gerald Couch, arrested for driving under the influence, said in court that his own deputies were participants in what he calls an unlawful arrest.
Now, the Hall County Sheriff’s attorney, Blake Poole, is working to get a judge to toss out all of the evidence gathered in the case.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones was in Hall County, where prosecutors said there was nothing unlawful about the arrest.
If the judge tosses out the evidence collected in the case by the Georgia State Troopers that arrested him, the state will not have a case to go to trial.
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The filings by Couch’s defense are about what happened after the Hall County Sheriff’s 2nd in Command heard that he’d been driving drunk in his county vehicle and went to the sheriff’s home to do something about it.
Chief Deputy Kevin Head testified in court about how the February DUI arrest incident happened.
He said he’d gotten a call about Sheriff Gerald Couch driving under the influence, so he and a sheriff’s office captain drove to their boss’ home.
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While driving to the sheriff’s house, Head told the court that he and the captain saw the sheriff driving erratically. When they got to his home, Head said Couch appeared intoxicated.
That’s when the chief deputy told Couch “I told you if you drink and drive in the county vehicle, I would have you arrested.”
Now, Sheriff Couch’s attorney wants a judge to toss out all of the evidence related to when the chief deputy and the captain arrived at his house, saying it was unlawfully obtained.
Poole said in court that the sheriff did not consent to a search of his property, did not consent to field sobriety tests and was not given a Miranda Rights warning or told he had the right to remain silent, among other issues.
“I believe everything upon entry from that point and time after is illegally obtained,” Poole said.
Poole told the court that when the chief deputy made the comment about the sheriff being arrested, the deputy had to play by different rules.
But prosecutors pushed back on that idea, saying when the Chief Deputy said Couch was going to jail, he had only been detained at the time.
Head told the court that he called a state trooper to take over the investigation. That’s who arrested the Hall County Sheriff for allegedly driving drunk in his county vehicle.
The deputy testified that he did warn the sheriff he had a right to remain silent, informed Couch about implied consent and let him know when he was under arrest.
Prosecutors said Sheriff Couch was given a Miranda warning and consented to field sobriety tests, as well as a search of his county vehicle.
They said the sheriff knew exactly what was going on since he’d trained his officers on DUI arrests.
A judge will still need to decide whether to keep the evidence that was collected, or toss it out.
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