Chappell ‘close’ but not DUI, GSP says
by John P. Boan/Times-Georgian1
Carroll County Commission Chairman Bill Chappell narrowly avoided being arrested late Thursday night, July 9, for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Chappell was released with no charges filed, having registered a blood-alcohol content less than .01 below the legal limit, according to the Georgia State Patrol, but the video taken from a state trooper’s dashboard camera shows a man unable to walk a straight line or stand on one leg.
Ultimately, that same trooper followed Chappell the less than 2 miles to his house to ensure he made it home safely.
The roadblock stop occurred before midnight on July 9 at the intersection of Highway 5 and Duncan Road in unincorporated Carroll County, according to Joey Boatright, commander of the Georgia State Patrol’s Villa Rica post. The copy of the video, obtained by the Times-Georgian through a Freedom of Information Act request, contains no time stamp, and there is no report documenting the time of the stop, leaving the exact time which the incident occurred in question.
Lt. Paul Cosper, public information officer with the state patrol, could not say why the tape lacked a clear time stamp and said he was not able to verify the specific time of the incident until he returned to work Thursday.
According to the tape, Chappell said he was returning home from a regional development council meeting in Greenville, the county seat of Meriwether County. Following the meeting’s end at 8:30 p.m., he stopped and had one cocktail before making a second stop at a convenience store for a Diet Coke, Chappell said Wednesday. He then drove home, running into the joint state patrol and Carroll County Sheriff’s Office roadblock near his house on Hamp Chappell Road, Chappell said.
The first audio of the video begins with Trooper Mike Land asking Chappell “What time did you have your drink?” The tape is silent for nearly a minute leading up to this exchange, though video is still present. The explanation given by the state patrol for any redaction in the audio portion of the tape is that it was done to protect any medical information Chappell was providing to the trooper.
On the video, Chappell explains to Land that he had a drink following the meeting he was attending, at which point the trooper asks Chappell if he can “check his eyes,” or perform a standard field Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, which serves to detect involuntary eye movements associated with the consumption of alcohol. Land performs this test on Chappell for nearly two and a half minutes.
During this process, Chappell comments that the flashlight is “hypnotizing,” and several times Land tells Chappell to only follow the light with his eyes and not turn his entire head.
According to Cosper, this test is the most accurate of all field sobriety tests, including the Alco-Sensor test, which serves as a portable Breathalyzer. The trooper noted from this test only two confirmations out of a possible three that Chappell’s blood alcohol was above the legal limit of .08 percent or higher, Cosper said. For this reason, the test was deemed inconclusive.
Following this initial test, Land asks Chappell if he is on any medication. For 45 seconds, the audio is once again silent while Chappell describes the medications he is taking.
“None of those medications affected Mr. Chappell’s ability to drive a car,” Cosper said.
On the tape, Land then administers the second field sobriety test, asking Chappell to take nine steps along a white line before turning around and taking nine steps in return. Before doing so, Chappell says “My balance is terrible.” He then proceeds to attempt to walk the line. His legs shake violently, causing him to nearly fall down to his left, and after overcorrecting, he falls off the line again to his right, reaching out to the side of his truck for support. Walking back, Chappell again falls from the line to both sides, finishing next to the trooper with both feet off the line.
“I couldn’t walk that line any time,” Chappell said on Wednesday. “I’d have a better time doing that if I’d have had a drink.”
In the video, Chappell then begins to cough loudly, and Land asks him he if he is all right, to which Chappell replies “yeah, I just got ...” and the sound is once again redacted.
The sound returns, and Land asks Chappell to stand on one foot with the other raised 6 inches off the ground, counting each second out loud. Chappell is only able to do so for less than 2 seconds at a time, his legs once again shaking beneath him.
Cosper would not say whether Chappell’s failure to walk a straight line or stand on one foot constituted a failure of those specific field sobriety tests, and he attributed Chappell’s struggles with the test to an unnamed “medical condition,” his weight and his age.
“The trooper didn’t feel that Mr. Chappell was over the influence at the time. He didn’t feel like he was over the influence,” Cosper said. “He said he was close but he wasn’t over the limit.”
Following the third test, Land goes to his car and retrieves the Alco-Sensor test and asks Chappell to blow. According to the video, Land says Chappell blew too hard and that the test did not register. Upon a second administration of the test, Land comments that Chappell blew .071 percent, .009 away from being above the legal limit for alcohol.
“All right Mr. Chappell. We’re going to let you ride tonight,” Land says, having returned to his car. “Let me tell you something, though, you were real close tonight.”
Chappell replies, “What was I?” Land tells him, to which Chappell says, “Oh really?”
Land said “Yes sir. You were one point off from being .08, which would have been over the limit. Try to take care next time and be careful ... if you plan on drinking before you drive.”
According to the video, Chappell then says, “I wouldn’t [inaudible]. I wouldn’t do that.”
In the video, Chappell then gets in his car, and Land into his. Chappell pulls away, and Land begins to follow Chappell home..
Cosper said it is not unusual for troopers to follow someone home if they’re concerned about the health of that person. Chappell had expressed to Land he had a medical condition and was having trouble breathing, and for this reason, Cosper said, Land made the decision to follow him home.
On the video, as he is pulling away from the checkpoint, Land says into the radio, “I’m going to follow Mr. Chappell. He’s not .. He blew a .071. I know he don’t live but a half a mile down the road. Just to be on safety’s sake, I’m going to follow him down, make sure he makes it home OK.”
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