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County to crack down on repeat DUI offenders
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Ga. alcohol-related arrest data

 

DUI

 

 

 

Liquor laws

• Under 18: 1,005

• Total all ages: 11,456

 

Drunkenness

• Under 18: 101

• Total all ages: 3,385

 

Source: www.centurycouncil.org

• Under 18: 184

• Total all ages: 26,982

 

Liberty County is cracking the whip even harder on repeat DUI offenders starting next Thursday.

County commissioners approved the implementation of a new DUI court that will send motorists caught operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol to a 24-month program instead of jail, Judge Leon M. Braun Jr. told county commissioners during the mid-month meeting.

"DUI court is relatively new as far as here in the state of Georgia," Braun said. "For anyone who’s been on the bench for any length of time — and I’ve been on the bench for almost 25 years — the one thing that you have the most difficult problem with is the repeat offender. What do you do with them? You’re going to put them in jail? But that’s costing the county money. And the bottom line is, it’s just not helping them. They’re in jail, thank God they aren’t out on the street running over something or stuff like that, but it’s costing the county money."

The program will take effect immediately and Braun said he knows of current inmates who will benefit from it. In years past, he worked with alcoholics who hadn’t been sober for more than six days in a row. The idea is to get repeat offenders into a program that will change their life, Braun said.

"If you are selected, it is not voluntary," he said of the program, which will require participants to pay monthly fees. "It is high intensity on the front end. The purpose is to get them into treatment ... it is not a hug-a-thug program," he said.

The program is expected to cost the county a total of $30,870, which includes travel costs for training, supplies, consultants and contracts. Most of what will be used for the system is already in place, however, including the judge and the public defender.

Participants enrolled in the program will undergo counseling and will address "a number of bio-psychosocial domains including alcohol use severity and drug involvement, the level of needed care, medical and mental-health status, extent of social support systems and individual motivation to change. Without clearly identifying a client’s needs, strengths and resources along each of these important bio-psychosocial domains, the clinician will have considerable difficulty in developing a clinically sound development plan," according to the Georgia DUI Court standards listed on the georgiacourts.org website.

Braun said he has seen it work in other communities as well. Liberty County’s neighbor, Chatham County, put the program in place in May 2003 and has graduated almost 300 participants, according to the State Court of Chatham County Georgia website.

"As Judge Braun mentioned last night, the creation of DUI courts has proven to be very beneficial to the community in many ways," County Administrator Joey Brown said. "Obviously the ability to remove continuously impaired persons from our community is a benefit. However, when you also create the ability to change those lives for the betterment of those persons involved it creates a win/win situation."

 

The initiative came shortly after Gov. Nathan Deal discussed the drunk-driving issues during his inaugural address.

"As a state, we cannot afford to have so many of our citizens waste their lives because of addiction. It is draining our state treasury and depleting our workforce. As governor I call on local elected officials, sheriff and local law enforcement personnel to work with me and the state law enforcement officers to break this cycle of crime that threatens the security of all law-abiding citizens," Deal said in the speech.

If participants aren’t cooperating, they will be kicked out of the program. The success rate is about 63- 65 percent, the judge said.

Commissioner Chairman John McIver asked how a case would be handled if a participant is behind on child support. Braun said it would be dealt with on a "case-by-case basis."

 

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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