According to a Georgia State Patrol incident report, dated June 30th (2023), at 10:44pm, an officer was patrolling on GA-1 near Scott Hill Road – when he noticed a white Ford Taurus traveling southbound in the left lane, with excessive noise from the vehicle’s exhaust.

The trooper reported, “As I was approaching the vehicle from the rear, [I] noticed the vehicle was swerving side to side and touched the yellow line twice.  I then noticed the vehicle merge over into the right lane, and the driver failed to use his turn signal.”

The state trooper conducted a traffic stop, and approached the driver-side window, and immediately noticed a strong odor of burnt marijuana coming from inside the vehicle – and noticed a female passenger in the front right seat and a 4-year-old female in her child safety seat in the rear seat.

The driver was identified as Rodney Lee Dunn, age 42, of Rome.

The officer then asked him if he had smoked any marijuana and if there was any marijuana on him.  He said he had just smoked some marijuana, and also had some in his pocket.  The trooper was able to recover a cigarette box that contained several small hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes and a small bag of marijuana.

During field sobriety tests, Dunn showed several signs of impairment that would be less safe for him to operate a vehicle safely.  Dunn was placed under arrest for DUI – and refused the state test. He was transported to the Chattooga County Jail and charged with DUI, DUI child endangerment, failure to maintain a single lane, and failure to signal lane change.

(The Northwest Georgia Scanner)