ACC commissioner Davenport sentenced to probation for DUI conviction

ACC District 1 Commissioner Patrick Jaboris Davenport

By Joe Johnson

An Athens-Clarke County commissioner last week was sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty to DUI charges for which he was arrested in the county over four months ago.

In an order dated Jan. 25, Athens-Clarke County State Court Judge Charles Auslander III sentenced 43-year-old District 1 Commissioner Patrick Jaboris Davenport of Morton Road to serve 12 months of unsupervised probation, during which time he must pay fines and court fees totaling over $1,000, submit to toxicological screens, perform 40 hours of community service, and attend DUI school.

The sentence was pursuant to a memorandum of plea agreement that was signed by Davenport, his defense attorney Jeff Rothman, and Athens-Clarke County Solicitor General Pro Tempore Barbara Quilliams, court record indicate.

Circumstances leading to the court case began early the morning of Sept. 18, when Davenport was found to have nearly three times the amount of alcohol in his system than is legally allowed for driving, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.

After he was found lying back in the driver’s seat of his disabled SUV, Davenport was administered a breath test that indicated his blood-alcohol concentration was .216 percent, according to the report.

The maximum legal limit for driving is .08 percent.

Davenport admitted that he had been drinking, but did not remember how much, according to the report, which noted that the commissioner was unable to maintain balance during a roadside sobriety test that the officer stopped out of concern for Davenport’s safety.

When the officer responded shortly after midnight to a report of a drunk driver at the U.S. National Poultry Research Center on College Station Road, he saw the that both tires on the driver’s side of Davenport’s SUV had been “popped,” according to the officer’s report. The officer performed standardized field sobriety tests on Davenport and as a result, the county commissioner was arrested, according to police.