By Joe Johnson
A convicted sex offender was recently arrested for DUI and illegally possessing a gun, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
Edward Dumas, 53, of Vintage Court, in 1988 was convicted of child molestation in Morgan County, according to ther report.
At about 3:43 a.m. Sunday, an officer was patroling the area of Prince and Hawthorne avenues when he ran a computer check on the tag of a car, which came back as being registered to Dumas, who had an active arrest warrant in Athens-Clarke County for failure to register as a sex offender, according to the report.
When the officer activated his marked patrol car’s emergency lights, Dumas continued to drive at 20 mph for about a quarter of a mile before pulling into a parking lot where the officer saw Dumas “actively digging into his glove box, according to the report.
“Based on the driving behavior of Mr. Dumasand taking an unusual long time to pull over, I conducted a search of his vehicle in his immediate reach,” Officer Jason Castels wrote in the report.
The search reportedly turned up a pistol that was wedged between the driver’s seat and center console, and a 12-pack of beer that contained two empty bottles.
The officer noted in the report that there was a wet stain on the driver's seat that appesared to be from urine or alcohol.wet stain
Dumas, who refused to take a breath test, was arrested and charged with DUI, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of open containers of alcohol in a vehicle.
He was released Monday afternoon into the custody of the Stephens County Sheriff's Office, which had placed a hold on his release for unspecified reasons.