Lawyers for Milledgeville's police chief argue that he was arrested for DUI last year after an illegal traffic stop.
According to Wilkinson County Probate Judge Vivian L. Cummings, Chief Dray Swicord appeared in Wilkinson County court on Thursday for a hearing on his drunken-driving charge from August 2018.
The Georgia State Patrol said Swicord was driving his own truck through Wilkinson County on Aug. 18 when a trooper pulled him over for failing to dim his high beams.
A state police incident report says Swicord admitted he had been drinking before getting behind the wheel.
On Thursday, Cummings says, she denied a motion to suppress evidence by Carl Cansino, Swicord's attorney, who argued that the traffic stop by state trooper Tyler Gay was illegal.
She said Cansino argued that failing to dim his high beams was not a sufficient reason to stop Swicord.
Cansino said he plans to challenge her decision in state appeals court, according to the judge.
Cummings says she did grant a motion by Wilkinson County Solicitor General Jason Rowland to postpone the hearing, because one of his witnesses, a forensic toxicologist, was unavailable.
In September, the Milledgeville City Manager said Swicord was suspended without pay for two weeks and his pay for the next six months would be cut by 5 percent.
Swicord's state certification as a police office is also under probation for two years.
All of that is in addition to any criminal penalties from the drunken-driving charge still pending in Wilkinson County.