[JonInMiddleGA]

UGA athletic director arrested on DUI charge || OnlineAthens.com

University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans was arrested on a drunken driving charge Wednesday night in Atlanta, on the eve of a new five-year contract with a begins today.

A Georgia State Patrol trooper stopped Evans’ 2009 BMW shortly before midnight at Roswell Road and Chastain Drive, near Chastain Park.

“The trooper made a traffic stop, apparently observing the manner of driving, on a 2009 BMW,” said Gordy Wright, director of public information for the State Patrol. “During the course of the traffic stop, he detected the odor of alcohol and administered a field sobriety (tests). After administering field sobriety, the trooper determined (Evans) was less safe to be operating a motor vehicle and placed him under arrest for DUI.”

Evans was taken to the City of Atlanta Pre-trial Detention Center on charges of DUI and failure to maintain lane. Evans refused to take a breath test at the jail, Wright said.

Evans was released early this morning, according to the Associated Press.

The University of Georgia Athletic Association would not comment on Evans’ arrest this morning.

“There’s been no confirmation of (the arrest) yet,” said Leland Barrow, a spokesman for the Athletic Association.

But university officials are in contact with UGA president Michael Adams, who is on vacation, and the university plans to issue a statement later today, said spokesman Chuck Toney.

A passenger in Evans’ car also was taken to jail, but Wright could not immediately provide further details.

“There was a passenger who was also to taken there but the identity of that person and what transpired there, that’s one of the things we’re waiting to talk to the trooper about,” Wright said.

As UGA athletic director, Evans makes $550,000 a year under a new five-year contract that takes effect today. The UGA athletic association’s board of directors approved the contract in February, giving Evans a $90,000 per year raise.

Evans was one of the youngest athletic directors in the country when he took over the leadership of UGA’s athletic association in 2004, after Adams refused to renew longtime athletic director Vince Dooley's contract.