Decatur man charged with driving with child, open vodka in SUV

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 31-year-old Decatur man faces multiple charges, including DUI and child endangerment, after he crashed his SUV into a tree in Roswell while driving with a 10-year-old child and allegedly an open bottle of vodka, police said.

Keon Ryan Patterson also was charged with failure to maintain a lane, police said.

The investigation began shortly after midnight Friday when Roswell police responded to a reported accident on Champions Green Parkway west of Saratoga Drive.

There, an officer found a tan Mazda Tribute had run off the roadway and struck a tree. A 10-year-old boy was in the rear passenger seat, police said.

The officer wrote in his report that he spoke with Patterson and “detected a moderate odor of alcoholic beverage about his breath and person. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot. He was unsteady on his feet. He was argumentative.”

The man told police he had swerved left to avoid a vehicle in his lane and lost control. He said he had had only one or 1½ beers over the previous hour to hour and a half, police said.

Patterson allegedly refused to submit to a field sobriety evaluation or a breath test and was arrested on a DUI charge. A bottle of Pinnacle orange-flavored vodka allegedly was found two-thirds full behind the driver’s seat, police said.

The man refused medical treatment and was taken to the Roswell Detention Center. The child was turned over to his mother, police said.