A Douglasville police officer was fired Monday following an investigation into allegations he exposed himself to families at a gas station and drove drunk with a child on the back of his motorcycle, officials confirmed.
James Phipps was placed on administrative leave after his July 29 arrest in Fannin County, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
According to a police report obtained by The AJC, a drunken Phipps exposed himself in an Exxon gas station parking lot on Ga. 60 while he urinated on the side of the building.
Phipps and a woman pulled away on two separate motorcycles, according to the report. An 11-year-old was on the back of Phipps’ bike.
Fannin County dispatch gave a description of the couple and child and advised authorities to be on the lookout. The Georgia State Patrol spotted them on Ga. 515 and pulled them over.
When Phipps was asked if the witness accounts were true, officials said in the report he nodded his head.
“As I spoke to him, I noticed that he would look down or force his mouth to stay shut if he said anything at all,” Trooper Charles Green wrote in his report.
Phipps then presented his Douglasville Police Department identification card and backup was called to assist with the scene.
A second trooper asked Phipps to step off his bike and follow him.
“(He) walked extremely slow as if to make each step concentrated and deliberate,” Green wrote.
It wasn’t until Phipps spoke to both troopers that they smelled alcohol on his breath. He refused to take a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test.
Phipps was charged with DUI, public indecency and child endangerment and taken to the Fannin County Detention Center. The child was in the woman’s custody, according to the report.
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