A former College Park cop, arrested last year on felony charges in Gwinnett County, won’t be getting a job doing police work in Georgia any time soon.
The Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council on Tuesday suspended Donnell Eppinger’s police certification.
Eppinger was arrested in Gwinnett County in July on charges of impersonating a police officer, a felony, and of possessing a concealed weapon while committing a felony.
“This keeps him from going somewhere else and getting a job as a police officer,” Georgia POST Executive Director Ken Vance said.
The suspension will remain in place while Eppinger’s case is tried in Gwinnett Superior Court – and while POST investigates the case pending a revocation of Eppinger’s certification.
Without certification he could not be a sworn police officer or be endowed with arrest authority.
Eppinger allegedly showed Gwinnett County police a College Park police badge when pulled over on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle for going 65 mph in a 45 mph zone.
But Eppinger had been fired months earlier, police said, for participation in what College Park Police officials deemed to be a criminal motorcycle gang.
The arresting officer couldn’t find his College Park police ID card, however, and eventually learned Eppinger was no longer a cop, according to police reports.
The Gwinnett officer who arrested Eppinger confiscated his pistol, ammunition and $1,500 in cash, and subsequent investigation produced a yellow pill that tested positive for the illegal drug ecstasy, police said.
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