Deputy misjudged two DUI cases before Bannister

The Gwinnett County Sheriff's deputy who mistakenly charged Commission Chairman Charles Bannister with drunken driving last week had misjudged DUI cases twice before.

A review of Deputy Michael G. Cummings' personnel file showed that he was disciplined for twice determining an impaired person to be sober while he worked for the Gwinnett County Police Department. Cummings resigned from the police department in 2006 to take a job at the Sheriff's Department.

In 2004, Cummings received verbal counseling for failing to detect that a driver who caused a minor accident was impaired. A year later, he was suspended for three days after testifying that a friend arrested for drunken driving was not intoxicated even though the friend tested at more than twice the legal limit for alcohol intoxication.

Cummings could not be reached for comment Friday. A spokeswoman for the Sheriff's department promised to have a supervisor contact him. A home phone number listed for him was disconnected.

Cummings arrested Bannister for drunken driving on June 28 even though a breathalyzer test found no indication of alcohol in his system. Bannister was exonerated two days later when a blood test for alcohol came back negative.

Sheriff Butch Conway publicly apologized to Bannister and asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to probe his department's handling of the incident. Conway released a statement through his spokesperson Friday in response to questions about Cummings' competency.

"The GBI investigation is ongoing and we are not going to comment on the story at this time," the statement said.

Bannister's attorney, Alan Mullinax, said that the deputy's history is troubling.

"The whole believability and credibility of this officer is shot," Mullinax said.

In 2004, internal affairs investigators determined that Cummings failed to detect that a driver who caused an accident in Gwinnett was impaired.

About 15 minutes after he let the woman go, her vehicle rear-ended a second car.  An officer who responded to that wreck found that the woman "failed all field sobriety tests miserably, could not walk or stand without staggering and admitted to being on prescribed medication that even she said made her dizzy," according to a supervisor's report.

Cummings' testimony on behalf of his friend in 2005 also called into question his judgment on DUI cases.

The friend asked the arresting officer if he could have Cummings pick up his car on the night of the arrest so it would not be impounded. Cummings had a brief conversation with his friend at the scene. He later testified that his friend admitted consuming two beers, a glass of wine and a shot over a three hour period.

In court, a solicitor asked Cummings if his friend appeared intoxicated. Cummings replied "to me, no."

The friend's breath test result was .162, more than twice the legal limit for alcohol intoxication.

Cummings' decision to arrest Bannister is one of several puzzling circumstances surrounding that case.

Bannister's attorney said he believes the arrest was politically motivated. He has asked the GBI to look into why the Sheriff's department deputies waited outside the bar for nearly an hour for Bannister to leave. Mullinax wants to know why the deputies never intervened to prevent Bannister from driving if they suspected he was drunk. He questions why deputies did not hand off the case to police, and why Bannister, 71, was asked to perform two field sobriety tests that are not recommended for someone over age 60.