Bibb sheriff’s deputy resigns after DUI charge

A Bibb County sheriff’s deputy resigned last week after he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Peach County.

Deputy Tommy Thomas, 49, was jailed about 8 p.m. May 4, according to an incident report from the Peach County Sheriff’s Office. The engine of his patrol car, a 2014 Dodge Charger, was running, and Thomas “appeared to be passed out and reclined in the driver’s seat” when Peach County deputies found him on Housers Mill Road at the intersection with Russell Parkway, the report said.

A deputy knocked on the driver’s window, waking Thomas, who then rolled down the driver’s side rear passenger window. Asked if he was OK, Thomas’ response was not understandable. Coffee had been spilled on the car’s passenger floorboard, along with a chicken and sausage meal.

“He just looked at us and appeared to be impaired or in distress because he wasn’t verbalizing,” a deputy noted in the report. While waiting on an ambulance to take Thomas to the hospital, a deputy asked Thomas what was going on and “all he could say was that, ‘It’s over. I’m fired,’” the report said.

At the hospital, a Peach County sheriff’s deputy reported smelling alcohol on Thomas’ breath, which was later confirmed by a Breathalyzer, the report said. The results of a blood test are pending.

Thomas, of a Jerusalem Road address in Warner Robins, told Peach County deputies that he and his girlfriend had been arguing and the situation was escalating, so he left the house and drove down the road.

Thomas was booked in the Peach County jail, and bond was set at $5,655. He started at the Macon Police Department in October 2010 and had a clean record before May 4, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said.

“As soon as (Thomas) got out of jail, he submitted a resignation letter. ... I accepted,” Davis said.

Thomas isn’t the only Bibb County sheriff’s deputy to be accused of being under the influence of alcohol behind the wheel of a patrol car. In January 2015, an off-duty deputy was arrested by a Georgia State Patrol trooper and charged with DUI after he reportedly stopped to help the trooper with a roadside motorist.

Thomas’ arrest happened just hours before Bibb County sheriff’s deputy Anthony Joseph “T.J.” Freeman was killed in a car crash while helping pursue a suspect in Macon.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Bibb sheriff’s deputy resigns after DUI charge."