City manager accused of impersonating officer STOCKBRIDGE — A truck driver in Laurens County says he wants to see charges pressed against the Stockbridge City Manager, alleging the city’s highest-ranking employee impersonated a police officer by pulling him over in a city vehicle. #David Milliron will supervise the work of the future chief of police for the Stockbridge Police Department after it is formed, but the truck driver, Joe Milholen, said the city manager may have gone too far when he turned on his flashing lights and motioned for him to pull to the side of the interstate. #“That’s not what being a public servant is about,” Milholen said about the incident, which was reported to Laurens County authorities about 11:30 a.m. Sunday. “You never know what someone’s gonna do if they’re over there pulling people over for no reason… too many dang innocents out there, it’s too dangerous.” #Milliron could not be reached for comment. #Milholen, a 50-year-old truck driver and former sheriff’s deputy, said he was hauling a load of sawdust with his tractor trailer on I-16 in Laurens County when he saw an SUV pull up behind him, wig wag headlights and orange dash lights flashing. #The SUV followed him closely for several miles before the trucker finally pulled over, already suspicious that the man behind the wheel of the SUV was not an officer. #“It was pretty clear that he was driving like he thinks a police officer would,” Milholen said. “He would come up real close and swerve from side to side, trying to get my attention.” #Georgia State Patrol Sgt. Dale Watson spoke with Milholen about the incident. He used telephone records from the Laurens County 911 center to trace an emergency call to Milliron’s city cell phone, according to a GSP report. #Milholen said Milliron told him he should be cited for failure to secure his truckload, and that he had called Georgia State Patrol. #Milholen said a bungee cord holding down a tarp on the top of the trailer had broken. He was aware of the problem, and knew of a truck stop a few miles up the road where he could buy a new cord to fix it and be on his way. #What Milholen said he did not expect, though, was to be encountered by a city official from more than 100 miles away who claimed to have the power to arrest him. #“He asked me why it took so long to pull over, and I told him I’d never gotten pulled over by someone with orange lights before,” Milholen said as he recounted the incident. “He told me he’s got a blue one and a red one too, he just didn’t have ’em with him. … I asked him ‘Well, who are you? Are you a law enforcement officer?’ and he said he’s the highest ranking official in Stockbridge, Georgia, and that the city charter gives him arresting powers.” #A search of the Stockbridge City Charter Thursday did not identify any such clause. #Milholen, wanting to move his truck off the interstate for safety reasons, said he told Milliron he could meet him at the truck stop down the road. He said the city manager eventually agreed. But when the trucker exited the interstate, Milliron kept driving east. #“I guess once he got back in his car he started thinking about the conversation and decided it was best to just keep going,” Milholen said. #Stockbridge Mayor Mark Alarcon declined to comment, other than to say he’s asked the city attorney to investigate the incident. #While the mayor has publicly said that a city employee who is involved in a car accident with a city vehicle should be terminated, “whether or not it’s your fault,” he said he could not remember what the city employee handbook says about workers faced with criminal charges. #“I didn’t see anything, so there’s not much I can do,” Watson explained Wednesday. #Milholen can ask that Milliron be charged with a crime by meeting with a Laurens County Magistrate Court judge and applying for a warrant. #“I know it’s going to be his word against mine because nobody else heard the way he talked to me, but I’m going to do whatever I can so it doesn’t happen to somebody else,” Milholen said.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:24:26 +0000
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