Clayton Patterson, 30, pleads guilty to reckless driving

Posted Wednesday, October 2, 2019 11:48 pm

A former Bartow County Sheriff’s Office deputy was sentenced to 12 months on probation in Bartow Superior Court Tuesday morning.





Clayton Grant Patterson, 30, entered a negotiated plea of guilty to one count of reckless driving in connection to a single-vehicle crash that occurred off Colonel Way on Jan. 8.





According to Bartow County Sheriff’s Office documents, Patterson was initially charged with three counts of driving under the influence of multiple substances, one count of reckless driving, one count of failure to maintain lane and one count of failure to wear a seatbelt.





As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop all of the remaining charges.









According to Georgia State Patrol trooper Dillon Graves, an open can of beer was found in Patterson’s vehicle at the time of the accident. Dillon described the defendant’s eyes as “bloodshot and watery” in Bartow Superior Court earlier this summer; he also said Patterson displayed “six out of six clues” indicating intoxication during a horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) field sobriety test.





“An officer who investigates this type of case has a duty to be specific when they make a finding or a showing before a judge,” Judge Smith said on Tuesday morning. “The trooper who handled this case was not specific enough in front of the magistrate to form probable cause in this matter.”





A passenger in Patterson’s vehicle appeared to have sustained serious injuries in the crash, to the point he was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.





Smith said he hopes it has been a “learning experience” for the defendant.





“It was very, very fortunate in this case that nobody was hurt as bad as they really thought they were going to be at first,” Smith said. “I’ve always known you to be a decent person, but even decent persons can make bad mistakes, and I think this was, in some way, a bad mistake.”





Smith ordered Patterson — who was previously the City of Kingston’s police chief — to also pay a $650 fine and perform 40 hours of community service.





As part of Patterson’s probation conditions, he is additionally ordered to refrain from ingesting alcohol, undergo a substance abuse evaluation and complete a risk-reduction program.