Damon Evans Arrested on DUI Charges

This counts as a REALLY bad story.

UGA Athletics Director Damon Evans was arrested overnight on charges of driving under the influence in Atlanta. MyFoxAtlanta.com has the full story and the mug shot. I'm still working on details, which I'll post as soon as I get them.

UPDATE (12:50 p.m.)

-- The AJC has a few more details including comment from a police spokesman. Still no word from UGA or Evans.

One interesting nugget out of the AJC report is this:

Wright said a passenger with Evans also was taken to jail. Wright could not immediately provide further details.

This adds a bit more intrigue to an already volatile story, depending on who the mysterious passenger was. If it was another UGA employee, that could be significantly more problematic.

As for the actual charges, Evans' apparent refusal to submit to a breath test violates the state's implied consent law.

Under Georgia's implied consent law, you are agreeing to chemical testing when you driving a motor vehicle. The implied consent law basically means that if you are driving you are "consenting" to DUI testing upon being suspected of DUI.

In the state of Georgia, you are required to submit to a breathalyzer is required by a police officer. If you refuse, you could lose your license or receive other penalties.

What that means is, Evans is subject to various automatic penalties which could include loss of driving privileges, but it is not legal evidence of guilt on DUI charges. So, there's still much we won't know regarding the situation for a while.

Of course, as has been said numerous times of Georgia's players following an off-field incident -- sometimes guilt is less important than how the situation appears. And this looks really bad.

I would expect some comment from UGA or Michael Adams at some point, but I've not been informed of a time table on that.