A Kennesaw State University professor says there’s a reason he was found by police passed out, seemingly drunk, inside the school’s student center with a half-empty beer and assorted pills in his truck.
Brent Christopher Allsup, of Acworth, was arrested Oct. 5 on three felony drug charges and an open-container misdemeanor count. Allsup blames it on forgetfulness and an accidental medication mix-up of taking both Hydrocodone and Xanax.
Tiffany Capuano, a KSU spokeswoman, said Friday that Allsup was working part-time as a professor in the business college’s school of accounting. She said Friday that Allsup has resigned due to the investigation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution unsuccessfully tried to contact Allsup for comment on Wednesday. But after the story was published that day, Allsup reached out to The AJC for an interview.
“There was no alcohol involved,” Allsup told The AJC, “I mean, there was an open container in the vehicle, but” he said that the half-empty, 16-ounce aluminum beer bottle in the center console found by police was from tailgating at the Falcons-Bills game on Sunday.
Police searched his truck on a Thursday.
Police wrote in the warrant that they found Allsup “intoxicated by consumption of alcohol and medication” and that he “stated that he drove to KSU after drinking 3 to 5 beers.”
Allsup said that’s a misunderstanding.
The professor said that even though he doesn’t remember giving police consent to search his car — “I was essentially blacked out” — he remembers thinking the officers were asking how many beers he regularly had, not how many beers he’d had that night like the officers reported.
He said the combination of medication made him seem drunk. “I could not articulate anything really well because I was out of it.”
As for how the medication mix-up happened in the first place, “I think I just grabbed the wrong medication out of my bottle ... I don’t keep every prescription bottle with me, I just take what I need for the day and go.”
He said he took the pills before his 8 p.m. managerial accounting course.
“Normally I take Xanax, something, to calm my nerves before I go speak in front of a class,” he said.
Allsup said Thursday, a week after his arrest, that he plans on resigning until the investigation is over so another professor can teach his class.
“There’s no point in me taking away from the student experience because I have an ongoing investigation,” he said.
Allsup was booked into Cobb County jail about 7 p.m. on Oct. 6. Jail records show he bonded out about 2:30 a.m. the next morning for $11,220.
His next court date was not listed in the magistrate court’s online database.
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