After being charged with DUI and reckless driving in November, 2012, former Fox 5 anchor Amanda Davis was cleared of those charges Friday in Fulton County court today.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
On November 11, 2012, Davis was allegedly driving southbound in the northbound lane and her vehicle crashed into another vehicle, injuring that driver. She was arrested and charged with DUI, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane.
Today, she was found guilty only of failure to maintain lane. She was fined $200 and told to do 20 hours of community service.
Davis, who was at WAGA-TV for 26 years, was taken off the air and retired the following April. The retirement was not voluntary. She has not commented about her situation since it happened. (I last wrote about the case in November here.)
Her attorney William Head has not returned a call and email seeking comment. Head said she is not planning to release a statement and he himself declined to comment as well.
George Stein, an attorney in town who specializes in DUIs, is not familiar with the details of this particular case but said in situations where the primary charges are dropped and only a moving violation remains, the defendant typically is fined and sometimes given community service. That is exactly what happened to Davis.
In Stein's mind, given the circumstances, Fox 5 "should really reconsider and take a look at rehiring her. She is an experienced, talented broadcaster." (Fox 5 has since hired Cynne Simpson to replace Davis.) A Fox spokeswoman had no comment but the network did post the news on its website.
Former Fox 5 reporter Brett Martin said he doubts Fox 5 would take her back but thinks CBS Atlanta might be interested, given her brand equity in the market. "I hope she is on the road of sobriety and takes it one day at a time. She has made some mistakes in her life dealing with substance abuse. She needs to address that." Also, he wonders if Fox 5 was right in letting her go in the first place, he noted.
David Jarman, the man whose vehicle she hit, filed a civil lawsuit against her last June seeking compensation for medical costs related to injuries he suffered from the accident. The attorneys representing his case have not yet returned calls to discuss how the criminal case will affect their lawsuit.
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