A major with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office who also directs a multi-agency narcotics squad faces charges of driving under the influence after a single-car wreck in North Georgia, officials confirmed Friday.
John New, 47, was arrested Sept. 24 in Pickens County after the Georgia State Patrol responded to the scene of the crash, Cherokee sheriff’s office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said.
“Per our policy, he notified his supervisor about the incident immediately and is on administrative leave as we conduct an internal investigation,” Baker said.
New is a member of the command staff at the sheriff’s office and director of the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad (CMANS).
According to an incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a trooper was called to the crash scene west of Jasper just before 3 p.m. the day of New’s arrest. The trooper found an overturned Jeep Wrangler near the intersection of Hill City Road and Gibson Trail, the incident report said. New told the trooper he had taken a curve too fast, the report said.
The trooper began to suspect New had been drinking, according to the report. New refused to answer any questions or undergo any evaluations, the report said, leading him to be arrested as required by Georgia law.
While New was being taken into custody, the trooper searched him and found two CMANS challenge coins, the report said. The trooper asked New if he worked with CMANS and New said he was in charge of the organization. The trooper alerted jail staff before New was booked so that other inmates could be secured away from him, the report said.
The arrest is the first official blemish on New’s law enforcement career. According to records kept by Georgia’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), New has no disciplinary history in the state. He has been employed by the sheriff’s office since 1997 and has steadily moved up the ranks.
Earlier this year, the Cherokee narcotics squad was involved in a shooting that resulted in the death of a suspected drug trafficker, the AJC previously reported.
On June 13, agents conducting an undercover operation at a Walmart in Holly Springs approached a man suspected of selling heroin and fentanyl, the sheriff’s office said. The man, later identified by the GBI as 35-year-old Normiez Reeves of Riverdale, tried to flee in his car.
Authorities said Reeves, in the process of fleeing, rammed one agent’s car and drove toward more agents, who opened fire on him. Reeves continued to drive away despite being hit by the gunfire but eventually crashed. He was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
The GBI’s investigation into the shooting is ongoing. According to the sheriff’s office, June’s shooting was the first involving CMANS since 1993.
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