When he was stopped by a Georgia State Patrol trooper late Wednesday night, UGA Athletic Director Damon Evans was smiling and laughing, according to the incident report.
But just before he was booked into Atlanta City Jail on a DUI charge, Evans was "crying uncontrollably," said Trooper M. Cabe, who pulled over Evans' 2009 BMW after he meandered across the center line of Roswell Road near Chastain Drive at 11:55 p.m. Wednesday.
Evans, who admitted to drinking three Vodka cocktails, began bargaining with the trooper as soon as he realized he might be placed under arrest. "I am not trying to bribe you but I'm the athletic director of the University of Georgia," Evans said.
The arrest report, released at 4:55 p.m. Friday of a holiday weekend, reveals several embarrassing details for the 40-year-old Evans, whose lucrative new 5-year contract went into effect Thursday.
The passenger in Evans' car, 28-year-old Courtney Fuhrmann, was being "very loud and obnoxious and was obviously intoxicated," Cabe wrote. She repeatedly got out of the car, ignoring the trooper's instructions, before she was handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, according to the incident report.
"I apologize and don't want to use my influence but she is trying to protect me," Evans told Cabe. Furmann remained "combative," the trooper wrote, and after Evans refused to take a breath test he was arrested.
The trooper, who noted that Evans had a pair of red panties between his legs, asked the athletic director "what her panties were doing in his side of the seat. He stated, ‘She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home.' "
Evans told the trooper "there was nothing there" between him and the Buckhead woman "because he had a wife and family."
Evans appeared relaxed when first stopped by the trooper. "I feel pretty good," he told the trooper, then "smiled and laughed for no apparent reason." Cabe said Evans had "red, bloodshot, watery eyes and droopy eyelids" and he detected "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage."
The Nebraska native asked the trooper to let him off with a warning.
"I told him I don't issue warnings for DUI," Cabe replied.
Evans tried again: "I don't want you to use who I am but I would just ask that you take me to a motel."
After he was arrested, the father of two -- who refused a Breathalyzer -- told the trooper, "We go through life and we all drink and jump in a car."
In a taped message that appears during every UGA home game, Evans tells fans, "If you drink and drive, you lose."
Fuhrmann told Cabe the charges wouldn't stick, according to the incident report.
"Just to let you know, it will be erased because he is the athletic director of UGA and he has that power," she said.
Evans, who met Friday with an Athens attorney, will make his first appearance in Municipal Court July 12 to enter a plea on charges of drunken driving, illegal lane change and failure to submit to an alcohol test.
At a news conference in Athens Thursday, Evans said he hoped to hang onto his job.
"I let this university down, I let my family down, I let those in the Bulldog Nation down," Evans said. "My behavior, my actions, were not indicative of what we teach our student-athletes at the University of Georgia."
The man who groomed Evans for the the AD's job, Vince Dooley, told the AJC Friday, "I feel for Damon ... I really do." He declined further comment."
Addressing university administrators and Bulldogs fans, Evans said he would "do everything in my power to make you believe in me again."
"My desire is to keep my job," he said.
Evans, who could not be reached for comment Friday, may not get the chance.
In a statement released before the incident report, Adams said he will "reserve further action pending a full review by staff and legal counsel."
Return to ajc.com for updates.
--Staff writers Chip Towers and Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this report
Previous coverage:
** Bradley: UGA should let him go
** Evans apologizes, asks to keep job
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