‘Now You Don’t Have Any Freedom’: Georgia Officer’s Decision to Take Wild DUI Joyride In State Issued SUV Ends with a Bloody Crash and People Sleeping In the Street
A Georgia law enforcement officer decided to take a government-issued vehicle out for a night on the town, and now she is facing serious charges.
Alexis Latrice Friendly, 27, reportedly caused a multi-car crash on the Fourth of July while allegedly driving drunk in a state vehicle. The crash shut down a major stretch of Georgia’s I-20 for hours and left at least one person seriously injured.
The incident happened just before midnight, about 22 miles outside of Atlanta, in Douglas County.
Friendly, a parole and probation officer with the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, was behind the wheel of a state-owned Ford Explorer when she rear-ended a Toyota Corolla on I-20 East near Fairburn Road, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
The driver of the Corolla suffered serious injuries and was later airlifted to Kennestone Hospital.
The impact caused both vehicles to spin out, according to the crash report. Friendly’s SUV then hit a Mitsubishi Outlander in a neighboring lane and a Lexus parked on the left shoulder. All eastbound lanes were shut down for several hours overnight as troopers investigated and cleaned up the scene.
LaJoyce Harris, one of the many drivers caught in the standstill, said the wait lasted over six hours.
“People ended up getting out, turning all their cars off, all their lights off, and sitting in the street… lying down, going to sleep,” she recalled.
When Harris found out a law enforcement officer was allegedly responsible, she said, “It’s probably going to weigh hard on them. The families that are affected by this, no one wants to be celebrating freedom, and now you don’t have any freedom.”
Troopers determined Friendly was under the influence and arrested her at the scene. She was taken to a hospital with minor injuries before being booked into jail. She’s facing several charges, including DUI, serious injury by vehicle, speeding, failure to maintain lane, following too closely, and not wearing a seatbelt. As of now, she remains in jail without bond.
The Georgia Department of Community Supervision released a statement confirming Friendly’s arrest:
“The Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS) is aware of the arrest of Community Supervision Officer Alexis Friendly, accused of driving under the influence while operating a state vehicle. Our Department acts swiftly and decisively to remove an officer from public safety duties when it is alleged that they have acted in a manner that negatively impacts the public safety mission of the Department. Upon learning of the arrest, the officer was immediately suspended,” said DCS Public Relations Manager Jamelle Washington.
The department said the case remains under investigation.