The University of Georgia’s athletic director Damon Evans has tendered his resignation after reaching a separation settlement with the university.
According to the police report obtained by the AJC, Evans, 40, was “smiling and laughing” when his BMW 750i was pulled over on Roswell Rd. in Buckhead late Wednesday night.
Evans refused to take a breathalyzer test and he was transported to Fulton county jail where he spent the night. Evans obviously thought Bulldog nation extended to Buckhead from Athens where his name carries a little more weight:
“I am not trying to bribe you but I’m the athletic director of the University of Georgia,” he said. Later, he made another attempt, saying: “I don’t want you to use who I am but I would just ask that you take me to a motel.” [link]
When the cop asked Evans why he had a pair of red panties between his legs, he responded, “She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home.”
The passenger in the car, Courtney Furhmann, a 28-year-old real estate firm asset manager, was described in the report as being “very loud and obnoxious.” She was also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after telling the cop that Evans could make his arrest disappear.
“Just to let you know, it will be erased because he is the athletic director of UGA and he has that power,” she told police.
During a hastily called press conference at the Student Athlete Academic Center in Athens on Thursday, the sober father of two tried to pull a Chris Brown and a Tiger Woods as he smugly acknowledged that he made a “mistake.”
With his voice cracking at times, Evans pleaded for forgiveness and apologized profusely as his disheartened wife, Kerri Evans (pictured above, center), looked on. But as more details of his arrest (and his stupidity) emerged in the media over the weekend, the University had no choice but to ask for Evans’ resignation on Sunday.
According to reports, Evans was in Buckhead celebrating his new, five year contract when he was pulled over just minutes before that contract was set to take effect at midnight. The new contract called for Evans to receive a $110,000 raise, bringing his total salary to $550,000 annually.
It was difficult to find a UGA booster who was very forgiving of Evans’ little “mistake.”
“The DUI is bad enough,” said Jim Sommerville, a 1971 UGA grad and president of the Cobb County Bulldog Club, “but to be found at midnight in another town 70 miles from home with a woman who isn’t your wife — that’s more troubling than even the DUI. So the only options left, really, are to resign or be terminated.”
