Officer Taylor Saulters who was terminated on Saturday for mowing down a fleeing suspect with his police cruiser started his new job on Monday in a neighboring county.
Saulters was hired Monday afternoon by the neighboring Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office, according to WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News.
Saulters was terminated on Saturday by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department after the June 1 chase that began when he spotted Timmy Patton who was wanted on a felony warrant.
Saulters drove up on a curb, blowing out one of the vehicle’s tires, as Patmon dashed into the street. The officer accelerated again and rammed Patmon from behind with the vehicle’s right front bumper.
Patmon was treated at a local hospital for cuts and abrasions. He was booked into the Clarke County jail and charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer. His bail was set at $1,500.
“I am relieved that he was fired,” said Patmon’s mother Tammy Brown-Patmon. “Justice was served.”
But Saulters’ attorney, Philip Holloway, confirmed that his client fielded “multiple offers of employment and is now back at work in law enforcement.”
“This is a testament to the fact that seasoned veteran law enforcement officials recognize the lawfulness of my client’s actions and the injustice of his termination,” Holloway’s statement to Channel 2 Action News said.
Saulters was a rookie cop who had been with the department for less than a year when he was fired for violating department policy.
“The officer was very adamant that it wasn’t his intention to strike Mr. Patmon,” Police Chief Scott Freeman said. “The officer accelerates the vehicle, there is some wheel movement where it appears that steering wheel is being turned to strike Patmon.”
But Holloway argued that his client’s actions were well within the law.
“Under the totality of the circumstances Officer Salters’ actions were objectively reasonable.”
Saulters did not lose a day of work.
