A former University of Georgia police officer who said he was fired after following a new law barring criminal charges against anyone voluntarily seeking medical help for an alcohol or drug overdose has filed a whistleblower suit against his old department, UGA’s police chief and his former supervising officers.
According to a suit filed this week in Fulton County Superior Court, Jay Park was accused of insubordination and terminated three days after he told his superiors that he could not arrest an “obviously unwell youth” apparently suffering from alcohol poisoning last year. Park cited Georgia’s 2014 “Medical Amnesty Law,” which states that “any person who, in good faith, seeks medical assistance for someone who is experiencing an alcohol-related overdose shall not be arrested, charged or prosecuted” for a violation of the law.
