A congressional candidate for northwest Georgia will be in a jail cell from now through election day.
Steven Lamar Foster, a Democrat running against Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, was sentenced to six months in jail during a hearing in Whitfield County Superior Court today. Judge Cindy Morris also sentenced him to six months on probation following his release from jail.
Dalton police arrested Foster on West Walnut Avenue around 2:20 a.m. on Sept. 23. According to an incident report, he blew a .103 on a breathalyzer. The maximum punishment for a first-time DUI offense is one year in jail.
“I was floored when the sentence came down,” his fiance, Connie Hall-Scott, told the Times Free Press after the hearing today. “… I was astounded because this is crazy unfair.”
For months, Foster represented himself in court and filed a motion to dismiss in July, arguing that Dalton police failed to give him an independent blood sample that he could test to prepare his defense. (In an incident report, an officer wrote that Foster demanded some sort of chemical test but would not clarify what he wanted.)