HALL COUNTY, Ga. – The Georgia Court of Appeals has cleared the way for Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch to challenge a judge’s decision allowing several pieces of evidence to remain in his pending DUI case.
Couch’s attorney, Blake Poole, filed a motion seeking to suppress evidence collected during the Feb. 27 traffic stop and subsequent DUI investigation. Couch was charged with DUI-alcohol/less safe, possession of an open container and failure to maintain lane.
Hall County State Court Judge Charles E. Auslander III agreed with the defense on one issue. In a July 9 order, the judge suppressed evidence obtained during the warrantless search of Couch’s county-issued Chevrolet Tahoe after finding that prosecutors had not established a legal exception to the warrant requirement.
The judge denied other portions of the motion, allowing evidence involving officers’ entry onto Couch’s property, his detention and arrest, field-sobriety testing, the implied-consent warning and a state-administered blood test.
Poole then sought immediate appellate review of those remaining issues, arguing that they could determine whether much of the state’s evidence is admissible at trial.
The Georgia Court of Appeals granted Couch’s application for an interlocutory appeal on Aug. 24. The order gives Couch 10 days to file a notice of appeal and directs the Hall County State Court clerk to include the appellate order in the record sent to the higher court.
The appellate docket lists the case under the court’s December/Winter term and gives a calendar date of December 2026. No oral-argument date is currently listed.
The appellate court’s decision to hear the challenge does not resolve the disputed evidence questions or determine Couch’s guilt or innocence. The criminal charges remain pending.
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