About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2022)
2A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, May 11,2022 Dawsonville man arrested after fatal Feb. wreck By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com A Dawsonville man was recently arrested follow ing an investigation into a fatal vehicle crash along the local portion of Ga. 400 in February. Phillip Carl Balser, 32, of Dawsonville, was arrested on April 19 by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office and charged with two DUI counts and three felony counts of homi cide by vehicle. Balser’s passenger on the motorcycle, his fiancee Ashley Kelly, died because of injuries sustained during the wreck, and he was injured. Personnel from Georgia State Patrol’s Post 37 were requested to investigate the two-vehicle crash on Feb. 12 at 6:06 p.m. on Ga. 400 near Prestige Lane. Through an open records request, DCN obtained a copy of the incident report from GSP. The investigating trooper spoke with the driver and pas senger of one of the vehicles, a pickup truck. Both of the truck’s occupants were unin jured. The driver said he was fol lowing Balser, who was driving a motorcycle, when traffic came to a stop at the intersec tion of Lumpkin Campground and Harmony Church roads. At the stop, an uninvolved truck was first at line, followed by two motorcy cles, one of which was Balser’s. As the light turned green and vehicles flowed southbound on the highway, the involved truck driver followed the motorcy cles roughly two-thirds of the way downhill at speeds of 55-60 mph. One of the motorcycles sped off as Balser slowed down to 35-40 mph, the truck driver said. “He stated that Balser con tinued slowing and he could tell that he was doing so to attempt to ‘piss me off’ and noted that no one travels down Ga. 400 going 35-40 miles per hour,” the GSP trooper restated in his report. The driver said he kept slow ing down to try to avoid hitting Balser and saw that he was approaching his intended left turn lane. He explained he entered the grass median to get around the motorcycle and make his turn. As the driver began going onto the median, Balser kept slowing down and “turned with his left hand and shot [him] a bird” as the driver passed, accord ing to the GSP report. The driver elaborated that he was still trying to “move over” and switched his attention from Balser back to his driving path to avoid road signs. Then, the driver heard a “thump,” his wife screamed, and he looked in his side mir ror to see Balser’s motorcycle flipping end-to-end. The driver maintained his truck was never completely on the median, with two of its wheels staying on the pave ment and added that he and Balser did not know or encoun ter each other before the inci dent. He stated to the trooper that “Balser must have been upset with him for an unknown rea son, possibly that he was fol lowing him too closely.” During his time at the scene, the trooper saw the blue Suzuki motorcycle Balser had been operating lying on its left side in the center of the left and right travel lanes of Ga. 400 South. Kelly was ejected from the motorcycle and landed about 25 feet north of it. Balser was also ejected, landing about 15 feet south of the bike. After the wreck, the second driver’s black Ram 1500 pick up truck was parked about 100 feet to the south of the motor cycle, parked on the west shoulder of Ga. 400, where the driver was waiting. Balser statements When asked if he had con sumed alcohol prior to the crash, the driver said he had had one vodka drink about three hours beforehand. Field tests showed he was not impaired. The crash scene was then turned over to other troop ers as the investigating one went to speak with Balser, who’d been transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Lumpkin County. When that trooper arrived, he observed Balser wearing a neck brace. Balser shared that prior to the accident, he and his wife had been heading to Doc Bramblett Road near the Forsyth/Dawson County line after having been in Helen most of the day. When asked about the wreck, Balser said he’d driven into a curve and hit a patch of sand or gravel. This seemed to confuse the deputy, who noted that the crash occurred on “a downhill straightaway” and that there was “no debris in the roadway consistent with that.” Balser claimed he’d hit debris on Long Branch Road, a Lumpkin County road north of the crash scene. He did not remember other vehicles involved in the wreck and dou bled down on the narrative about hitting debris. Witnesses One of the five accident wit nesses corroborated the truck driver’s movements and char acterization of Balser’s maneu vers. The witness elaborated that Balser was also “swerving back and forth within his travel lane” and the truck driver was following the involved motor cycle “extremely closely.” That witness suspected a road rage altercation was occuring between the two vehi cles and saw the two vehicles make impact as the truck start ed passing Balser. Right before that, the witness said he saw Balser steer back over to the left within the travel lane “as if to say “piss on you” and make a gesture to the truck driver. Another witness stated he was 2-3 cars behind the involved pickup truck. That person added that “the motor cycle driven by Balser possibly came over’ into the turning lane which the pickup was attempting to enter,” according to the GSP report. Two other witnesses were riding in a vehicle initially in the left travel lane in traffic behind the truck driver and Balser’s vehicles. The driver of that vehicle shared a story sim Balser Dawsonville woman booked after alleged theft from charity By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com One woman remains in custody at the Dawson County Detention Center after being apprehended for allegedly taking money from a local church charity last fall. Crystal Hope Dyer, 33, of Dawsonville was arrested by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office on April 29 just after 3:30 p.m. She was charged with one count of felony theft by taking and third-degree forgery each as well as seven counts of identity fraud. A previous DCSO news release showed that Dyer was also arrested on Dec. 12, 2021 and accused of possessing drugs with the intent to distribute. The alleged fraud-related offenses occurred between Nov. 17-Dec. 30, 2021, according to nine DCSO warrants. The theft by taking warrant accused Dyer of appropriating $3,000 from St. Vincent De Paul Christ Society “by uti lizing seven fraudulent checks with the charity listed as the payee and the checks made payable to Crystal Dyer by cashing said checks or depositing them into a bank account.” One of the identity fraud warrants stat ed Dyer allegedly issued a check under false pre tenses by posing as a landlord to receive a check from the charity. Most of the fraud charges and the forgery one accused Dyer of issuing checks using the organization’s information to an account at a bank in Dawson County. Her bond for the April 29 arrest has been set at $27,700. DCN will update this story as more informa tion becomes available. FROM 1A Council with me on what is called a shade sail system.” According to Elliott, a shade sail system is a common way of providing shade to outdoor res taurant areas, commercial areas or playgrounds. The companies that have provided information about the system have estimated about 2500 square feet of cover age, and the system would be able to be put up and taken down. “It will be something that we would wanna put up probably from about March to October because the Hall of Fame now has the winner circle included in their lease, so we would like to use that area more and it’s just really hot out there with the sun beating down on you,” Elliott said. “It’s something that we could put up and take down in time to have your Christmas tree up and I think it would be more cost-effective for us hopefully at this time.” Elliott added that the addition of the proposed shade sail sys tem may require the installation of an I-beam, but museum lead ership have yet to hear for sure whether or not the beam would be necessary. The average cost of the system, she said, would be about $10 per square foot. Before the council voted on the proposal, City Manager Bob Bolz added to Elliott’s presenta tion, saying that the shade sail system would bring some much- needed shade to an otherwise hot area outside of the museum. “It’ll make that area a whole lot nicer in the summertime,” Bolz said. Council members voted unan imously to approve the proposal, allowing museum leadership to move forward with the next steps of the project. ilar to the other accounts of what happened before the inci dent. When that driver was about 100 feet ahead of the pickup truck and the motorcycle, he said he heard a loud noise, then seeing the truck in the median and the bike skidding. After the crash, that witness and his passenger, who are both EMTs, stopped to render aid. “Both stated that they did not observe the black pickup attempting to pass the motor cycle and only observed the motorcycle crashing,” the report stated. Both men could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage on Balser’s breath while they were helping him. Later, when Dawson County Sheriff’s Office deputies were helping EMS personnel secure Balser, they also detected an alcohol scent from him. At the hospital, the investi gating trooper noticed Balser’s bloodshot, watery eyes and the odor. Balser initially denied consuming alcohol but later admitted to drinking when he was in Helen. Because of the alleged events leading up to the crash, Balser’s admissions and symp toms of intoxication, the troop er determined he would charge the man with DUI. A warrant was subsequently requested for a blood draw, and the results were submitted into evidence at GSP’s Post 37 in Cumming. Balser was released April 20 on a $22,200.00 bond. 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