CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Clayton County commissioner responded Tuesday night to calls for her to resign after police say her claims of being drugged inside a local sports bar were not true.
Video from inside 404 Sports Bar and Grill shows Commissioner Felicia Franklin consuming drinks and then collapsing outside the bar on Sept. 29. Police body camera video showed Franklin being combative in an ambulance.
Franklin told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that she believes she was drugged with GHB – better known as “the date rape drug.” Last week, Morrow police said they found no evidence of the drug in her system, but cannabinoids did turn up in a urinalysis.
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During a commissioners meeting on Tuesday night, Franklin spoke about the calls for her to resign following the incident.
“I want you to hear me clearly: I’m going to resign as the District 3 commissioner the day that I’m elected as the Chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners,” Franklin said.
Channel 2 Action News reported last week that Morrow Police Sgt. Scott Stewart reviewed hours of police bodycam video and security video from inside the bar and grill to determine what caused Franklin to pass out while outside the club, and later behave combatively while in a Morrow Fire/EMS ambulance.
Stewart said though his investigation showed Franklin consumed at least some from the wine and three mixed drinks she was served -- plus a swig from someone else’s beer -- he wanted to know if there was something else in her system.
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Stewart served a subpoena on the hospital where Franklin was taken after police found her in distress.
“I received the results back from Southern Regional. Ms. Franklin refused blood work. This shows in the document. Ms. Franklin was given a urine test which showed positive for cannabinoid. There is no more evidence in this case,” Stewart wrote in his report.
Franklin’s spokesman Shaheen Solomon told Winne that he’s known Franklin for about 35 years, and she doesn’t get drunk, and there’s no way she uses marijuana.
“If cannabinoid was actually found in her system, that just goes to show that she was in fact drugged because the commissioner does not consume any cannabinoids or any marijuana,” said Shaheen Solomon, a spokesman for Franklin. “I’ve known (Franklin) for 30-plus years and I’ve never known her to consume any of those items, and she’s well known around the community as well and people know her very well, to know that she doesn’t consume those items.”
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