After law enforcement authorities searched for a Milledgeville man for five months, he is now in jail at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Quartez Jerome Madison, 31, of Pine Cone Road, Milledgeville, is facing charges including reckless driving and speeding.
Around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. James Barbee III saw two vehicles “traveling south at a high rate of speed on Milledgeville Road,” he says in his report.
The two vehicles were both traveling in the left lane and passing another car in the right lane. Barbee turned on his radar, which revealed the two vehicles were traveling 124 mph in the 60 mph zone. Barbee turned on his car’s blue lights and sirens and turned around to pursue the two vehicles. He saw one of them, a gray 2000 Honda Accord, stop at the traffic light at the intersection of Twin Bridges and Pea Ridge roads. The black SUV was seen speeding alongside the gray sedan was nowhere in sight.
The driver of the Accord, later identified as Madison, pulled over to the side of the road for the deputy. When Barbee approached the car, Madison was talking on his cell phone.
Madison told Barbee that he went to visit a family member in Eatonton, and while driving back home, the black SUV came up behind him very fast and swerved over as if to run him off the road.
“Quartez sped up to try to get away from the SUV, but the SUV matched Quartez’s speed and tried to run him off the road several more times,” the incident report reveals. “Quartez called his brother after the first incident and was still talking on the phone when the other incidents occurred.”
Barbee spoke to the person on the phone, who confirmed the story. Barbee then told Madison he should’ve called 911 instead of speeding up and calling a family member.
“Quartez did not know who the driver of the SUV was, and apologized. He then said that he was scared because he did not know what the other driver’s intent was,” Barbee’s report states.
Madison was allowed to continue on his way while Barbee searched for the black SUV and investigated the case. FLOCK cameras did not reveal the SUV’s whereabouts, and Barbee was unable to locate it during his search.
Future attempts by the deputy to contact Madison were unsuccessful, as were visits to his family members’ homes. Family members’ accounts of the incidents were different from Madison’s, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.
Traffic citations were written, and warrants were obtained for Madison’s arrest.
“The only reason the other driver wasn’t arrested is because we don’t know who he is,” Sills said.
On May 12, the Milledgeville Police Department notified Barbee that they had arrested Madison, and he was turned over to Barbee without incident.