A speeding driver was arrested after attempting to give Officers a false identity and the passenger was arrested for meth after being transported to an area hospital.

On September 14th, while running RADAR, Chattooga County Sheriffs Deputies clocked a passing vehicle running 82 miles per hour in a 55 miles per hour zone on Highway 27.  Deputies managed to pull over the speeding driver who stated that she was en-route to the hospital due to her male passenger possibly having a heart attack. After requesting EMS to the scene for the distressed passenger, Deputies asked the female driver for her drivers license, which she was unable to produce. The driver gave the name of Heather Nichols with a birth date of August 2nd, 1988. She stated that the vehicle she was driving had been rented by her grandfather as his vehicle had been in an accident, but Nichols was unable to produce any rental information for the car. Officers had the Chattooga E-911 system run Nichols name and date of birth, which returned no information. Nichols then gave two other dates of birth, November 20th, 1988 and August 3rd, 1988 both of which returned no information as well. At this point Nichols was asked to step out of the vehicle and she admitted that she had just been released from a 10 year stint in Federal prison for Meth trafficking charges. At this point Nichols provided Deputies with her correct name and date of birth, which turned out to be Keri Diane Nichols, who had a suspended license as well as warrants in Rabun County, Georgia for traffic offenses. At this point Nichols was placed under arrest and consent was given to search the vehicle. A search turned up several identifications with the names Heather Nichols and Alyssa Rodriguez Del Ray. While being booked Nichols was found to have multiple debit cards with the names Heather Nichols and Wanda Ray. Wanda Ray turned out to be Nichols aunt and it appeared she had stolen Mrs. Rays cards. The cards were turned over to investigators.

The passenger in the vehicle was identified as Timothy Keith Long was transported via ambulance to Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome where he was later arrested at the emergency department. Long had attempted to conceal around 1.5 pounds of methamphetamine in his pants, that was discovered during the course of treatment at the hospital. Long was arrested and transported to the Floyd County Jail.