A 37-year-old Cedartown man is facing seven separate charges after police say he fled the scene of a crash, appeared intoxicated, and then exposed himself and urinated on a stranger's porch while officers tried to take him into custody. Edgar Ramirez-Perez was arrested following the Friday, October 2 incident near Highland Avenue and Noyes Street.
According to Coosa Valley News, Cedartown Police Department officers responded to Highland Avenue after receiving a report of a hit-and-run. An officer at the scene observed damage to the complainant's vehicle, and people outside a nearby residence told police that the male involved had fled eastbound on Noyes Street.
An officer soon spotted Ramirez-Perez standing between two vehicles on Noyes Street and instructed him to approach, giving commands in both English and Spanish. The officer reported that Ramirez-Perez appeared intoxicated. After several commands went unheeded, Ramirez-Perez walked away toward a residence porch.
Porch Confrontation Turns Physical
Once on the porch, Ramirez-Perez removed his penis and urinated in front of officers, the outlet's report states. As the officer attempted to detain him, he noticed a weapon on the ground between himself and Ramirez-Perez. Ramirez-Perez then pulled his arm away as the officer tried to place him in handcuffs.
The officer ultimately handcuffed Ramirez-Perez and removed him from the porch. Officers ordered him to stop urinating during the encounter, but per the report, he refused. He was then placed inside a patrol vehicle.
Residents of the home where the incident occurred told police they did not know Ramirez-Perez, and said he had knocked on their door just minutes before the confrontation began, the report notes.
Seven Charges, Compounding Penalties
Ramirez-Perez is charged with public indecency, loitering, public drunkenness, hit and run, DUI, driving on a suspended license, and resisting police, according to the same account. Under Georgia Code § 16-6-8, public indecency is a misdemeanor carrying up to 12 months in jail and fines up to $1,000 for a first or second offense, as detailed by Justia.
The hit-and-run charge carries its own consequences. Leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage is a misdemeanor under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-270 that is punishable by up to 12 months in jail, along with a mandatory 120-day driver's license suspension imposed by the Georgia Department of Driver Services, per Brett Willis Law.
Driving on a suspended license adds further mandatory minimums. Georgia Code § 40-5-121 sets a mandatory minimum penalty of two days to 12 months in jail, a fine between $500 and $1,000, and an additional six-month license suspension, according to FindLaw.
What Georgia Law Says About Resisting and DUI
The resisting police charge likely falls under misdemeanor obstruction rather than a felony, since Georgia statute O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24 reserves felony charges for cases involving violence or threats of violence. Non-violent hindrance or pulling away during detention is typically punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine, as explained by The McCoy Law Firm's analysis of the statute.
If the DUI charge results in a conviction with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391 requires a mandatory minimum of 24 hours in jail, 40 hours of community service, mandatory DUI Risk Reduction school, and up to 12 months of probation, according to the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety. It remains unclear whether blood or breath alcohol test results were formally obtained in this case.
Local Context: Jail, Courts, and Demographics
Ramirez-Perez would have been booked and held at the Polk County Jail, located at 1676 Rockmart Highway in Cedartown and operated by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, which serves as the main holding facility for arrests made by the Cedartown Police Department. Charges stemming from the arrest will be prosecuted by the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office at the Polk County Courthouse, according to Polk County GA Government.
Law enforcement duties in and around Cedartown are divided among three agencies: the municipal Cedartown Police Department, the Polk County Police Department, and the elected Polk County Sheriff's Office, a jurisdictional structure Hoodline has detailed before in coverage of another Polk County police incident.
The bilingual commands officers used during the encounter reflect the makeup of Cedartown itself. The city, which serves as the county seat of Polk County, has a 2026 population of roughly 10,500 residents, with an estimated 38% identifying as Hispanic or Latino and more than 30% speaking a language other than English at home, according to the Sara Hightower Regional Library. Polk County itself was created in December 1851, named for President James K. Polk, and spans 312 square miles in northwest Georgia, roughly 60 miles northwest of Atlanta.
It remains unclear how much damage the complainant's vehicle sustained, and whether the weapon spotted on the ground during the officer's attempt to detain Ramirez-Perez belonged to him or was otherwise connected to the incident.
