Original Article Patrol's discipline goes to pot Rhonda Cook Cox News Service Nov. 11, 2004 12:00 AM ATLANTA - The Georgia State Patrol suspended two troopers without pay for giving NASCAR driver Bill Elliott a lift in a helicopter that was supposed to be looking for marijuana plants. The military-style chopper was supposed to be in the air directing ground teams of local, state and federal law enforcement officers to marijuana plants in the Georgia mountains on June 29. Instead, Cpl. Kevin Coalson, the pilot, and Lt. Eddie Williams spent two hours shuttling Elliott from his home in Dawsonville, where he had dropped off an airplane, back to Blairsville, where Elliott's car was parked. advertisement While members of the Governor's Task Force on Drug Suppression waited for details about the location of marijuana fields spotted from the air, Coalson and Williams were touring Elliott's hangar and landing strip in Dawsonville. On the flight back to Blairsville, the NASCAR driver, who also is a licensed rotocraft pilot, took the controls of the state helicopter, a surplus military aircraft that was only to be used for law enforcement purposes. The troopers could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but, according to the investigative files, Coalson and Williams told State Patrol investigators they didn't know there was anything wrong with giving Elliott a ride. The explanation stunned Col. George Ellis, commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety. "What bothers me is some of the comments by the pilots that they didn't know what the rules were," said Ellis. "We're satisfied that we've taken appropriate action." Coalson was suspended without pay for three days last week. Williams was suspended without pay for six days, beginning Monday of this week. Both admitted to the events that day and neither challenged their punishment. An investigation also revealed Coalson flew two women and one's son to take aerial pictures of the Brasstown Valley Resort, a state-owned property managed by a private company. The two women worked at the resort. "It was an inappropriate flight," said Ellis, who added that the flight crew "should have been up there doing their jobs, and they weren't." A DEA agent assigned to the task force began complaining almost immediately about the shuttle flights. According to the file, just moments after the helicopter returned to Blairsville with Elliot, DEA Agent Frazier Moreman told Coalson "it shouldn't have happened."