Mike McGowan is getting help with his alcohol-related problems.

It was that or face the three months in jail prosecutors were seeking.

McGowan, the former spokesman for the Cherokee County school system, is enrolled in the county’s DUI/Drug Court.

The program is an intensive supervision and rehabilitation court for repeat offenders. It has strict rules that McGowan must follow including the wearing of an alcohol-monitoring ankle device.

This was McGowan’s fourth DUI arrest in Georgia.

Solicitor General David Cannon Jr. said McGowan asked the court to be allowed to participate in the drug court program.

“They have to want to do it for themselves,” said Cannon, who didn’t handle the case himself.

Cannon said his assistant solicitor took the case to court because his father, David Cannon Sr., was McGowan’s defense attorney.

“I didn’t touch it,” he said about the possible conflict of interest.

McGowan, 40, pleaded guilty in late January to the DUI he got Dec. 17, 2010, in Cherokee, plus the charge of failure to maintain a lane. Both are misdemeanors.

A sentence of 90 days in jail was suspended as long as McGowan complies with the drug court program, pays his fines and fees and completes his 40 hours of community service.

The drug court program can last up to two years.

Because it was the first DUI conviction McGowan had had in five years, he is able to get a limited drivers license to get to work and court-related activities.

McGowan was arrested Dec. 17 on Little Refuge Road. Deputy Brad Gibbs found six Michelob Ultra bottle caps in his front right pocket.

McGowan told the deputy that he had just come from Sheriff Roger Garrison's house and was wearing his pants. Garrison has said that McGowan was not at his house that night, but two nights before that during an ice storm.

Garrison lent McGowan a pair of pants the next morning, said sheriff department spokesman Jay Baker.

McGowan has been convicted of three DUIs in Cherokee County, in 1998, 2003 and 2010. A fourth DUI charge in 2008 in Pickens County was reduced to reckless driving.

McGowan met with Cherokee School Superintendent Frank Petruzielo in December to discuss the status of his job. He requested an extended leave without pay, according to a statement the district released then.

The school system has since advertised for a new spokesperson, but said McGowan is still employed.

Several calls to the school board attorney in the last few days have not been returned.