DocketNumber: A17A1785
Citation Numbers: 810 S.E.2d 660
Judges: Mercier
Filed Date: 2/14/2018
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/29/2022
Following a bench trial, Alfred Harris, Jr. was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. Harris appeals his conviction, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.
"The State bears the burden of proving that both the search and seizure of evidence were lawful." Lucas v. State ,
An officer with the Clayton County Police Department testified as follows at the suppression hearing. The officer was stopped in his vehicle behind Harris's vehicle at a traffic light at the intersection of two roads, and another vehicle was in front of Harris's at the light. Harris's right turn signal was engaged. After waiting for several minutes, Harris turned right into an adjacent gas station, drove through the gas station parking lot, and exited on the other side of the gas station to avoid the traffic light. The officer conducted a traffic stop on Harris.
The officer testified that a "Code Section... says no vehicle shall disengage to a traffic control device by running the traffic control device." According to the officer, he believed Harris violated the law by "disengaging the stop light, as the Code Section states, by cutting through the parking lot ... instead of sitting for the light to turn green." The officer further testified that he had been trained that individuals are not allowed to do what Harris did, and he has stopped other drivers in the past for this same conduct. The officer did not identify in his testimony the particular "Code Section" on which he relied, but it is undisputed that the officer believed that Harris had violated OCGA § 40-6-20. As a result of the officer's interaction with Harris during the traffic stop, he subsequently arrested Harris for driving under the influence of alcohol and also charged him with a traffic control device violation pursuant to OCGA § 40-6-20.
OCGA § 40-6-20 (a) states,
The driver of any vehicle shall obey the instructions of an official traffic-control device applicable thereto ... unless otherwise directed by a police officer," subject to exceptions not applicable to this case. OCGA § 40-6-20 (e) states, "The disregard or disobedience of the instructions of any official traffic-control device or signal *662placed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter by the driver of a vehicle shall be deemed prima-facie evidence of a violation of law, without requiring proof of who and by what authority such sign or device has been erected.
Although the trial court found that no violation of OCGA § 40-6-20 had occurred, it further found that the traffic stop was legal because the officer's mistake of law was "reasonable but honest." Specifically, the court found that "the officer was under a reasonable belief, based on what he testified was his training, ... [and] the fact [that] he had cited other people for making the same movement[.]" Following a bench trial in which the relevant facts were stipulated to by the State and by Harris, the court found Harris guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol, and this appeal followed.
In a single enumeration, Harris argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because taking a detour through the gas station parking lot to avoid the traffic signal did not violate OCGA § 40-6-20 and the officer's incorrect understanding of the law did not give rise to the reasonable articulable suspicion required for a traffic stop. The State concedes that Harris did not violate OCGA § 40-6-20 or any other Georgia statute by taking a detour through the parking lot, but argues that because the officer had a good faith basis to believe that Harris violated the law, the traffic stop was based on reasonable articulable suspicion and was valid.
"For a traffic stop to be valid, an officer must identify specific and articulable facts that provide a reasonable suspicion that the individual being stopped is engaged in criminal activity." Jones , supra at 38 (2),
In Abercrombie v. State ,
[W]e have previously explained that if an officer, acting in good faith, believes that an unlawful act has been committed, his actions are not rendered improper by a later legal determination that the defendant's actions were not a crime according to a technical legal definition or distinction determined to exist in the penal statute. Instead, when an officer's honest belief that a traffic violation has actually occurred proves to be incorrect, the officer's mistaken-but-honest belief may nevertheless demonstrate the existence of at least an articulable suspicion and reasonable grounds for the stop. And, as we have explained, it is not the function of law-enforcement officers to determine on the spot such matters as the legal niceties in the definition of a certain crime, for these are matters for the courts. To the contrary, the question that must be decided is whether the officer's motives and actions at the time and under all the circumstances were reasonable and not arbitrary or harassing. In light of Heien , courts must assess whether an officer's
"mistaken-but-honest" belief as to the requirements of a law was objectively reasonable in terms of statutory construction.
It is clear, based on the plain language of OCGA § 40-6-20 (a) and (e), that Harris did not violate the statute because he did not "disregard" or "disobey" the traffic light's instruction to stop at the intersection. See generally State v. Mussman ,
"[U]nlike the statute at issue in Heien , there is but one reasonable interpretation of the statute[ ] in this case[.]" Abercrombie , supra at 785 (2) (a),
We note that the trial court's ruling was based on State v. Cartwright ,
Further, there is no good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule in Georgia. See Abercrombie , supra at 790 (2) (b),
Judgment reversed.
Barnes, P. J., and McMillian, J., concur.