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State v. Heredia10/4/2001
As amended October 23, 2001
The state appeals from the trial court's order granting Kevin Heredia's motion to suppress. The record shows that the trial court granted the motion for four reasons: (1) a Cobb County police officer arrested Heredia within the City of Kennesaw city limits and therefore had no jurisdiction; (2) Heredia's right to an independent chemical test was compromised by the officer changing his request for a breath test to blood and urine tests; (3) the State conducted an improper impound search of Heredia's car; and (4) the police commingled marijuana found in two different locations in the car into a single evidence bag. Because none of these grounds support the trial court's grant of the motion to suppress, we reverse.
The record shows that a Cobb County police officer stopped Heredia in the City of Kennesaw because he was weaving in a lane. After administering field sobriety tests, the officer arrested Heredia for driving under the influence and failure to maintain a lane. He then asked another officer to search Heredia's vehicle incident to his arrest and for inventory purposes. The searching officer found loose marijuana in the console area and additional marijuana in a pill bottle located in the glove box. These findings resulted in an additional charge against Heredia for violating the controlled substances act. After the marijuana was discovered, the arresting officer reread the implied consent warning to Heredia and changed his request for a breath test to a request for blood and urine tests. The officer never tested Heredia's breath and Heredia made no request for independent tests.
1. The trial court determined that the Cobb County police officer who arrested Heredia had no jurisdiction to do so based upon its application of Georgia statutes and cases to undisputed facts. As a result, we conduct de novo review of this portion of the trial court's order. Vansant v. State, 264 Ga. 319, 320 (1) (443 SE2d 474) (1994).
The trial court correctly noted that a peace officer ordinarily has power of arrest only in the territory of the governmental unit by which he was appointed. Hastings v. State, 211 Ga. App. 873, 874 (1) (441 SE2d 83) (1994). It erred, however, by too narrowly construing an exception to this general rule.
The general rule restricting the jurisdiction of peace officers in Georgia comes from our Constitution, which provides:
Unless otherwise provided by law,
(1) No county may exercise any of the [police protection] powers listed in subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph or provide any service listed therein inside the boundaries of any municipality or any other county except by contract with the municipality or county affected;
(2) No municipality may exercise any of the [police protection] powers listed in subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph or provide any service listed therein outside its own boundaries except by contract with the county or municipality affected. Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. IX, Sec. II, Par. III (b).
This court has held that two statutes, OCGA § 40-13-30 and OCGA § 17-4-23 (a), also authorize police officers to arrest persons for traffic offenses in other jurisdictions. Gehris v. State, 242 Ga. App. 384, 386 (528 SE2d 300) (2000) (OCGA § 17-4-23 (a)); Edge v. State, 226 Ga. App. 559, 564 (2) (487 SE2d 117) (1997) (OCGA § 17-4-23) ; Hastings, supra, 211 Ga. App. at 874 (OCGA § 40-3-30); City of Winterville v. Strickland, 127 Ga. App. 716, 718 (2) (194 SE2d 623) (1972) (predecessor to OCGA § 40-13-30). Since the Cobb County officer arrested Heredia for traffic offenses, DUI and failure to maintain a lane, he was authorized to do so outside of Cobb
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