Court Opinion

ID: 9586307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:09:20.500414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:27:51.094728
License: Public Domain

Andrews, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although I concur with Division 2, because I believe that the trial judge did not, under the facts of this case, make clearly erroneous factual or legal conclusions concerning whether Pastorini was “in custody,” I must respectfully dissent as to Division 1.
Pastorini filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence of the field sobriety tests administered to him. The same appellate rules apply to our review of both a motion in limine and a motion to suppress. State v. Leviner, 213 Ga. App. 99 (1) (443 SE2d 688) (1994), quoting Baldwin v. State, 263 Ga. 524, 525 (1) (435 SE2d 926) (1993). Therefore, the factual and credibility determinations made by the trial judge in granting a motion in limine must be accepted by this Court unless *320clearly erroneous. Tate v. State, 264 Ga. 53, 54 (1) (440 SE2d 646) (1994); Leviner, supra; Rogers v. State, 206 Ga. App. 654 (426 SE2d 209) (1992).
Decided July 12, 1996
Gerald N Blaney, Jr., Solicitor, Richard E. Thomas, Allison L. Thatcher, Assistant Solicitors, for appellant.
William C. Head, for appellee.
As in Rogers v. State, supra at 657 (2), when Officer Griffith took Pastorini’s license and registration, due to his location on the shoulder of Peachtree Parkway, a six lane limited access highway, at its intersection with Holcomb Bridge Road, Pastorini was “effectively immobilized without his driver’s license since had he tried to drive away he could have been arrested for driving without a license. OCGA §§ 40-5-20; 40-5-29. [Cits.]” Id. at 658.
Also, Officer Griffith’s investigation, at this point, had broadened from consideration of which, if either, driver to cite for a moving traffic violation as a result of the auto accident into one involving a noticeably intoxicated driver who would , not be allowed to leave the scene under his own power. Compare Carroll v. State, 203 Ga. App. 22 (416 SE2d 354) (1992), with Hughes v. State, 259 Ga. 227, 228 (1) (378 SE2d 853) (1989). As stated in dissent by Judge Deen in State v. Hughes, 189 Ga. App. 671, 676 (377 SE2d 192) (1988), modified by Hughes, supra, “[i]f something looks like an arrest, sounds like an arrest, and acts like an arrest, it probably is an arrest, regardless of whether or not one uses the magic word itself.”
I would affirm the trial court’s grant of Pastorini’s motion regarding exclusion of the field sobriety tests on the basis he was in custody. State v. Whitfield, 214 Ga. App. 574 (3) (448 SE2d 492) (1994); see Weeks v. State, 206 Ga. App. 431, 433 (425 SE2d 421) (1992).
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Birdsong and Judge Smith join in this opinion.