Court Opinion

ID: 9617565
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:57:52.959997+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:11.805025
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
Because the majority opinion either substitutes its factual determination for that of the trial court or reaches an erroneous legal conclusion that the off-duty police officer had not effected an arrest of the appellee, I must respectfully dissent.
At the hearing, the police officer testified on cross-examination as follows: “A. He said, ‘I’m going to get back in my vehicle and leave.’ And I said, ‘No, sir. You’re not going to do that.’ If that’s an arrest; that’s an arrest. Q. Okay. Fine. So my question is as far as you were concerned he had broken the law; is that right? A. Yes, sir. He had broken the law. Q. He was not free to leave, was he? A. No, sir. I wouldn’t have let him leave. Q. So for all intents and purposes, he was under arrest except you hadn’t said the magic words. Is that basically what it amounted to? A. That is correct.”
The majority opinion considers this case to be one merely involving a permissible investigatory stop. However, there appears to be little question that the off-duty police officer had concluded that the *676appellee had committed certain offenses for which he should be arrested, and had summoned other police officers to complete the arrest process. In short, at the point in time when the off-duty police officer indicated that the appellee could not leave, his investigation was over.
Decided December 1, 1988 —
Rehearing denied December 19, 1988
Patrick H. Head, Solicitor, Beverly M. Hartung, Assistant Solicitor, for appellant.
Melvin S. Nash, Mary A. Stearns, for appellee.
If 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. See Chilivis v. Turner Communications Corp., 140 Ga. App. 648, 650 (231 SE2d 415) (1976) (“act, quack, and look like ducks”). The trial court’s conclusion under its broad discretion that the off-duty police officer arrested the appellee is a realistic conclusion drawn from the evidence, and it is not clearly erroneous. Since a trial court’s factual determinations after a suppression hearing must be accepted by the appellate courts where they are not clearly erroneous, State v. Louis, 185 Ga. App. 529 (364 SE2d 896) (1988), the trial court’s order in this case should be affirmed.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Birdsong and Judge Sognier join in this dissent.