Court Opinion

ID: 9565915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:30:08.389189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:44.999264
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Division 1 but have reservations regarding Division 2.
The error enumerated is the sufficiency of the evidence. The only particular element attacked on appeal is the alcohol influence evidence, which was adequate. There was scanty evidence, however, that the operation of the van was upon the place alleged in the Uniform Traffic Citation, i.e., “[u]pon the Public Highway and/or Street. . . .” This is a place covered in OCGA § 40-6-3. This location of the act had to be established in order for the act in this case to be a crime, Dockery v. State, 95 Ga. App. 486 (1) (98 SE2d 123) (1957) and Jordan v. State, 212 Ga. 337, 339 (92 SE2d 528) (1956), although place is no longer a material element of the offense, Flanders v. State, 97 Ga. App. 779, 780 (104 SE2d 538) (1958). See Walker v. State, 146 Ga. App. 237, 241-242 (1b) (246 SE2d 206) (1978).
One officer testified: “As I turned off the road, I observed a van *422pulling out of the driveway at 1804 [Ball Street] with the headlights on . . . The van was pulling towards — it was in the driveway pulling towards Ball Street. As I turned off, it backed back into the driveway and turned the headlights off . . . [Defendant] wanted to argue with me that he was in a driveway after I told him he was under arrest. . . .”
Decided April 19, 1990.
Hackel & Hackel, Thomas M. Hackel, for appellant.
Douglas L. Gibson, Solicitor, for appellee.
The other officer testified: “We observed a van that was just pulling out of a driveway. It got about — almost into the street and backed back up and turned its lights off.”
Defendant denied altogether that he drove “down the driveway” and “back[ed] back up.” When the officers stopped their vehicle, the van was “probably halfway between” the house and the street, defendant said. He also testified that he asked the officers for an opportunity to get a witness before they took him to the station “[b]ecause I hadn’t been on any public road or highway and especially intoxicated at all that day.”
Defendant was not charged with driving while intoxicated in the driveway, although private property is constitutionally included. Cook v. State, 220 Ga. 463 (1) (139 SE2d 383) (1964).
There being direct albeit slight inferential proof that the operation of the van extended to and was on a public street as alleged, rather than only on private property, it was sufficient.