Court Opinion

ID: 9567425
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:53:43.798338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:36.337033
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge,
dissenting.
While I am in full accord with the majority’s determinations that appellant withdrew his consent to search and that his detention became an arrest, I cannot support the conclusion that the arrest was supported by probable cause to believe that appellant was committing a crime.
“Probable cause to arrest exists where, based on objective facts and circumstances, a man of reasonable caution would believe that a crime has been or is being committed. [Cit.]” Williams v. State, 251 Ga. 749, 792 (8) (a) (ii) (312 SE2d 40) (1983). The question is whether, at the time appellant was arrested, “the objective facts known to the officer would justify issuance of a . . . warrant. . . .” Love v. State, 254 Ga. 697, 698 (334 SE2d 173) (1985). That an unemployed college student rents a car in northern Illinois in late October-early November, travels to southern Florida, makes telephone calls back to Illinois, and does not have a key to the trunk of his rental automobile does not lead a person of reasonable caution to believe that a crime is being committed. Too many unjustified conclusions have to be reached before one can say with any degree of certainty that the officer’s suspicions of illegal activity evolved into probable cause to arrest. The fact that appellant was an unemployed student does not justify the conclusion that he could not afford to rent the car he was driving. Perhaps he was independently wealthy; perhaps his parents agreed to finance his trip to find an automobile. The fact that appellant was not attending classes for a week in mid-autumn does not justify the conclusion that he was engaged in illegal drug activity. Perhaps his school was closed for some type of break; perhaps appellant was engaged in some kind of independent study program. Even if classes were in session, if the fact that a college student skips school for a week to go to Florida constitutes probable cause to believe that he is engaged in illegal activity, then all young people driving cars *90with out-of-state tags in a beach area are subject to arrest. The officer in the case at bar, well trained in drug interdiction, detained appellant because he had suspicions and wanted a drug-sniffing dog to confirm those suspicions. It was only after the dog alerted to the presence of contraband that the officer applied to the attending magistrate for a warrant. Thus, in the officer’s mind, he did not have the requisite probable cause to arrest appellant until the drug dog alerted, some 50 minutes after the officer had, in fact, arrested appellant.
Decided July 7, 1988
Rehearing denied July 28, 1988
Donald F. Samuel, for appellant.
Darrell E. Wilson, District Attorney, for appellee.
“This court knows and fully appreciates the delicate and difficult task of those who are charged with the duty of detecting crime and apprehending criminals, and it will uphold them in the most vigilant legal discharge of all their duties, but it utterly repudiates the doctrine that these important duties cannot be successfully performed without the use of illegal and despotic means. It is not true that in the effort to detect crime and to punish the criminal, The end justifies the means.’ This is especially not true when the means adopted are violative of the very essence of constitutional free government. Neither the liberty of the citizen nor the sanctity of his home should be invaded without legal warrant [or probable cause]. Suspicion is no substitute for a legal warrant, and the badge of authority is the emblem of law and order, and gives no right to the wearer to arrest without warrant [and] imprison without authority.” Underwood v. State, 13 Ga. App. 206, 213 (78 SE 1103) (1913).
I respectfully dissent from the affirmance of the trial court’s denial of appellant’s motion to suppress.
I am authorized to state that Judge Carley and Judge Sognier join in this dissent.