Court Opinion

ID: 9561714
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:14:44.380847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:17.850446
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Division 2. With respect to Division 1, I concur in the conclusion that the trial court did not err. There is ample evidence that Weidmann drove her vehicle while under the influence of alcohol both in Cobb County and in Douglas County, so this crime was encompassed within the venue description provided in OCGA § 17-2-2 (a). It could have been tried in either county.1
The same is true with respect to the charges that Weidmann knowingly and wilfully obstructed and hindered both officers. Although she did not engage in such behavior while in Cobb County initially, when Officer Atwood noticed her erratic driving and followed her into Douglas County without her knowing that he was about to stop her, her criminal reactions to the stop and arrest in Douglas County continued in the police car on the way to the police station, while in Cobb County. These acts, too, if separated into those which occurred in Douglas and those which occurred in Cobb, could have been prosecuted in either county.
This is simply not a situation where a crime is committed in one county and defendant is brought to another county for prosecution.

 The trial court charged the jury: “As to Courts . . . charging the defendant with obstruction of officers Atwood and Saxton, you may not consider any of the actions of the Defendant that occurred at the scene of the arrest as it was in Douglas County and beyond the jurisdiction of this Court. You may, however, consider all of the actions of the Defendant and the officers whether in Cobb County or Douglas County as they may relate to your determination of the guilt or innocence of the accused in . . . the driving under the influence charge.”