Court Opinion

ID: 9594813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:33:10.720734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:28.918999
License: Public Domain

Cooper, Judge,
concurring specially.
I agree with the majority that the officers acted illegally when they initially blocked appellant’s vehicle. I also agree that by the time the officers finally stopped appellant, the stop was legal because the officers had actually witnessed appellant breaking the law, and that the contraband was properly seized pursuant to the plain view doctrine. I write separately only to emphasize that an individual’s flight — particularly when that flight is in response to illegal action on the part of police officers — cannot alone change an illegal stop into a legal one. Harris v. State, 205 Ga. App. 813 (1) (423 SE2d 723) (1992) does not hold otherwise, for in both Harris and Green v. State, 127 Ga. App. 713 (194 SE2d 678) (1972), on which the Harris decision relies, we noted the presence of other circumstances supporting an articulable suspicion or probable cause. Thus, in my opinion, appellant’s flight transformed an illegal stop into a legal one in this case only because appellant broke the law in the course of his flight.