Humphrey v. State

204 S.E.2d 603, 231 Ga. 855, 1974 Ga. LEXIS 1261
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 8, 1974
Docket28182
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 204 S.E.2d 603 (Humphrey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Humphrey v. State, 204 S.E.2d 603, 231 Ga. 855, 1974 Ga. LEXIS 1261 (Ga. 1974).

Opinions

Per curiam.

This case was transferred to this court from the Court of Appeals of Georgia because of a constitutional challenge to a a Georgia statute. The appeal seeks review of several pre-trial rulings made in the Superior Court of Houston County following indictment by a grand jury in that county of the appellant for the offense of bribery. A second indictment also charges appellant, in one count, with the offense of carrying a concealed weapon; and in a second count, with the offense of carrying a pistol without a license. The appellant made two motions to suppress evidence, filed two pleas in abatement, numerous demurrers to the indictments and also made several written constitutional challenges to the Georgia Pre-Sentence Hearing Act, all of which were overruled by the trial court and are the subject of this appeal.

The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on appellant’s motions to suppress evidence, and a transcript of the evidence at that hearing is included in the record filed in this court. The evidence adduced on the motions to suppress revealed the following: on January 9, 1973, two agents from the Georgia Department of Investigation were directed to report to the Mayor of Warner Robins, Georgia, to investigate alleged illicit activities involving [856]*856a councilman of that municipality. The two agents arrived at the mayor’s office on the morning of January 10, 1973, and immediately met with the mayor of the municipality and Councilman Steve Morgan. At that meeting, Councilman Morgan described to the agents two encounters that had allegedly taken place with appellant who was also a councilman of the municipality, during which encounters the appellant had indicated his intention to solicit money from a developer, Charles McGlamry, in return for appellant’s vote as a councilman to approve a water and sewer services expansion project of the municipality. The agents were told the developer had been approached for a "pay-off’ by appellant through a Mr. Walter Whiting. Following this meeting, the D. O. I. Agents met with the developer and Mr. Whiting at approximately 3 p. m. on the afternoon of January 10, 1973, and confirmed appellant’s solicitation through Mr. Whiting of a pay-off. The agents then met again with the mayor and Councilman Morgan and asked these two officials to pretend to go along with appellant in further dealings with him. Pursuant to this plan, Councilman Morgan called the appellant and set up a meeting with him at Councilman Morgan’s office. This meeting occurred at approximately 7:30 p. m. on January 10, 1973. At that meeting, with Councilman Morgan’s consent, D. O. I. Agents recorded a face-to-face conversation between Councilman Morgan and the appellant through the use of a tape recorder which had been placed secretly in Councilman Morgan’s office. After the appellant left that meeting, the D. O. I. Agents listened to the tape of the conversation between Councilman Morgan and the appellant. The tape contains numerous statements tending to indicate appellant’s involvement in a pay-off solicitation from the developer. It reflects that during the course of the conversation appellant discussed with Councilman Morgan a specific price for the pay-off in connection with the water and sewer project, which price Councilman Morgan was to convey to the contractor following the conversation. At approximately 8 o’clock that same evening, the D. O. I. Agents contacted the Sheriff of Houston County to secure his co-operation and revealed to him the details of their investigation. Shortly thereafter, Councilman Morgan, in pursuance of the plan he and appellant had agreed upon, contacted the developer, Charles McGlamry, to set up the pay-off. The developer, who had also been made privy to the plan of the D. O. I. Agents, agreed to put up [857]*857approximately $1,600. Councilman Morgan revealed this to the law officers and told them the pay-off would be made at the developer’s office. The agents and the sheriff, together with other officers, went to the developer’s office, hid themselves, planted a tape recorder and awaited appellant’s arrival. Appellant came to the developer’s office but immediately asked him to go for a ride and the two men were gone for approximately a half-hour. Upon returning, the developer, Mr. McGlamry, informed the officers that no money had been transferred but that the pay-off would take place at Councilman Morgan’s office. The officers then returned to Councilman Morgan’s office. Subsequently, Councilman Morgan met with the developer, McGlamry, and received from him $1,580. Thereafter, Councilman Morgan returned to his office and met with the law enforcement officers. The officers then marked the money and Councilman Morgan telephoned the appellant to tell him the money was in hand, and appellant instructed Councilman Morgan to bring half of it to his office. Councilman Morgan did this, and when he left appellant’s office the law officers immediately entered the office and arrested the appellant for bribery. Upon the arrest of appellant, the officers found the marked money which was on the floor under appellant’s desk at his office and also found a pistol concealed in the rear pocket of appellant’s trousers.

No warrants of any kind were obtained in this case for the arrest of the appellant or for the seized recording of the conversation between Councilman Morgan and appellant or for the seizure of the marked money and the pistol from appellant’s possession at the time of his arrest. Testimony was also adduced, at the evidentiary hearing on the motions to suppress, showing that the situs of appellant’s arrest was an office which he used located directly behind the sheriffs office and that a justice of the peace was present in the sheriffs office that same evening between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. The justice of the peace testified at the evidentiary hearing that his daily custom was to arrive at the sheriffs office at approximately 6 p.m. each day for his hearings, after which he usually ate supper and then on many days returned to the sheriffs office at night for conversation and company since he was a bachelor. The justice of the peace further testified that his home was only a five-minute drive from the sheriffs office.

I.

Motion to Suppress Evidence Seized at the Time of Appellant’s Arrest.

[858]*858The basic question presented in appellant’s first enumeration of error is whether the search of appellant in his office and the seizure of the alleged bribery money and pistol were legal. Under Georgia law (Code Ann. § 27-301) searches and seizures without warrants are authorized when made as an incident to a lawful arrest. The central point determinative of the search of appellant without a warrant is whether appellant’s arrest by the officers was a legal arrest since it was made without a warrant. If the arrest were lawful, the search was lawful. If the arrest were illegal, the search was unlawful and the property seized as a result of it should have been suppressed as evidence by the trial court.

Code § 27-207 provides: "An arrest for a crime may be made by an officer, either under a warrant, or without a warrant if the offense is committed in his presence, or the offender is endeavoring to escape, or for other cause there is likely to be a failure of justice for want of an officer to issue a warrant.”

As we have seen, Georgia law plainly restricts arrests without a warrant and the statute authorizes it to be done only in three instances. Thus, the question we face is whether the arrest in this case can logically fit into any of the three categories or exceptions authorized by the statute.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 S.E.2d 603, 231 Ga. 855, 1974 Ga. LEXIS 1261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humphrey-v-state-ga-1974.