Lang v. State

302 S.E.2d 683, 165 Ga. App. 576, 1983 Ga. App. LEXIS 1955
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 31, 1983
Docket65258
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 302 S.E.2d 683 (Lang v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lang v. State, 302 S.E.2d 683, 165 Ga. App. 576, 1983 Ga. App. LEXIS 1955 (Ga. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

Birdsong, Judge.

Gregory T. Lang was convicted by the trial court of trafficking in marijuana by possessing more than one hundred pounds, and of felony possession of drug-related objects. The conviction arises out of Lang’s operation on his farm of a sophisticated indoor marijuana cultivation project consisting of approximately one thousand marijuana plants in a large metal building protected by an electric eye-beam alarm system and two additional large metal buildings under construction. The seizure of evidence under warrant exposed the potted plants, several large bags and boxes of harvested marijuana; and 4,125 soil cups in a “nursery” behind the building. The building was 60 feet by 135 feet, and 16 feet high. It was completely fiberglass insulated and was equipped with five 48-inch exhaust fans, six large gas heaters, eighty-six 1,000-watt mercury vapor lights suspended from the ceiling by steel cables, and ten automated control timers. Also seized from the building were soil test kits, pamphlets and records pertaining to planting schedules and planting soil and equipment.

The warrant under which this search was made was issued upon the sworn affidavit of GBI agent Gary Newman particularly describing the appellant, the farm premises, and the target buildings, and reciting: “And that the facts tending to establish the foregoing grounds for Issuance of Search Warrant are as follows: Tuesday, December 29,1981, Gordon County Sheriff Pat Baker was contacted by a confidential informant. Said informant has proven reliable in the past by providing information leading to the arrest and conviction on drug charges of at least one suspect. Said informant has provided information on more than one previous occasion. His information has never proved to be untruthful. Sheriff Baker obtained the following information from said informant: Said informant has personally been on the property of Spring Lake Meadow Farm in the very recent past, prior to giving this information to Sheriff Baker. Greg Lang, operator of Spring Lake Meadow Farm, is presently storing marijuana in the above described building on said premises. This building and [577]*577surrounding property are protected by an outside alarm system (electric eye beams). On Monday, January 4, 1982, Investigator Lester Stuck, Gordon County Sheriffs Office, accompanied the Gordon County Building Inspector to the above described premises. Investigator Stuck observed the alarm system as described by the confidential informant on the premises. The Gordon County Building Inspector attempted to conduct a routine final inspection of the above described building. An individual identifying himself as Greg Lang denied the building inspector access to said building. Lang stated that the building was used for agricultural purposes. On Tuesday, January 5,1982, the affiant received the above information from Sheriff Baker and Investigator Stuck.”

Appellant Lang enumerates seven errors on appeal. In deciding the issues in this case, we have sifted out, as irrelevant, arguments and injection of evidence concerning other subsequent searches of Lang’s residence and farm and other evidence of corroboration of the original search, since the conviction was based on the described evidence of marijuana cultivation seized under authority of the described affidavit alone and the information contained therein. Held:

1. Appellant contends the search warrant was invalid because the executing magistrate was not neutral and detached, a conclusion reached by appellant because the magistrate admitted, after first having denied, that at sometime in the past in an unrelated incident or incidents, he had signed blank warrants to accommodate an officer when he (the magistrate) was to be at a family dinner. Appellant contends this fact shows a close and biased or partial relationship with law enforcement officers sufficient to render the warrant invalid because the magistrate was not neutral and detached, as in State v. Guhl, 140 Ga. App. 23 (230 SE2d 22); Baggett v. State, 132 Ga. App. 266 (208 SE2d 23); and Jackson v. State, 150 Ga. App. 67 (256 SE2d 670). We find no merit in this enumeration. The incident suggested by appellant to show bias and partiality was an isolated incident or incidents in the past and there is no evidence except remote speculation that the magistrate’s posture in issuing the search warrant in this case was not neutral and detached. Pressel v. State, 163 Ga. App. 188 (292 SE2d 553). Moreover, the evidence shows the sheriff, upon learning of any such blank warrants, had destroyed them and called them “taboo,” thus negating any inference that special partial relationship existed between his office and the magistrate or that he permitted his officers and colleagues to obtain warrants signed in blank. No showing exists in this case that the magistrate who issued the warrant was not neutral and detached in the issuance of this warrant.

[578]*5782. Appellant contends that the search warrant was without probable cause because the information (informant) was not shown to be reliable, there was no corroborating evidence to support the informant’s allegations, and the information obtained from the informant was stale. None of these contentions has merit.

The informant was established as reliable, he having previously on more than one occasion given to the sheriff truthful information which, moreover, led to at least one conviction. Shaner v. State, 153 Ga. App. 694, 696-699 (266 SE2d 338). Compare Fowler v. State, 128 Ga. App. 501, 503 (197 SE2d 502); Pickard v. State, 152 Ga. App. 707 (3) (263 SE2d 679); see Giles v. State, 149 Ga. App. 263 (254 SE2d 154). Moreover, the information was sufficiently detailed to show that it was more than a mere casual rumor or accusation made on reputation, and stated that the informant had been on the property “in the very recent past” and that “Greg Lang is presently storing marijuana in the described building.” Collins v. State, 161 Ga. App. 546 (287 SE2d 708); Jones v. State, 154 Ga. App. 21, 23 (267 SE2d 323). The information was, on its face and by its own terms, not stale.

Additionally, the credibility of the informant and the reliability of his information was corroborated by the officer. The deputy corroborated the information by arranging to accompany the county building inspector on an “inspection” onto property that was posted with “No Trespassing” signs at the junction of a paved county maintained road and the unpaved county maintained road that served as appellant’s driveway; but the deputy merely sat in the car and observed the white metal building with electric-eye beam alarm system, which he later said did not look like any hay storage system he had ever seen. The officer also observed an electric-eye beam alarm system over appellant’s driveway. He saw two more similar metal buildings under construction, and an electric-eye beam alarm system set up on a perimeter of those buildings, as had been suggested by the informant. The deputy was accompanying a county official on a route and on business as to which the appellant had no reasonable expectation of privacy. See State v. Nichols, 160 Ga. App. 386 (287 SE2d 53). The buildings the deputy observed were not dwelling houses and were not used as offices. Giddens v. State, 156 Ga. App. 258 (274 SE2d 595) (U.S. cert. denied). Moreover, the fact that “No Trespassing” signs were posted over the driveway is a technicality which does not negate what the deputy saw while accompanying the building inspector and does not render the otherwise valid search warrant invalid. Dunbar v.

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Lang v. State
302 S.E.2d 683 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
302 S.E.2d 683, 165 Ga. App. 576, 1983 Ga. App. LEXIS 1955, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lang-v-state-gactapp-1983.