Rajappa v. State

408 S.E.2d 163, 200 Ga. App. 372, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 1014
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 9, 1991
DocketA91A0266
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 408 S.E.2d 163 (Rajappa 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
Rajappa v. State, 408 S.E.2d 163, 200 Ga. App. 372, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 1014 (Ga. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

Andrews, Judge.

Padmini Rajappa was convicted in a bench trial of the misdemeanor offense of giving a false name to a police officer in violation of OCGA § 16-10-25, which she appeals.

1. We first address appellant’s enumeration concerning the general grounds. At trial, police officer Dodson testified that on June 18, 1990, she responded to a 911 call from a man who had mailed a $1,300 check to a DeKalb County address in payment for an airline ticket he ordered from the “Padmini International” travel agency, but had not received the ticket. Officer Dodson went to the address given by the caller, which proved to be an apartment on Buford Highway. When a teenage girl answered the door, Officer Dodson asked to see Padmini Rajappa. Officer Dodson testified that the girl, Shnan Balakri, responded that Rajappa, her mother, was in Florida and would return the next day.

Officer Scott Biumi arrived to assist Officer Dodson, and they asked for, and obtained, Balakri’s consent to enter the apartment to make certain that the mother was not present. The officers observed six or eight adults sitting in the living room and found Rajappa in the apartment bathroom. Officer Dodson testified that in response to her query, Rajappa stated her name was “Mini Vankat.” Dodson testified that she wrote the name in the palm of her hand after Rajappa spelled it for her. Balakri asserted that Rajappa was her aunt.

When first asked for identification, Rajappa told the police that she had just arrived from out of town and had none. Upon continued questioning she acknowledged that her name was Padmini Rajappa, produced a Georgia driver’s license under that name, and admitted that Balakri was her daughter. Officer Biumi testified that he understood Rajappa to say that her name was “Nini Vankat,” although he acknowledged that she could have said “Mini,” and that she appeared nervous and was a little difficult to understand.

At the trial, Rajappa testified that her given name is “Padmini,” and explained that in India women are given only first names and use the first names of either their fathers or their husbands as their last names. She testified that since she is divorced, she uses her father’s first name, “Venkateswara Rajappa,” as a last name, and that she uses “Mini” as a nickname. Rajappa stated that she and her daughter understood the officers to be asking for “the Padmini Travel owner” rather than for “Padmini Rajappa,” and that was why Balakri answered that the owner was in Florida because appellant’s mother, who lives in Florida, owns the business. Rajappa testified that she told the officers that her name was “Padmini Venkateswara,” but that when they had difficulty understanding her she explained that people often [373]*373called her “Mini,” which is the name she observed Officer Dodson write in her hand. Rajappa stated that she also spelled for the officers the second name of “Venkat,” a shortened version of the name she uses as her last name, and which she testified had the same meaning as the full name of “Venkateswara.” Rajappa stated that she had returned from India the prior day, and that she delayed giving her identification to the officers only because she had to search for her handbag. She also testified that after she learned of the travel customer’s complaint, he was issued a ticket the next day.

2. There was sufficient evidence here for the Court to find Rajappa guilty of giving a false name to a police officer under OCGA § 16-10-25 beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). First, Rajappa’s trial testimony revealed that she was working on a doctorate thesis at Vanderbilt in English, had received an E.D.S. degree from Middle Tennessee State University, and held two undergraduate degrees from Indian colleges. Her educational background indicated that she was familiar with the customs of the United States.

Additionally, Rajappa’s behavior when the police arrived at her home supported the finding of guilt. The investigating officers testified that when they arrived at her house, Rajappa was hiding in the bathroom. When the police found her, she represented herself as her daughter’s aunt and identified herself as “Mini Venkateswara.” When asked to produce identification, Rajappa denied that she had identification, which later proved to be untrue. She later showed the police a driver’s license bearing the name “Padmini Rajappa” and admitted that was her name.

Although Rajappa had an explanation for giving a different name to the police, the explanation was problematic. When the Court asked her to write out the name “Venkateswara,” she misspelled the name and did not notice that she had misspelled it until this fact was brought to her attention. Furthermore, she stated that the police did not ask specifically for her; she claimed that “[t]hey did not say Padmini Rajappa, my name.” The question of whether Rajappa can be guilty of giving a false name when by Indian custom she has both last names has not been specifically addressed in Georgia, although a similar situation arose in Johnson v. State, 149 Ga. App. 273 (253 SE2d 889) (1979). In that case, this court held that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict of guilty of giving a false name, since the name which the defendant gave the police officers was not the name on his birth certificate, social security card, or driver’s license. The same result is dictated here.

OCGA § 16-10-25 states that a “person who gives a false name or address to a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of his official duties with the intent of misleading the officer as to his identify [374]*374. . is guilty of the offense. The statute’s requirement of an “intent to deceive” is the element critical to Rajappa’s guilt here. (See Douglas v. State, 194 Ga. App. 182 (390 SE2d 98) (1990), in which the fact that the defendant admitted that he lied to the officer about his name was sufficient evidence to sustain his conviction.) Regardless of whether Indian custom recognized the name “Venkateswara” as Padmini’s last name, there was ample evidence from which the Court could have concluded that she meant to deceive the police by giving that name.

3. In a separate enumeration of error, Padmini contends that the trial court erred in convicting her since the police officers were acting unlawfully in the discharge of their duties in that they had no warrant for the search and the consent of her minor daughter to search the apartment was invalid.

The law concerning the authority of a third person, who is a minor, to consent to a warrantless search establishes that this determination is made on a case by case basis. Atkins v. State, 173 Ga. App. 9 (325 SE2d 388) (1984), aff’d and remanded, 254 Ga. 641 (331 SE2d 597) (1985).

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Bluebook (online)
408 S.E.2d 163, 200 Ga. App. 372, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 1014, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rajappa-v-state-gactapp-1991.