State v. Daris Darnell Ridley

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: May 5, 2025
• Docket: A25A0130
• Status: Published

Opinion

FIFTH DIVISION MCFADDEN, P. J., HODGES and PIPKIN, JJ.

NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be physically received in our clerk’s office within ten days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed. https://www.gaappeals.us/rules

May 5, 2025

In the Court of Appeals of Georgia A25A0130. THE STATE v. RIDLEY.

MCFADDEN, Presiding Judge.

Daris Darnell Ridley filed a plea in bar to dismiss an accusation against him on

the ground that the statute of limitation had run on the misdemeanor offenses with

which he was accused. The trial court granted the motion, and the state appeals,

arguing that the trial court incorrectly calculated the statute-of-limitation tolling

period established by orders establishing and extending a statewide judicial emergency

during the COVID-19 pandemic. We agree that the trial court incorrectly calculated

the tolling period, so we reverse.

The state filed the accusation against Ridley on March 22, 2023, alleging that

he had committed the offenses more than two years earlier, on January 13, 2021. Generally, “[p]rosecution for misdemeanors shall be commenced within two years

after the commission of the crime.” OCGA § 17-3-1 (e). But

on March 14, 2020, pursuant to OCGA § 38-3-62 and citing the public health emergency presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, [then- ]Supreme Court of Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton issued an order declaring a statewide judicial emergency. Among other things, the judicial emergency declaration suspended, tolled, extended and otherwise granted relief from any deadlines or time schedules in civil and criminal cases. The COVID-19 judicial emergency order[ was] subsequently extended several times.

State v. Jones, 371 Ga. App. 652, 654 (902 SE2d 210) (2024) (citation and punctuation

omitted). The March 20, 2020 judicial emergency order and the orders extending it

are available at https://www.gasupreme.us/court-information/court_corona_info/.

The dispute in this case centers on how long the applicable limitation period

remained tolled under the judicial emergency orders. “[M]ost deadlines and other

time schedules and filing requirements that had been suspended or tolled by the

March 14, 2020 order” were reimposed effective July 14, 2020 by the Supreme

Court’s Fourth Extension Order. State v. Phipps, 372 Ga. App. 572, 573 (905 SE2d

329) (2024). However, that order stated that “[u]ntil grand jury proceedings are

2 generally authorized, statutes of limitation in criminal cases shall . . . remain tolled.”

Id. (punctuation omitted). Later, in its Fifteenth Extension Order, the Supreme Court

stated that the judicial emergency would end as of June 30, 2021, at which time “all

deadlines not already reimposed [would] immediately be reimposed[.]” See Phipps,

372 Ga. App. at 573.

Ridley argues, and the trial court held, that the tolling period governing the

filing of accusations ended on July 14, 2020, because such filings do not involve grand

jury proceedings. This would mean that the two-year statute of limitation had been

reimposed and was in effect when Ridley was alleged to have committed the offenses

for which he is accused, and the state filed its accusation outside of that limitation

period.

The state, on the other hand, argues that the tolling period governing the filing

of accusations ended on June 30, 2021, because under the plain language of the Fourth

Extension Order the statutes of limitation in all criminal cases, including misdemeanor

cases brought by accusation, had been excepted from that order’s July 14, 2020

reimposition of deadlines. See State v. Smith, 374 Ga. App. 381, 383 (__ SE2d __)

(2025) (we look to the plain language of the judicial emergency orders in construing

3 them). This would mean that the state filed the accusation within the statute of

limitation, because the state filed it less than two years after the tolling period ended

on June 30, 2021.

In several recent decisions we have resolved this question in favor of the state,

holding that “although the statute of limitation for misdemeanor offenses is generally

two years, see OCGA § 17-3-1, the COVID-19 emergency orders tolled the statute of

limitation in criminal cases from March 14, 2020, until June 30, 2021.” Smith, 374 Ga.

App. at 383 (citation and punctuation omitted). Accord Phipps, 372 Ga. App. at 573;

Jones, 371 Ga. App. at 654-655. And in the most recent of those decisions, we

expressly rejected Ridley’s argument that only criminal cases involving grand jury

proceedings remained tolled after July 14, 2020. See Smith, 374 Ga. App. at 383.

Instead, we held that “we must give consideration to the actual language used by the

Supreme Court of Georgia [and that] the wording of the orders does not limit the

tolling of the statutes of limitations to felony proceedings or to those involving grand

juries but, instead, the orders plainly and broadly toll the ‘[s]tatutes of limitation in

criminal cases.’” Smith, 374 Ga. App. at 383 (emphasis in original).

4 Consequently, the two-year statute of limitation governing the charges against

Ridley was tolled until June 30, 2021, and therefore did not expire until after the

accusation was filed against Ridley on March 22, 2023. For this reason, the trial court

erred in dismissing the accusation.

Judgment reversed. Hodges and Pipkin, JJ., concur.