Tate v. State

440 S.E.2d 646, 264 Ga. 53, 94 Fulton County D. Rep. 748, 1994 Ga. LEXIS 122
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 28, 1994
DocketS93G1057
StatusPublished
Cited by397 cases

This text of 440 S.E.2d 646 (Tate 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
Tate v. State, 440 S.E.2d 646, 264 Ga. 53, 94 Fulton County D. Rep. 748, 1994 Ga. LEXIS 122 (Ga. 1994).

Opinions

Fletcher, Justice.

At approximately 1:00 a.m. on October 3, 1992, Tate was traveling north on 1-75. As he crossed the Cobb/Cherokee County line into Cherokee County he passed a Cherokee County Sheriffs deputy who was parked alongside the interstate. The deputy testified that Tate’s vehicle appeared to have no tag but, as he caught up to the vehicle and pulled up behind, he discovered that the vehicle had a tag but no tag light. The deputy further testified that having pulled to within 50 to 20 feet of Tate’s vehicle he observed the vehicle weave over the lane lines. The deputy then stopped Tate (according to the deputy, to investigate Tate’s erratic driving), questioned him and, because Tate acted nervous attempted to obtain consent to search his vehicle. Tate initially gave consent to search, then withdrew that consent before the deputy began his search. At this point the deputy radioed for a narcotics dog to sniff the vehicle. Overhearing this communication, Tate apparently informed the officer that there were drugs in the vehicle which the deputy retrieved. Tate was arrested and charged with a violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.

Tate filed a motion to suppress contending that the seizure was in violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court found that the stop “would not have been made by a reasonable officer in the absence of an ulterior motive to interdict drug trafficking on Interstate 75.”

The state appealed the trial court’s order granting Tate’s motion to suppress, arguing that the trial court’s findings of fact were inconsistent with its conclusion of law that the seizure was illegal. The state claimed that the trial court found, as a matter of fact, that the deputy stopped Tate because he had committed a traffic violation, thus making any ulterior motive irrelevant since the officer had a legitimate purpose in making the stop. The Court of Appeals adopted the state’s argument. State v. Tate, 208 Ga. App. 117 (430 SE2d 9) [54]*54(1993). Because we cannot agree that this interpretation reflects the actual findings made by the trial court, we reverse.

1. When an appellate court reviews a trial court’s order concerning a motion to suppress evidence, the appellate court should be guided by three principles with regard to the interpretation of the trial court’s judgment of the facts. First, when a motion to suppress is heard by the trial judge, that judge sits as the trier of facts. The trial judge “hears the evidence, and his findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support it.” State v. Swift, 232 Ga. 535, 536 (207 SE2d 459) (1974).

Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to “questions of fact and credibility . . . must be accepted unless clearly erroneous.” Woodruff v. State, 233 Ga. 840, 844 (213 SE2d 689) (1975). (Emphasis supplied.) Third, the reviewing court must construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment. Anderson v. State, 133 Ga. App. 45, 47 (209 SE2d 665) (1974). On numerous occasions the appellate courts of this state have invoked these three principles to affirm trial court rulings that upheld the validity of seizures.1 These same principles of law apply equally to trial court rulings that are in favor of the defendant and their application to this trial court’s order would demand that the court’s order be affirmed.

2. The Court of Appeals’ decision is predicated upon the conclusion that the trial court “found” that Tate committed traffic violations in the presence of the deputy.2 This conclusion, that the trial court found, as a matter of fact, that Tate committed traffic violations is not supported by the language of the trial court’s order when reviewed in the context of the three principles enumerated in Division 1.3

The trial court filed a nine-page order concerning Tate’s motion to suppress. This order is divided into three sections headed: “Facts,” “Conclusions of Law” and “Judgment.” The Court of Appeals’ opinion quotes the entire section headed “Facts,” assumes that all of the testimony quoted therein is true and concludes that the deputy [55]*55stopped Tate because he was violating traffic laws in the deputy’s presence.

It is clear from reading the entire order that the testimony summarized in the “Facts” section does not constitute the actual and complete findings of fact by the trial judge. The portion of the trial court’s order headed “Facts” is more a summary of the testimony provided at the hearing than “findings of fact” by the trial court. This conclusion is supported by the document itself which specifically addresses the conclusion urged by the state and accepted by the Court of Appeals. In the “Conclusions of Law” section of the opinion, the trial court states:

The state contends the stop of the Defendant’s vehicle occurred because [the deputy] observed a traffic violation and not because of any improper or invalid reason to obtain evidence of drug trafficking and was not based on a “drug courier profile.” However, there is substantial evidence that [the deputy had] been trained in identifying the characteristics of a drug courier and that a conscious decision to focus on a relatively short strip of 1-75 in Cherokee County had been made by the officer’s superiors. Under such circumstances, the “issue is whether the officer’s testimony was credible or whether the circumstantial evidence as to the drug courier profile predominated.” O’Keefe v. State, 189 Ga. App. 519, 522 (376 SE2d 406) (1988).

After identifying credibility as the key issue with regard to whether the stop was made because of traffic violations or because the vehicle fit the drug courier profile, the trial court identified factual inconsistencies in the deputy’s testimony in the “Conclusions of Law” portion of the order. These facts are not included in the “Fact” portion of the order4 and they contradict portions of the testimony contained therein. A reviewing court should not interpret an opinion in such a way as to make it internally inconsistent and it is unlikely that the trial court would make conflicting findings of fact. Therefore, it follows that the inclusion of these contradictory facts by the trial court casts grave doubt on the state’s contention that the “Facts” section is a list of the court’s findings of fact and supports the conclusion that this section merely summarizes the testimony.

The trial court notes that the two officers assigned to 1-75 by the Cherokee County Sheriffs Department are the two most trained in drug intervention and the officers were assigned to patrol that area despite the fact that 1-75 only traverses 2.2 miles of Cherokee County. [56]*56Moreover, despite testimony quoted in the “Facts” section that the deputy was “supposedly” assigned to traffic enforcement, the court notes that the only patrols on 1-75 were late at night and early morning when traffic is lightest, and the deputy did not even have permission to use radar in his patrol unit.

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Bluebook (online)
440 S.E.2d 646, 264 Ga. 53, 94 Fulton County D. Rep. 748, 1994 Ga. LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tate-v-state-ga-1994.