Tyler Brienza v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 20, 2019
DocketA19A0699
StatusPublished

This text of Tyler Brienza v. State (Tyler Brienza 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
Tyler Brienza v. State, (Ga. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

THIRD DIVISION DILLARD, C. J., GOBEIL and HODGES, 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. http://www.gaappeals.us/rules

June 20, 2019

In the Court of Appeals of Georgia A19A0698. THE STATE v. BRIENZA. A19A0699. BRIENZA v. THE STATE.

DILLARD, Chief Judge.

In Case No. A19A0698, the State appeals from the State Court of Fayette

County’s grant of Tyler Brienza’s motion to exclude the use of certain portions of a

video recorded during his encounter with police, which led to charges of obstruction

of justice. The State argues the trial court erred in suppressing the relevant portion of

the recording after concluding that, at the point it was made, officers lacked

reasonable, articulable suspicion to continue detaining Brienza. This is the second

time this appeal has been docketed with this Court, and in Case No. A19A0699,

Brienza challenges the trial court’s failure to dismiss the State’s appeal for the

reasons that resulted in our prior remand—i.e., the failure to transmit a complete transcript. For the reasons set forth infra, we reverse the trial court’s decision in Case

No. A19A0699 and dismiss the State’s appeal in Case No. A19A0698.

1. Case Number A19A0699. Before reaching the merits of the State’s appeal

in Case No. A19A0698, we must first address whether that appeal is properly before

us.

Brienza was charged by accusation with obstruction of a law-enforcement

officer1 and disorderly conduct.2 He subsequently filed a “motion in limine,” seeking

to exclude “all testimony from any and all state witnesses that resulted from the

prolonged detention and investigation . . . without reasonable articulable suspicion.”

Following a hearing, the trial court granted this motion in a summary order.

The record in Case No. A19A0698 shows that after the State initially filed its

notice of appeal to the trial court’s grant of Brienza’s motion in April 2017, Brienza

moved three months later, in July 2017, to dismiss the State’s appeal due to a failure

to timely request production of the transcript. But by the time the motion came before

the trial court for argument at a scheduled hearing, the appeal had already been

transmitted to and docketed in this Court as Case Number A18A0213. Accordingly,

1 See OCGA § 16-10-24 (a). 2 See OCGA § 16-11-39.

2 Brienza conceded that the trial court no longer retained jurisdiction to consider his

motion to dismiss, and it was then denied as moot.

Nevertheless, after the case was docketed with this Court, the State filed a

motion to remand the case because the record had been “mistakenly forwarded . . .

without the entire transcript.” Brienza objected to the State’s request because it failed

to seek an extension of the 30-day period within which to file the transcript and had

already caused an unreasonable delay of the proceedings,3 and, then moved for

dismissal of the State’s appeal on those grounds.4

3 See OCGA § 5-6-39 (a) (3) (“Any judge of the trial court or any justice or judge of the appellate court to which the appeal is to be taken may, in his discretion, and without motion or notice to the other party, grant extensions of time for the filing of[ ] . . . [t]ranscript of the evidence and proceedings on appeal or in any other instance where filing of the transcript is required or permitted by law[.]”); OCGA § 5-6-42 (“The party having the responsibility of filing the transcript shall cause it to be filed within 30 days after filing of the notice of appeal or designation by appellee, as the case may be, unless the time is extended as provided in Code Section 5-6-39. In all cases, it shall be the duty of the trial judge to grant such extensions of time as may be necessary to enable the court reporter to complete his transcript of evidence and proceedings.”). 4 See OCGA § 5-6-48 (c) (“[T]he trial court may, after notice and opportunity for hearing, order that the appeal be dismissed where there has been an unreasonable delay in the filing of the transcript and it is shown that the delay was inexcusable and was caused by such party. In like manner, the trial court may order the appeal dismissed where there has been an unreasonable delay in the transmission of the record to the appellate court, and it is seen that the delay was inexcusable and was caused by the failure of a party to pay costs in the trial court or file an affidavit of

3 In response, this Court denied Brienza’s motion because we lack the authority

to dismiss an appeal on the basis of a delayed filing of a transcript,5 and in doing so

cited Court of Appeals Rule 20, which provides that

Appellee shall be deemed to have waived any failure of the appellant to comply with the provisions of the Appellate Practice Act relating to the filing of the transcript of the evidence and proceedings or transmittal of the record to this Court, unless objection thereto was made and ruled upon in the trial court before transmittal and the trial court’s order is appealed as provided by law.

We did, however, grant the State’s motion to remand the case for completion of the

entire record.

Upon return of the case to the trial court, Brienza immediately moved to

dismiss the State’s appeal, filing the same motion as before. The court conducted a

hearing,6 and then denied the motion, finding that the facts did not warrant dismissal.

indigence[.]”). 5 See id. (“No appeal shall be dismissed by the appellate court nor consideration of any error therein refused because of failure of any party to cause the transcript of evidence and proceedings to be filed within the time allowed by law or order of court[.]”). 6 Brienza did not include a transcript of this January 2018 hearing with his cross-appeal.

4 It is this decision Brienza cross-appeals, arguing that the State’s appeal should have

been dismissed upon remand due to its failure to timely order and file a complete

transcript prior to the direct appeal’s first appearance before this Court. We agree.

OCGA § 5-6-42 provides that when “there is a transcript of evidence and

proceedings to be included in the record on appeal, the appellant shall cause the

transcript to be prepared and filed . . . within 30 days after filing of the notice of

appeal . . . .” And the trial court “may, after notice and opportunity for hearing, order

that the appeal be dismissed [when] there has been an unreasonable delay in the filing

of the transcript and it is shown that the delay was inexcusable and was caused by

such party.”7 It is well-established that a delay of more than 30 days is “prima facie

unreasonable and inexcusable, but this presumption is subject to rebuttal if the party

comes forward with evidence to show that the delay was neither unreasonable nor

inexcusable.”8

7 OCGA § 5-6-48 (c).

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Tyler Brienza v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tyler-brienza-v-state-gactapp-2019.