Corey v. State

• Decision Date: 13 March 2013
• Docket Number: No. A12A2365.,A12A2365.
• Citation: 320 Ga.App. 350,739 S.E.2d 790
• Parties: COREY v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

320 Ga.App. 350

739 S.E.2d 790

COREY

v.The STATE.

No. A12A2365.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

March 13, 2013.

Robert Kenner, Jr., Stone Mountain, for Appellant.

Barry Edward Morgan, Sol.-Gen., Jane P. Manning, Asst. Sol.-Gen., for Appellee.

BRANCH, Judge.

Charlette Zeigler Corey was charged with driving under the influence, failure to maintain lane, lack of proof of insurance, and driving with a suspended registration. She moved to suppress the evidence regarding driving under the influence on the ground that it was obtained illegally. The trial court denied the motion but granted a certificate of immediate review. This Court granted Corey's application for interlocutory appeal. We reverse.

The State has the burden of proving that a search or seizure was lawful. OCGA § 17–5–30. The arresting officer, Pieter–Michiel Geuze of the Cobb County Police Department, was the only witness at the hearing on the motion to suppress. Thus, the evidence was undisputed, and Corey does not dispute the officer's credibility. “[W]hen evidence is uncontroverted and no question of witness credibility is presented, the trial court's application of the law to undisputed facts is subject to de novo appellate review.” (Punctuation and footnote omitted.) Hammont v. State, 309 Ga.App. 395, 396, 710 S.E.2d 598 (2011). Finally, the trial court denied Corey's motion to suppress without explanation and therefore there are no findings of fact. We will construe the facts in favor of the trial court's decision. Tate v. State, 264 Ga. 53, 54(1), 440 S.E.2d 646 (1994).

Officer Geuze's testimony shows that on the evening of October 10, 2011, he was on duty and in uniform when he received a radio dispatch that an off-duty officer saw someone driving erratically and thought the driver could be intoxicated.¹ Geuze drove in a marked patrol car to a residential location and made brief contact with the off-duty officer. The officer advised that the vehicle had just pulled into the garage at the address; Geuze parked at the base of Corey's driveway. From there, Geuze saw Corey inside the open garage, halfway between her vehicle and the interior entrance to the home, which was on the driver's side of her vehicle. As Geuze walked up the driveway and into the garage, he identified himself, asked if he could talk to her, and began having a conversation with her about how she had been driving erratically. Geuze did not have a warrant, and he admitted that he neither asked for nor received consent from Corey to enter the garage. Geuze clarified that when he got to the top of the driveway, where the garage door is located, Corey was getting ready to enter her home; in Geuze's words, “she was hand on door handle, foot on step,” and she was getting ready to lower the garage door as well. Beginning at about this point an audio recording is available that captures some of the conversation between Geuze and Corey, but not the very beginning; other parts are unintelligible.

Inside the garage, Geuze did not smell any alcohol, but Corey was holding a closed pharmacy medication bag in her hand with her name on it and she appeared to be unsteady on her feet. Geuze asked about the medications and asked other questions in an attempt to determine whether the medications could have made Corey drowsy. Corey stated that she was taking four medications; Geuze knew that at least one was a sleep-aid, and he saw icons on the bag that indicated some of the drugs could cause drowsiness and dizziness. Geuze noticed that Corey was unable to stand without swaying toward and away from him, a symptom that he knew to be associated with alcohol consumption.Geuze also noticed that, despite it being a rainy day and somewhat dark in the garage, Corey had very small pupils, which could indicate the influence of medications. Geuze also saw that Corey had driven her car “into the end of the garage,” or, into the wall, rupturing a container of liquid and damaging the wall.

Corey asked if she had done something wrong while driving. Geuze replied that based on what he had learned from an off-duty officer, he was concerned that she had been driving erratically. A different voice on the audio recording then asked “Is there anybody else inside the house?” And Corey can be heard to say “my children.” Corey also said, “I have to urinate.” Geuze replied, “Well, step right here with me for right now so we can ...”; the end of the sentence is not audible on the recording. But in his testimony, Geuze explained that he “asked her to wait for him” or “to stand by.” Other officers had arrived, and they stood with Corey while Geuze walked down the driveway.

For the next two minutes Geuze thoroughly questioned the off-duty officer about Corey's erratic driving. As a result, Geuze decided to pursue the investigation further; he also decided that Corey, who was still in the garage, was not free to leave. Geuze re-entered the garage and asked Corey if she had been drinking. She replied that she had only had a glass of wine and that she was under an extreme amount of stress because her husband was incarcerated. Geuze and Corey spent the next several minutes discussing the possibility of Corey taking tests to determine if she was unsafe to drive. During this time, she refused to take an alco-sensor test, and Geuze explained the option of performing field sobriety tests. Also during this time, Corey said “All I want to do is go in the house and fall asleep”; “I just want to go home”; and “my children are in the house.” Geuze did not allow Corey to go inside.

Geuze then had a two-minute conversation with his supervisor, Sergeant Jennings, during which Geuze stated that he did not smell alcohol. Based on that conversation and the information he had gathered so far, he decided to continue to investigate whether Corey had been driving under the influence of drugs. He returned to the garage and conducted standard field sobriety examinations. Another officer repositioned Geuze's patrol car so that the camera pointed up the driveway and into the garage where the tests were performed. At this point, Geuze and Corey were in the back left corner of the garage near the interior door to the house; Corey's vehicle was parked in the middle of a two-car space.

Based on three field sobriety tests, Geuze determined that Corey was less safe to drive as a result of the influence of drugs or alcohol, and he decided to take her into custody. She was arrested in her garage. Geuze read Corey the Georgia implied consent information. Geuze also performed a computer check on Corey's vehicle registration and insurance and determined that the registration was suspended and that she was without valid insurance. At some point, Corey agreed to state-administered chemical tests of her blood and urine. On the way to the hospital, however, Corey indicated that she would not take the test and that she wanted to go to jail instead. Geuze never read Corey her Miranda rights.

1. Corey first contends the trial court abused its discretion by finding that Geuze was authorized to enter Corey's garage.

The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures[.]” U.S. Const. Amend. IV. Even with probable cause, absent exigent circumstances or proper consent, warrantless searches and seizures within a home by officers in the pursuit of their traditional law enforcement duties are presumptively unreasonable. See, e.g., Kentucky v. King, –––U.S. ––––(II)(A), 131 S.Ct. 1849, 179 L.Ed.2d 865 (2011); Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 589(II), 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). ² The protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment extend to the home and its curtilage. Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170, 180(III)(A) 176(II), 104 S.Ct. 1735, 80 L.Ed.2d 214 (1984); see also United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294, 300(II), 107 S.Ct. 1134, 94 L.Ed.2d 326 (1987). Thus, even if officers have probable cause to investigate a crime, without a warrant, exigent circumstances, or proper consent, they may not enter a home or its curtilage. See Kirsche v. State, 271 Ga.App. 729, 731, 611 S.E.2d 64 (2005).

(a) Although there may be a dispute about whether an attached garage is always considered a part of the home for the purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis,³ we find that under the facts of this case, Corey's garage was entitled to full Fourth Amendment protection either as a part of the home itself or the protected part of its curtilage.

“[P]hysical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 748(II), 104 S.Ct. 2091, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). Here, the garage is connected to and part of the home itself: the two have an adjoining wall and an internal door connecting them, and they are essentially under the same roof. See Payton, 445 U.S. at 589(II), 100 S.Ct. 1371 (“In [no setting] is the zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home”). Cf. State v. Sims, 240 Ga.App. 391, 393–394, 523 S.E.2d 619 (1999) (“A garage or basement door left open to admit light and air does not constitute a blanket invitation to the police to enter.”).

In addition to the home itself, the Fourth Amendment protects a home's curtilage, as limited by the open fields doctrine.⁴Espinoza v. State, 265 Ga. 171, 172–173(2), 454 S.E.2d 765 (1995). The Supreme Court of Georgia has defined curtilage as “the yards and grounds of a particular address, its gardens, barns, and buildings.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Landers v. State, 250 Ga. 808, 809, 301 S.E.2d 633 (1983). And the United States Supreme Court has explained that “the extent of the curtilage is determined by factors that bear upon whether an individual reasonably may expect that the area in question should be treated as the home itself.” (Citation omitted.) Dunn, 480 U.S. at 300(II), 107 S.Ct. 1134. That court also...