Harris v. State, A92A1570
| Decision Date | 14 October 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. A92A1570,A92A1570 |
| Citation | 423 S.E.2d 723,205 Ga.App. 813 |
| Parties | HARRIS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Moore, Chambliss & Allen, David R. Tyndall, Atlanta, for appellant.
H. Lamar Cole, Dist. Atty., Charles M. Stines, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Palace Harris was indicted for possession of cocaine. His pre-trial motion to suppress evidence was denied by the trial court. Harris entered a guilty plea to possession of cocaine and properly reserved his right to appeal from the order denying his motion to suppress.
1. Harris contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress as his alleged consent to be searched resulted from an illegal detention.
Reasons for brief investigatory stops need not rise to the level of probable cause to make an arrest, but merely to the level of articulable suspicion that the law was being violated. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1884, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); see also Shaw v. State, 179 Ga.App. 807, 348 S.E.2d 132 (1986).
At the hearing on Harris' motion to suppress, Officer Gary Casteloes testified that he and other drug agents were performing a routine patrol in a "known drug area" where there are "many shootings." When Harris and several other individuals saw the patrol car, they began running. The flight of the individuals prompted the officers to chase them.
Casteloes testified that it had been his experience that when police patrol "high drug areas," individuals with drugs on their person usually run upon the arrival of the police. An individual's flight upon seeing a police officer may be some evidence of guilt. See generally Green v. State, 127 Ga.App. 713, 715, 194 S.E.2d 678 (1972) (). Under the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that Harris' flight after observing the police car gave the officers sufficient articulable suspicion to conduct a Terry "stop and frisk."
2. Harris further contends that the trial court erred in ruling that the evidence sought to be suppressed was obtained as a result of a valid consensual search as Harris' consent to the search was not given freely and voluntarily.
After Harris was apprehended, Casteloes frisked him and, in doing so, felt an object in his pocket. Casteloes asked Harris what the object was, and Harris replied that it was tissue. Casteloes testified that he...
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