Johnson v. State, 54605
| Decision Date | 10 November 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 54605,No. 1,54605,1 |
| Citation | 240 S.E.2d 207,143 Ga.App. 826 |
| Parties | Clemon JOHNSON, Jr. v. The STATE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Glenn Zell, Atlanta, for appellant.
Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., Joseph J. Drolet, H. Allen Moye, Asst. Dist. Attys., Atlanta, for appellee.
The defendant in this drug case was arrested for violation of a city ordinance. A custodial search of defendant's person revealed a quantity of cocaine. Subsequently, defendant was indicted and convicted of a violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. The sole issue raised on this appeal is whether there was probable cause for the original arrest for violation of the city ordinance. Held:
Defendant was arrested for violation of § 20-40(i) of the 1965 Code of Ordinances of the City of Atlanta, as amended. This ordinance provides: "It shall be unlawful for any person within the corporate limits of the City of Atlanta to violate any of the following subsections of this section: . . . (i) Any person who shall use 'fighting words' directed towards any person who becomes outraged and thus creates a turmoil, . . ." This ordinance is narrowly drawn to apply only to a constitutionally unprotected class of words "fighting words" "those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 572, 62 S.Ct. 766, 769, 86 L.Ed. 1031.
Defendant argues that there is no evidence that he uttered any "fighting words" and that consequently there was no probable cause for his arrest. In determining whether probable cause for the arrest existed we may consider the evidence adduced at trial as well as that adduced at the pre-trial hearing upon defendant's motion to suppress. Sanders v. State, 235 Ga. 425, 431-432(2), 219 S.E.2d 768.
The State's evidence was that three police officers were conducting a foot patrol of a high crime area on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. It was about midnight when Ms. Paige, a female officer, noticed defendant and a female companion standing in the shadows in an alley off Auburn Avenue. Officer Paige asked them what their business was there, and defendant responded that he was a jewelry peddler. When asked to show his peddler's license, defendant stated to Officer Paige, 1 Defendant, whose tone was loud and abusive, also called Officer Paige a "bitc...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Knowles v. State
...wearing any mother-f____g handcuffs," and threatened to "blow the officer's head off" (punctuation omitted)); Johnson v. State, 143 Ga.App. 826, 826-27, 240 S.E.2d 207 (1977) (holding that a defendant's statements to a female police officer amounted to fighting words when, with such a "loud......
-
Smith v. State
...affidavit submitted in support of the motion. Sanders v. State, 235 Ga. 425, 431(II), 219 S.E.2d 768 (1975); Johnson v. State, 143 Ga.App. 826, 240 S.E.2d 207 (1977). Defendant argues vigorously that he had not abandoned the room and luggage and that the only reason that he had not paid the......
-
Davenport v. State, 74615
...in the store. This reaction meets the test required to sustain a conclusion the words were indeed "fighting" words. See Johnson v. State, 143 Ga.App. 826, 240 S.E.2d 207. See also Brooks v. State, 166 Ga.App. 704, 705, 305 S.E.2d The fact that the accusation was phrased in the conjunctive a......
-
Tucker v. State, A98A0484.
...guard amounted to fighting words as they "invoked violence against herself and provoked passions in bystanders"); Johnson v. State, 143 Ga.App. 826, 240 S.E.2d 207 (1977), (defendant's statements to police officer in which he called her "bitch" and told her "`I don't give a damn about you. ......