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State v. Driggers

Officers had no authority to re-enter the defendant's house, after he refused consent to search and his girlfriend was no longer in danger.

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The State of Georgia takes this appeal from the trial court’s grant of James Driggers’s motion to suppress statements taken and drugs, paraphernalia, and cash found in a police search of the house to which Driggers had taken his girlfriend by force. The State argues that police had the authority both to enter the house for the purpose of apprehending Driggers and to reenter for the purpose of taking the victim’s written statement, at which time they also discovered a part of the physical evidence at issue. We find that although police had authority to enter the house for the purpose of apprehending Driggers, their subsequent reentry was illegal. We therefore affirm. Where the evidence at a hearing on a motion to suppress is uncontroverted and no question of credibility is presented, we review the trial court’s application of the law to these undisputed facts de novo. Vansant v. State , 264 Ga. 319, 320 1 443 SE2d 474 1994. As to questions of fact and credibility, however, we construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment, which must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Tate v. State , 264 Ga. 53, 54 1 440 SE2d 646 1994.

So viewed, the record shows that Driggers and the victim and their children were living at 402 Mount Moriah Road in Auburn when, on April 18, 2008, police arrested Driggers there for driving under the influence. At that time, Sergeant Ulrich of the Auburn Police Department observed that Driggers was verbally abusive to the victim. Shortly afterward, the victim left the Mount Moriah house to stay at her mother’s.

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