Following his arrest in 2003, Jorge Falagian was indicted in Fulton County Superior Court on three counts of theft by taking OCGA § 16-8-2. More than four and a half years after his arrest, Falagian filed a motion seeking dismissal of the charges on the basis that the State violated his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, and also filed demurrers and a plea in abatement to the indictment. Falagian appeals from the trial court’s order denying his motion to dismiss, demurrers, and plea in abatement, arguing that the trial court erred in i failing to consider the State’s bad faith and prejudice to him in finding that his speedy trial right had not been violated, ii denying his plea in abatement based on the rule of lenity; and iii denying his general and special demurrers because the indictment did not sufficiently apprise him of the unlawful conduct and was misleading. Concluding that no prejudice resulted from the State’s delay in bringing Falagian to trial and otherwise discerning no error, we affirm. In the underlying case, the record shows that Doe Kim owned Neighbors Grocery Store, which was also a duly licensed and authorized check cashing business. After Falagian wrote and cashed several bad checks in excess of $197,000 at Kim’s store, Kim hired an attorney to send a 10-day letter to Falagian, pursuant to OCGA § 16-9-20, seeking the return of said sums. Approximately one month later, when Falagian failed to comply with the 10-day letter to pay the monies owed to Kim, Kim contacted the police to initiate criminal charges against Falagian. On September 19, 2003, Falagian was arrested for the offense of theft by conversion.
Kim met with an investigator with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office “Fulton DA’s office” three to four times in 2004 and 2005; however, when the State took no action to prosecute Falagian, Kim filed a civil action against Falagian for fraud. In or around March 2007, the civil suit settled, but Kim contacted the Fulton DA’s Office because he was unhappy with the terms of the settlement relating to repayment of the check proceeds. Thereafter, on May 11, 2007, the State indicted Falagian for three counts of theft by taking.
