A Walton County grand jury indicted Joseph Brandeburg for theft by taking while serving as an employee of the Loganville Police Department, OCGA § § 16-8-2 and 16-8-12 a 3 penalty for theft by a government employee in breach of duty, and two counts of violation of oath by a public officer, OCGA § 16-10-1. Brandeburg filed a demurrer and plea in abatement, a demurrer and motion to quash the indictment, a motion to dismiss for violating his constitutional right to a speedy trial, and a motion to dismiss for prosecutorial vindictiveness. The superior court denied the motions, and Brandeburg appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm. The record shows that, on October 12, 2004, Brandeburg was employed as a police officer for the Loganville Police Department. While Brandeburg was on duty, in uniform, and driving a marked police car, he went to a towing company lot to look at a camper and a motorcycle he was considering purchasing for his personal use. Brandeburg also looked into the trunk of a car that had been impounded by the Snellville Police Department. The car had been stolen, had been involved in a hit and run accident, and then had been abandoned. It is undisputed that Brandeburg was not involved in the investigation of the accident or the impoundment of the car, and there was no evidence that, as a Loganville police officer, he was authorized to look into the car’s trunk or confiscate items therefrom. Even so, Brandeburg removed a “nun-chuck” and a set of brass knuckles from the car’s trunk and placed the weapons in his patrol car. Brandeburg left the lot with the weapons, and he did not notify anyone at either the Loganville or Snellville Police Departments that he had taken possession of the weapons.
The next day, a Snellville police officer went to the lot to take an inventory of the car’s contents, and a lot employee told him that Brandeburg had taken two items from the car’s trunk.1 The officer contacted the Loganville Police Department’s Chief of Police, who asked Brandeburg about the items. It is undisputed that Brandeburg had not turned in the weapons to the police department and that he still had the items in his possession. The police chief contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation G.B.I., which conducted an investigation.
