We granted E.H. Delong’s application for interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s denial of his motion for summary judgment in the action filed against him by Michael Domenici. On appeal, Delong contends that his defense of official immunity was meritorious and that he was entitled to summary judgment. We agree and therefore reverse. Domenici filed his complaint against Delong, a Cobb County police officer, alleging that on September 1, 2000, he was unlawfully arrested by Delong in Paulding County. He also alleged that Delong committed assault and battery during the arrest. Both claims arose from an incident in which Domenici drove his vehicle into a subdivision where he once lived, apparently to visit with former neighbors, at approximately 10:00 p.m. on the evening in question. Delong lived with his wife across the street from Domenici’s former neighbors. He was outside, preparing to go to work; he was dressed in full uniform, which included an equipment belt holding pepper spray, his baton, and his service revolver. He observed Domenici’s car, which was unfamiliar to him, parked in a neighbor’s driveway. Delong then saw Domenici return to his car and back out of the driveway with great difficulty, weaving back and forth. Domenici drove on the grass and spun and screeched the tires. Delong saw “a large blue cloud of tire smoke” and became suspicious.
Domenici then drove erratically down the street, narrowly missing a mailbox, and entered a second neighbor’s driveway, causing sensor lights to illuminate. After parking his car at the bottom of the driveway, Domenici walked to the back of that house. Delong followed him because the erratic driving led him to suspect that the driver was intoxicated. Domenici was walking around to the front of the house when Delong approached him and asked why he was there. Domenici answered unintelligibly with slurred speech. Delong “noticed that Domenici was staggering and that his eyes were red and bloodshot and watery in appearance,” and that he had an “extremely strong odor of alcoholic beverage about his breath and about his person.”
