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Collier v. Merck

The defendant's writ of certiorari appealing his conviction for violating a county ordinance was fundamentally flawed since the defendant did not include a copy of the relevant ordinance.

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Demetrius Collier was convicted in Dekalb County Recorders Court of violating Dekalb County Code § 16-45.2, which prohibits loitering for drug related purposes. Challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, Collier appealed his conviction by petitioning for a writ of certiorari to the superior court.1 The superior court found the evidence sufficient and dismissed Collier’s petition. For reasons that follow, we affirm.2 On appeal, Collier asserts that the superior court applied the wrong standard of review. He further argues that, under any appellate standard, the evidence was insufficient to find him guilty of loitering for drug related purposes. We do not reach these issues, however, because Collier’s petition for writ of certiorari is fatally and fundamentally flawed.

Although a recorders court may take judicial notice of a local ordinance, neither the superior court nor this court may take such notice.3 Thus, a certiorari petitioner challenging the sufficiency of evidence presented in recorders court to prove an ordinance violation must provide the relevant ordinance to the reviewing court.4 The petitioner need not submit an exact copy of the ordinance, but he must set forth the provision’s substance so that the reviewing court can ” ‘determine the offense charged.’ “ 5 As our Supreme Court has explained, “to compare evidence with the terms of an ordinance, the substance of the ordinance, if not its letter, must be before the court.”6

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