Following a jury trial, Jonathan G. Pinch was found guilty of driving under the influence to the extent that it was less safe to drive, failure to obey stop sign, no license on person, reckless driving, improper lane change, and failure to use turn signal. Pinch claims the trial court erred in i refusing to grant a mistrial based on the improper admission of a videotape, ii not ruling on the lack of probable cause for arrest for driving under the influence, iii failing to grant motions for the reduction of charges, iv allowing an improper closing argument, and v its charge to the jury. We affirm for the reasons set forth below. Viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that on October 9, 2001, Officer Cary Bond of the Atlanta Police Department saw a Jaguar automobile traveling down Peachtree Street at a high rate of speed. As the Jaguar passed Bond going in the opposite direction, the driver “punched” the accelerator, causing exhaust and dust to swirl up behind the vehicle, and the Jaguar quickly passed the slower car in the center lane, then cut back in front of the car. According to Bond, the Jaguar was traveling much faster than the vehicles around it, and the driver was “a lot more aggressive than the other drivers in the roadway” and “blew my doors off and then blew the doors off the car that he ripped around.” Bond turned his car around to follow the Jaguar. He saw the driver make a lane change in front of a MARTA bus without using a signal, and then turn onto a side street. The Jaguar came to a stop sign and slowed but did not stop before going through the intersection.
Bond turned on his siren and blue lights, intending to stop the Jaguar, but the car turned into a restaurant parking lot and the driver exited the car. During his trial testimony, Bond identified the driver of the Jaguar as Pinch. When Bond approached Pinch in the parking lot, Pinch was unable to produce a license, which he claimed had been stolen a week earlier. Bond noticed that Pinch had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. Pinch’s face was flushed and reddish, and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He was talkative, but his speech was thick tongued. Pinch told Bond that he had had two to three drinks, his last drink being about an hour before. Bond asked Pinch to step away from his vehicle, and conducted a horizontal gaze nystagmus evaluation, a walk and turn, and a one leg stand test. Although Pinch told Bond that he had diabetes, Pinch did not identify it as a problem which would impair his ability to perform the field evaluations. Pinch’s performance on each of the evaluations indicated that he was impaired.
