Gelzer v. State
Gelzer v. State
Opinion of the Court
*219Irving Gelzer was charged with driving under the influence while operating a commercial vehicle ( OCGA § 40-6-391 (i) ) and driving with a suspended license ( OCGA § 40-5-121 ). We granted Gelzer's application for interlocutory review of the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress the results of a breath test. On appeal, Gelzer argues that the results of his breath test should have been suppressed because the arresting officer provided him with an improper implied consent notice. For the following reasons, we vacate the trial court's order and remand the case for further consideration.
On appeal from the trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we construe the evidence in a light most favorable to uphold the ruling of the trial court. State v.Fedrick ,
The evidence presented at the motion to suppress hearing shows that on December 3, 2015, an officer with the Douglasville Police Department responded to a call that a truck had caused damage to property at a Texaco gas station. The officer's initial investigation revealed that a tractor-trailer had hit a metal pole protecting the gas pumps. The officer found Gelzer in the driver's seat of the vehicle and smelled alcohol coming from within the cab of the vehicle. Gelzer told the officer that he had been driving the tractor-trailer, and the officer smelled alcohol on Gelzer's breath when he spoke. The officer further noticed that Gelzer struggled to lower himself from his truck, stumbled *220while walking, did not seem steady on his feet, slurred his speech, and had red, watery eyes. Based on these manifestations, the officer assumed that Gelzer had been drinking.
When the officer asked for Gelzer's driver's license, Gelzer indicated that he had a commercial driver's license ("CDL"). However, when the officer ran Gelzer's driver's license through dispatch, it was revealed that Gelzer did not have a CDL and that his Florida driver's license was suspended. The officer testified that he did not ask Gelzer to perform field sobriety tests because Gelzer was exhibiting anxious behavior and had walked away from him a few times, and because the officer was afraid that he was going to run away. Based on his belief that Gelzer was under the influence of alcohol, the officer placed Gelzer under arrest for driving under the influence while driving a commercial vehicle and for driving with a suspended license. The officer then read Gelzer Georgia's Implied Consent Notice for suspects who are age 21 and over. Gelzer agreed to submit to a State-administered breath test, and the results of the test indicated that he had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.198 grams.
OCGA § 40-5-67.1
1. In denying Gelzer's motion to suppress the breath test results, the trial court found that the difference between the implied consent *221warning for suspects age 21 or over and the implied consent warning for commercial vehicle drivers was "within the range of substantial compliance and did not render the warning insufficiently accurate." We disagree.
OCGA § 40-5-67.1 (b) provides that the appropriate implied consent notice "shall be read in its entirety but need not be read exactly so long as the substance of the notice remains unchanged." OCGA § 40-5-67.1 (b). The "purpose of the implied consent law is to *680notify drivers of their rights so that they can make informed decisions." Kitchens v. State ,
"This [C]ourt has previously recognized that overstatement, as opposed to understatement, of the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration is the type of misinformation that might cause someone to submit to testing who might otherwise refuse." (Citation omitted.) Kitchens , supra at 413-414 (1),
In the instant case, the arresting officer read the wrong implied consent notice and overstated the blood alcohol concentration that may result in the revocation of Gelzer's license. As noted in Kitchens , supra, and Maurer , supra, the arresting officer's overstatement of the blood alcohol concentration affects the substance of the implied consent notice because a suspect might be led to submit to testing if the legal limit were overstated. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court erred in concluding that the difference between the 0.08 legal limit applicable to suspects age 21 and over and the 0.04 legal limit applicable to commercial vehicle drivers is not a substantial change.
*2222. The trial court's order concluded, in an alternative holding, that the breath test results were admissible as evidence resulting from a search incident to Gelzer's arrest, regardless of whether he validly consented to the breath test. For the following reasons, we vacate the trial court's order and remand for further consideration in light of this opinion.
The trial court's order cites to Birchfield v. North Dakota , --- U.S. ----,
However, at the time the trial court considered Gelzer's motion to suppress (and at the time Gelzer filed his notice of appeal in this case), the Supreme Court of Georgia had not yet issued its decision in Olevik v. State ,
*681Yeong Sik Oh v. State ,
The voluntariness of a consent to a breath test is determined by such factors as
the age of the accused, his education, his intelligence, the length of detention, whether the accused was advised of his constitutional rights, the prolonged nature of questioning, the use of physical punishment, and the psychological impact of all these factors on the accused. In determining voluntariness, no single factor is controlling.
*223(Citations omitted.) Olevik , supra at 251 (3) (b),
Because the trial court's order expressly stated that it did not make an analysis of the totality of the circumstances surrounding Gelzer's breath test, we vacate the trial court's denial of Gelzer's motion to suppress the evidence and remand the case for further consideration of those factors. See, e. g., Davis v. State ,
Judgment vacated and case remanded with direction.
McFadden, P.J., and Rickman, J., concur.
OCGA § 40-5-67.1 was amended, effective July 1, 2017. See Laws 2016, Act 408, § 1-4. We apply the version of the statute effective at the time of Gelzer's offense. See Laws 2011, Act 89, § 9, effective January 1, 2012.
An interesting point, though not raised or argued by the parties, is that the defendant had no commercial driver's license which could have been suspended due to the defendant's either refusal to submit to chemical testifying or to testing which showed an alcohol concentration of .04 grams or more.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.