Opinion
A96A2007.
DECIDED DECEMBER 11, 1996.
D.U.I. Hall State Court. Before Judge Gosselin.
Zimmerman Associates, Keith F. Brandon, for appellant.
Jerry Rylee, Solicitor, Inez G. D'Entremont, Assistant Solicitor, for appellee.
William Ransom McDaniel was arrested for driving under the influence in violation of OCGA § 40-6-391. The Georgia Department of Public Safety suspended appellant's Georgia driver's license. To his criminal prosecution for DUI, appellant filed a plea in bar claiming the prosecution constituted double jeopardy on account of the prior "punitive" administrative proceedings suspending his license. The trial court denied the plea in bar, and this direct appeal follows. Held:
We have repeatedly held that the suspension of appellant's driver's license was not an act to which jeopardy attached. Haynes v. State, 245 Ga. 817 ( 268 S.E.2d 325); Shaw v. State, 239 Ga. 690, 692 ( 238 S.E.2d 434); Oliver v. State, 216 Ga. App. 76 ( 453 S.E.2d 746); State v. Steien, 214 Ga. App. 345 ( 447 S.E.2d 701); Deal v. State, 213 Ga. App. 131 ( 443 S.E.2d 713); Dotson v. State, 213 Ga. App. 7, 8 (1) ( 443 S.E.2d 650).
Recently, in Allender v. State, 222 Ga. App. 358 ( 474 S.E.2d 257), we were asked to rule that a denial of a plea of former jeopardy in a criminal prosecution for DUI following an administrative driver's license suspension is not subject to direct appeal because such a plea is frivolous. "This we cannot do," we held, "for the right of direct appeal of a denial of former jeopardy is . . . firmly established in Patterson v. State, [ 248 Ga. 875 ( 287 S.E.2d 7)]." Allender at p. 359 (1). We cannot hold there is no right of direct appeal of a denial of a plea in bar based on former jeopardy in a criminal prosecution following an administrative license suspension arising out of the same act; this is a legislative matter. However, in view of the fact that it is so firmly established that such a plea in bar is without merit, we can say this appeal is frivolous.
Accordingly, we hold only that the trial court did not err in denying appellant's plea in bar.
Judgment affirmed. Beasley, C.J., and Blackburn, J., concur.