McClain v. State

Beasley, Judge.

In appealing his DUI conviction, Stanley McClain claims that the trial court should have suppressed an officer’s testimony about McClain’s performance on certain field sobriety tests. McClain argues that the officer lacked an articulable suspicion to stop McClain, thus violating his constitutional rights. Because the first possible “stop” occurred after the officer had smelled alcohol on McClain’s breath, the judgment is affirmed.

At 4:00 a.m. on January 26, 1996, a police officer witnessed McClain leave the parking lot of a bar in a quickly accelerating vehicle. Believing that…