Gary v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[The deputies] observed a white wrecker suddenly veer off into a private driveway located just short of the roadblock. According to Sergeant D. G. Thomas, as he heard a vehicle approaching and looked over to his left, “all of a sudden, it slammed on its brakes and made an abrupt stop. You could hear — I mean, it was obvious he was making a hard stop and turned into a driveway.” Deputy Sheriff Thomas Trudnak also saw the truck turn “sharply” and “very abruptly’ into a driveway. From where he was standing, Trudnak was able to see that the driver did not use a turn signal and that the rear of the car being towed did not have any tow lights affixed. Based on his opinion that the wrecker was trying to avoid the traffic checkpoint, Trudnak decided to investigate further. After requesting to see Gary’s driver’s license and insurance card, Trudnak asked Gary why he had turned into the driveway. Gary said that he was going to see his father-in-law, who, in fact, lived there. After verifying Gary’s license, Trudnak called dispatch to check the insurance information because neither the wrecker nor Gary’s name appeared on the insurance card. Trudnak noticed that Gary seemed “very nervous” and acted like his truck was a “hot potato.” Trudnak explained, that in his experience, when a vehicle contains contraband, drivers will distance themselves from that vehicle and seem to want to disown it. Trudnak noted that Gary would neither look at his truck nor go near it. Although he had never prev”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 268 Ga. App. 773 - Gary v. State