Off Duty Police Officer Arrested for Obstruction in Georgia

An off-duty police officer is facing felony charges after being accused of almost running over another officer and then resisting his orders.

According to reports, a supervisor-level officer was off-duty this past week when she allegedly refused to comply with another officer's traffic orders. She ended up hitting the officer with her vehicle which led to a struggle between the two of them. She bit his hand when he attempted to remove her from the vehicle. She is facing many different charges - including felony obstruction.

As a Georgia DUI Lawyer, I handle cases involving both obstruction and DUI in Georgia quite often. Resisting arrest is a commonly related charge accompanying a DUI in a DUI case. The law is as stated below.

Obstruction in Georgia

Obstruction in Georgia is defined in O.C.G.A. 16-10-24 when a person "knowingly and willfully obstructs or hinders" a law enforcement officer in the course of his or her official duties. This can constitute a broad variety of conduct by a person, and often comes as a natural result of a person's conduct while intoxicated.

Activity that can be considered "obstruction" includes, but is far from limited to:

• running from Georgia law enforcement
• lying to police
• attempting to destroy or hide evidence
• locking your vehicle
• refusing to follow a police officer's verbal directions
• resisting arrest
• give a false name or false documentation (i.e. fake i.d.)
• getting out of a vehicle when not asked to do so

Other kinds of conduct that interfere with an officer's ability to do his or her job can also result in a Georgia obstructing an officer charge.

If you are charged with a misdemeanor form of obstruction in Georgia, you could face up to twelve months in jail and a fine up to $1000.

A person can also be charged with a felony version of obstruction, and the person could face the same penalties as a misdemeanor, but the prison sentence would now be between 1 and 5 years in prison.

Practice Note

The majority of the time, obstruction is a catchall offense - meaning that it encompasses a wide variety of actions and behaviors. There are many ways the an individual can be charged with obstruction of a police officer.

If you have been arrested, call our offices now.