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Jackie Patterson has successfully defended individuals in a number of trials and on appeal of their cases. Here are a few:

 

Robert Costin plead guilty in the State Court of Troup County to Driving under the influence of alcohol. At the time of his arrest, he refused to consent to a breath test to determine the amount of alcohol in this blood. At his plea hearing, Jackie informed the Judge that Mr. Costin was not required to spend 24 hours in jail when he refused to take a breath test, because Georgia law requires jail time only if a person has .08 or more alcohol in their blood at the time of arrest. The trial judge disagreed and ordered that Mr. Costin serve 24 hours in jail. The Georgia Court of Appeals agreed with Attorney Patterson and threw out the jail sentence imposed by the Judge. The Court of Appeals wrote "Here, the record shows that Costin was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it was less safe for him to drive. Apparently, Costin refused to submit to chemical testing, which would have established his blood-alcohol content. And there was no evidence presented at Costin's plea hearing to establish blood alcohol content. Under these circumstances, the statute does not mandate that Costin serve 24 hours in jail. The trial court, however, misinterpreted the statute, finding that it required such service."

 

John Geng Jr. was denied a jury trial on his speeding ticket and he was convicted in the City Court of Atlanta. Jackie convinced the Georgia Supreme Court to rule that all persons are entitled to a jury trial on any traffic ticket and his conviction was reversed.

 

Raymond Graves was convicted of driving with a suspended license, improper u-turn, and no proof of insurance. Jackie convinced the Georgia Supreme Court to rule that the State did not prove the incident occurred in Fulton County as required by law and the court reversed his conviction.

 

Hollis Bowen was convicted of DUI (drugs) after admitting to the police officer that he had smoked marijuana prior to driving. Jackie convinced the Georgia Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction on the ground that it is not illegal to smoke marijuana and drive, since there was no proof that Mr. Bowen could not safely operate his vehicle.

 

Hollis Bowen's probation was revoked for testing positive for having a trace of marijuana in his blood. Jackie convinced the Georgia Court of Appeals to throw out his revocation because the State did not prove that the tests were reliable.

 

Randolph Poole was convicted of Public Drunk, a city ordinance. Jackie convinced the Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction because the Judge in the case ruled that she was acting as a Municipal Court Judge when in fact she was acting as a State Court Judge. The Court of Appeals agreed with Jackie and reversed the conviction by ruling the Judge was serving as a State Court Judge and not Municipal Court judge, therefore his conviction could not stand.

 

Tony Scholomer, a school bus driver, was tried on five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by having inappropriate sexual conversation with kids that rode on his school bus route. Jackie convinced the Georgia Court of Appeals to find him not guilty on the grounds that the State did not prove the kids were delinquent since the kids never participated in the conversation, nor participated the sexual acts that he tried to encourage them to do. Mr. Scholomer was acquitted and could not be re-tried because of double jeopardy.

 

Eric McCants and seven of his friends were accused of drag racing. Jackie represented Eric and all seven of his friends in a single trial and convinced a Troup County jury to find them all not guilty. One of the accused was a lady who was 8 months pregnant.

 

S.D. was charged with child molestation in Fayette County, Georgia. S.D. was found not guilty after Jackie had S.D. to show his private parts to the jury in order to prove that S.D. had no freckles on his private parts as alleged by the victim.

 

 

Richard Naylor was convicted on theft by taking when he took $125,000 from a person who wired money to him from Fayette County, Georgia to the State of Florida. The money was to be used by Mr. Naylor to build a helicopter for the victim. The victim never got the helicopter. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Jackie convinced the Georgia Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction by ruling that since Mr. Naylor never controlled any of the money in Georgia nor spent any of the money in Georgia, no crime was committed in Georgia. His 10 year sentence was thrown out and Mr. Naylor can never be prosecuted in Georgia.