State Rep. David Graves was convicted late Wednesday of a drunk driving charge that he had argued should not have been brought because of legislative privilege.

Cobb State Court Judge Irma B. Glover found Graves (R-Macon) guilty after a one day jury trial.

After hearing testimony from the arresting officer and seeing a videotape of Graves' Feb. 15 arrest, Glover said she came to the "inescapable conclusion that the state had proven its case."

Graves is slated to stand trial later this month on another DUI charge from March 2004 in Cobb County. He will be sentenced after that case is resolved.

As late as Wednesday afternoon, Graves disputed that he was intoxicated when he was stopped at a roadblock in Vinings. He acknowledged that he had four glasses of wine at a dinner with other legislators during the 2005 General Assembly session.

A videotape of the arrest showed him trying to persuade police that a centuries-old law prohibits the arrest of legislators while the General Assembly is in session.

The provision states that General Assembly members are immune from arrest when they are in session, in committee or traveling to or from either type of meeting, except in cases of treason, felony or breach of the peace. Such laws were written to prevent politicians from ordering the arrest of their rivals.

During the stop Graves told police: "I'm playing every card I got in the deck," referring to the provision.

Glover rejected Graves' claim of immunity last month. She ruled that there was no evidence that the dinner was either a committee meeting or part of any legislative session.

Victor Verola, a member of the Cobb County DUI task force, testified Wednesday that Graves had a strong smell of alcohol, badly slurred speech, and could not perform basic roadside tests such as saying the alphabet.

Graves' attorney, William C. "Bubba" Head, called a hired consultant from Texas to testify that he saw no evidence on the tape that Graves was intoxicated. The consultant also alleged that the arresting officers had not performed proper field tests to determine whether Graves was drunk. Graves refused to take a blood alcohol test.

Verola testified that Graves told him at the police station that he feared he might be "borderline."

This is cache, read story here