Opinion ID: 2429564
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: hgn test

Text: On appeal, the appellant first argues that the trial court erred in admitting Officer Lewis's testimony about the HGN test because (1) the test was not relevant, and (2) a preliminary Prater hearing to determine relevancy was not conducted. He cites this court to Prater v. State, 307 Ark. 180, 820 S.W.2d 429 (1991), and Middleton v. State, 29 Ark.App. 83, 780 S.W.2d 581 (1989), and argues that a mistrial should have been declared. In 1986, the Arizona Supreme Court defined nystagmus as follows: Nystagmus is an involuntary jerking of the eyeball. The jerking may be aggravated by central nervous system depressants such as alcohol or barbiturates. (Citation omitted.) Horizontal gaze nystagmus is the inability of the eyes to maintain visual fixation as they are turned to the side. State v. Superior Court of County of Cochise, 149 Ariz. 269, 271, 718 P.2d 171, 173 (1986). In 1988, an American Law Reports Annotation further stated that HGN testing had been in use for 30 years but had not been widely used until recently. Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test: Use In Impaired Driving Prosecution, 60 ALR4th 1129, § 1, p. 1131 (1988). We note initially that Officer Lewis did not testify to a specific blood alcohol percentage after administering the HGN test but only concluded that the test indicated the presence of alcohol. The pertinent DWI statute describes two unlawful actsone for driving while intoxicated and one for driving with .1 percent blood alcohol content as proven by chemical testing: (a) It is unlawful and punishable as provided in this act for any person who is intoxicated to operate or be in actual physical control of a motor vehicle. (b) It is unlawful and punishable as provided in this act for any person to operate or be in actual physical control of a motor vehicle if at that time there was one-tenth of one percent (0.10%) or more by weight of alcohol in the person's blood as determined by a chemical test of the person's blood, urine, breath, or other bodily substance. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-65-103 (1987). Intoxicated is further defined as ingesting alcohol to such a degree that the driver's motor skills are substantially altered and a clear and substantial danger to the driver or to others exists. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-65-102(1) (Supp.1991). In 1989, the Court of Appeals concluded that the testimony of an arresting officer was insufficient to provide an evidentiary foundation to determine the percentage of alcohol content in the driver's blood. Middleton v. State, supra . In that case, the officer testified that the driver's blood alcohol level was.15 or .16 percent based solely on the HGN test. The fact that the police officer in Middleton v. State testified to fixed percentages of blood alcohol content under § 5-65-103(b) distinguishes that case from the case at bar. Here, the HGN test administered by Officer Lewis was not used to quantify a precise percentage of blood alcohol content but rather to show some indication of alcohol consumption in conjunction with other field sobriety tests. Using the test to identify a precise blood alcohol content under § 5-65-103(b) is vastly different from testing to indicate some alcohol in the system for purposes of intoxication under § 5-65-103(a). In a later case, the Court of Appeals had occasion to consider the HGN test when the testing officer did not attempt to identify precise blood alcohol content. Brown v. State, 38 Ark.App. 18, 827 S.W.2d 174 (1992). In Brown , the Court of Appeals held that where there was no testimony of specific blood alcohol percentages by the police officer but only that the HGN test showed the driver had ingested substances that would make him an unsatisfactory driver, no error occurred. The facts of the Brown case more closely approximate those in the present case. We note that other jurisdictions have also been circumspect about permitting police officers to testify to percentages of blood alcohol content predicated solely on the HGN test. See, e.g., State v. Superior Court of County of Cochise, supra ; People v. Loomis, 156 Cal.App.3d Supp. 1, 203 Cal.Rptr. 767 (1984). Yet, when blood alcohol content is not quantified by the testifying officer, introduction of nystagmus as some evidence of impairment due to alcohol has been allowed. See, e.g., State v. Superior Court of County of Cochise, supra (dictum); State v. Clark, 234 Mont. 222, 762 P.2d 853 (1988). In County of Cochise, the Arizona Supreme Court assessed the use of HGN testing to prove blood alcohol content or, alternatively, to prove that one was driving under its influence. The Arizona Court drew a clear distinction between 1) using nystagmus to prove a percentage of blood alcohol content under one Arizona statute comparable to Ark.Code Ann. § 5-65-103(b), and 2) using it to prove driving under the influence of alcohol under a second statute much like Ark.Code Ann. § 5-65-103(a). The court denied the use of HGN testing to establish blood alcohol content but did not prohibit introduction of the results of the test to prove driving under the influence. We agree that testimony of the driver's nystagmus is relevant for the limited purpose of generally indicating the presence of alcohol. In the case at bar, Whitson was charged with driving while intoxicated, not with operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .1 percent or more, and the jury was only instructed on the § 5-65-103(a) offense. Also, Officer Lewis's training and qualifications are not contested on appeal. Moreover, the HGN test was not used to fix a percentage of blood alcohol content under § 5-65-103(b) but rather to indicate impairment. Indeed, no percentages of blood alcohol were testified to by Officer Lewis. We hold, therefore, that testimony of Whitson's nystagmus was relevant as some proof of intoxication under § 5-65-103(a). We turn next to the issue of whether the trial court erred in not conducting a preliminary Prater inquiry on the relevancy of the test. In 1991, this court announced the relevancy approach as our standard for determining the admissibility of novel scientific evidence which we described as a more liberal test than the Frye standard which looked to general acceptance of the procedure in question in the scientific community. Prater v. State, supra . The relevancy approach requires that the trial court conduct a preliminary inquiry of any novel scientific evidence and focus on: (1) the reliability of the process used to generate the evidence; (2) the possibility that the jury would be overwhelmed, confused or misled by the evidence; and (3) the connection between the evidence to be offered and the disputed factual issue in the particular case. The State clearly did not consider HGN testing to be novel scientific evidence warranting a preliminary Prater inquiry under these facts. As already indicated, HGN testing has been in existence for 35 years, and officers are trained in this technique at the State Police Academy. Moreover, Whitson, who asked for the discrete hearing, made no showing of novelty but merely argued the absence of reliability and relevancy. We agree, based on the record before us, that the results of nystagmus testing for purposes of showing some indication of alcohol was not novel scientific evidence requiring a preliminary inquiry. Our opinion, however, might well be different had the officer attempted to quantify blood alcohol content based solely on the HGN test. In sum, we hold that the results of the HGN test were relevant to show alcohol consumption in conjunction with the results of other field sobriety tests performed. We note in this holding that the training and qualifications of Officer Lewis to administer the test are not in dispute. We further underscore the point that the test was not used to quantify blood alcohol content and, thus, the novelty of the test was not such as to require a discrete Prater inquiry. The motion to declare a mistrial was properly denied.