Content area
Full Text
A recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling may provide fodder for defense lawyers in other states seeking to challenge police testimony about an eye test widely used in DUI arrests.
The court held in State v. McKown that the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test is admissible for the purpose of proving that a defendant may have consumed alcohol.
But the court also held that admitting an officer's testimony regarding HGN testing was reversible error because the test was not performed in compliance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's protocol.
"Admission of [the officer's] testimony regarding the HGN test he performed in the absence of a proper foundation was error," the court said.
Don Ramsell, a veteran DUI defense lawyer in Wheaton, Ill., who argued the case, called the ruling "very significant."
"It institutes a very rigid and specific protocol for the test, namely the NHTSA protocol only, and that's a big foundational movement that many states don't have in place presently," he said.
HGN testing is used by police in about 40 states as part of...