State v. Scott

854 P.2d 991, 121 Or. App. 308, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1034
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 23, 1993
DocketCR1-0222-34; CA A71298
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 854 P.2d 991 (State v. Scott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Scott, 854 P.2d 991, 121 Or. App. 308, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1034 (Or. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

[310]*310EDMONDS, J.

Defendant appeals her conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicants, ORS 813.010, arguing that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a field sobriety test without a proper foundation. We affirm.

In March, 1991, Officer Beatty contacted defendant in a supermarket parking lot after receiving a report from a gas station attendant. The report indicated that when defendant stopped at the station, her speech was slurred and she was drinking beer. When Beatty approached defendant, he saw a number of beer cans on the floor of her car. Defendant’s eyes were watery and bloodshot, and she smelled of alcohol. When asked if she had been drinking, she admitted to drinking one beer. Beatty asked defendant to perform some sobriety tests. She refused to do any of the tests requiring balance, explaining that she had previously broken her leg. She recited the alphabet up to the letter ‘ “T” and performed the “finger to nose” test by touching the bridge of her nose, rather than the tip of her nose as she was asked to do. Beatty also administered the “horizontal gaze nystagmus” (HGN) test and observed nystagmus1 at a maximum deviation. Beatty arrested defendant and took her to the police station, where she refused to perform a breath test. At trial, Beatty testified as to defendant’s performance of the various sobriety tests.

Defendant assigns error to the trial court’s admission of Beatty’s testimony regarding the HGN test. The court permitted Beatty to testify that he administered the HGN test to defendant as part of the field sobriety tests, that defendant exhibited nystagmus and that “with my experience and so forth, I believe from that[,] that her driving would have been impaired.” The state concedes that it did not lay a foundation for the scientific reliability and acceptance of the HGN test. However, it argues that it was not necessary to lay a foundation for the test at trial, because there has been legislative and administrative approval of the test that mandates its admission if performed in accordance with OAR 257-25-020(1).2

[311]*311In State v. Reed, 83 Or App 451, 732 P2d 66 (1987), we held that in the absence of an evidentiary foundation to qualify the arresting officer as an expert on the reliability of the relationship, if any, between alcohol consumption and nystagmus, it was error to admit similar testimony. 83 Or App at 456. The state relies on the language in ORS 813.135 and in ORS 801.272 in support of its proposition that the legislature, subsequent to our decision in Reed, has approved the admission of the HGN test into evidence at trial without an evidentiary foundation.

To construe ORS 813.135 and ORS 801.272:

“We start with the text of the statute, to ascertain ‘what is * * * contained therein, not to insert what has been omitted, or to omit what has been inserted.’ ORS 174.010; Sanders v. Oregon Pacific States Ins. Co., 314 Or 521, 527, 840 P2d 87 (1992). When the words of the statute are not dispositive, we look to the statute’s context. In considering its context, we may consider other provisions of the same statute and other statutes on the same subject. Sanders v. Oregon Pacific States Ins. Co., supra, 314 Or at 527; see Comeaux v. Water Wonderland Improvement Dist., 315 Or 562, 569-70, 847 P2d 841 (1993) (interpreting provision of [312]*312the Oregon Constitution by looking at its text and context). If the text and context of the statute do not tell us what the legislature intended, we look to the legislative history. Mattiza v. Foster, [311 Or 1, 4, 803 P2d 723 (1990)].” State v. Trenary, 316 Or 172, 175, 850 P2d 356 (1993).

ORS 813.135 provides that a person who operates a vehicle on a highway of the state is deemed to have given consent to submit to “field sobriety tests” on the request of the police officer for the purpose of determining whether the person is under the influence of intoxicants. ORS 801.272 defines a “field sobriety test” as a physical or mental test approved by the Department of State Police by rule. It does not, as the concurrence suggests, provide for the admission of field sobriety tests into evidence in a trial in a court of law. OAR 257-25-020(1) embodies the state police adoption of the HGN test as a field sobriety test. It says that the HGN test has been approved for purposes of the rule and instructs the officer on how to administer the test.

Although the legislature has delegated the determination of what constitutes a “field sobriety test” to the Department of State Police, that is not tantamount to a delegation to the agency to decide what evidence is admissible in a criminal trial. The statutes say nothing about the reliability of an HGN test as an indicator of alcohol induced impairment. Their focus concerns the consequences of a refusal to take a field sobriety test. In State v. Trenary, supra, the court said:

“The text of ORS 813.135 and 813.136 compels the conclusion that these statutes were enacted for two overriding reasons: First, to provide that operation of a vehicle was a consent to field sobriety tests (thus providing the foundation for admissibility of evidence of a refusal found lacking in State v. Green, 68 Or App 518, 684 P2d 575 (1984)); and, second, to compel drivers to take field sobriety tests. Evidence of field sobriety tests had long been held admissible in the absence of the statutory consent provisions.” 316 Or at 177. (Footnote omitted.)

The text of ORS 813.136 provides that if a person refuses to submit to a field sobriety test, then evidence of the refusal is admissible in a proceeding arising out of allegations that the person was driving while under the influence of intoxicants. Here, the provisions of ORS 813.135 and ORS 813.136 are [313]*313not implicated, because defendant did not refuse to take the test. Even if we were to go beyond the language of the statutes themselves, the underlying legislative history confirms that the legislature did not have in mind the promulgation of statutes declaring that there is a relationship between alcohol consumption and nystagmus when it enacted them.

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Related

State v. Goss
984 P.2d 938 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1999)
State v. Conner
888 P.2d 1087 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1995)
State v. O'KEY
858 P.2d 904 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1993)
State v. Scott
854 P.2d 991 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1993)

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Bluebook (online)
854 P.2d 991, 121 Or. App. 308, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-scott-orctapp-1993.