South Carolina v. Gordon
Annotate this CaseIn October 2011, respondent Cody Gordon was stopped at a license and registration checkpoint by a South Carolina Highway Patrol Officer. The officer administered several field sobriety tests. The test at issue in this case was the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test. The dashboard camera on the officer's patrol car recorded the entire incident, including all field sobriety tests, with continuous recording. The stop occurred at night, so the lighting was not perfect, but the officer had Gordon stand in the light of his patrol car's headlights and further illuminated Gordon by shining a flashlight directly on his face. The State appealed the Court of Appeals' affirmation of the circuit court's interpretation of section 56-5-2953 of the South Carolina Code. The appellate court found that the statute required officers to record the head of the motorist when administering the HGN field sobriety test and that respondent's head was not sufficiently visible. The State contended that a plain reading of the statute made no mention of the motorist's "head." Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' conclusion that the statute required that the motorist's head be recorded in the video; however, the Court vacated the mandate to remand to the magistrate court for further consideration. The Court reinstated respondent's conviction as it found that the officer complied with the statute in recording Gordon's HGN test.
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