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American Samoa Government v Miscoi [2012] ASHC 4; UTC 286246 & 286247 (4 March 2012)

OPINIONS

OF THE

DISTRICT COURT
OF AMERICAN SAMOA

(2012)

AMERICAN SAMOA GOVERNMENT, Plaintiff,

v.

BRIAN MISCOI, Defendant.
___________________________________

The District Court of American Samoa

UTC Nos. 286246 & 286247

March 4, 2012

[1] The District Court takes judicial notice of the history and development of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. These uniform, field-testing procedures were developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) in response to high rates of vehicle crash fatalities related to impaired driving during the 1960s and 1970s. NHTSA had previously provided local police forces nation-wide with detection guides listing 20-24 examples of bad driving by a motorist predictive of driving under the influence. The follow-up S.F.S.T.s were researched and developed by NHTSA as police tools to use after a traffic stop was made to better assess whether probable cause existed to arrest a motorist for D.U.I. These tests performed by officers developing a reasonable suspicion that a stopped motorist is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs generally include the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmous Test (HGN), the 9-step Walk and Turn Test (WAT), and the One Leg Stand Test, (OLS). (The WAT and OLS tests are basically self-explanatory. The HGN test, on the other hand, relies upon studies of the effects of depressants, such as alcohol, upon a person’s central nervous system which naturally produce involuntary jerking of the eye’s iris when the effected person gazes to the side).

[2] From a constitutional law standpoint, the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (“S.F.T.S.s”) also further the protections afforded by the 4th Amendment. A motorist stopped for a traffic violation who exhibits some level of intoxication during his initial contact with the police, would, within the few minutes necessary to undergo testing and evaluation at the scene of the traffic stop, reasonably expect to continue on his trip, (with or without a ticket for the violation prompting the initial stop), if he successfully performs the S.F.T.S.s.

[3] A traffic stop, however brief, is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, but generally not an unreasonable seizure absent prohibited police conduct.

[4] The 5th Amendment protects the accused’s right to not be compelled to testify against himself, or otherwise provide the state with evidence of a testimonial or communicative nature. An accused may be compelled, however, by the state to produce real or physical evidence. To be testimonial, the communication must, explicitly or implicitly, relate a factual assertion or disclose information.