Rayburn v. State

In Rayburn v. State, 234 Ga. App. 482, 483-484 (2) (506 SE2d 876) (1998), the State produced in discovery a police report in which the preprinted section containing the officer's handwritten notations describing the results of an HGN field sobriety test had been redacted. The trial court characterized the redacted section as a scientific report that should have been produced in response to Rayburn's discovery requests. The court ruled the written report inadmissible, but allowed the officers to orally testify as to their observations and interpretations of Rayburn's performance of the test because Rayburn had received sufficient notice of this testimony when the officers appeared at the pretrial hearing. Rayburn, 234 Ga. App. at 483-484 (2). The Court upheld the trial court's conclusion that the HGN test was a scientific test and that the redacted section constituted a scientific report. The Court concluded that "the law required exclusion of not only the written report but also the selfsame oral testimony." Id. at 485 (2). Nevertheless, because the HGN test was only one of several indicators of Rayburn's intoxication, the trial court ruled that any error was harmless and affirmed Rayburn's conviction. Id. at 485 (2).