State v. Godwin

JACKSON, Justice.

In this appeal we consider whether North Carolina Rule of Evidence 702(al) requires a law enforcement officer to be recognized explicitly as an expert witness pursuant to Rule 702(a) before he may testify to the results of a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test. Because we conclude that such explicit recognition is not required and that the trial court implicitly recognized the law enforcement officer in this case as an expert prior to allowing him to testify as to the issue of defendant’s impairment, we reverse that portion of the decision of the Court of Appeals that is…