A man accused of huffing while driving is going to trial, but a police officer will not be allowed to testify about how Redd Star "Fox" Horn's eyes responded to a field sobriety test.

Horn is charged with ingesting an inhalant and two alternative counts of driving under the influence after a May traffic stop.

Police stopped Horn after a citizen reported seeing him drive erratically. A can of aerosol computer cleaner was found in his car.

There have been other city traffic accidents - a fatality in 2006 and a May 2008 crash that crippled a man - blamed on drivers inhaling chemical air sprays. In testing for intoxication, eye movement in a sober person is different than for someone under the influence, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But Seventh Circuit Court Judge A.P. "Pete" Fuller said Friday there is no science demonstrating that such an inhalant produces intoxication.

"There's no science, like on alcohol or on cocaine or opiates or all of the other things that you can ingest that has science behind it," Fuller said.

He ruled that the arresting officer cannot testify about Horn's response to an eye test administered during a field sobriety test. The eye test was one of the sobriety tests the officer used to conclude Horn was intoxicated, Fuller said.

Fuller said the officer will be allowed to testify about what he observed in the other field sobriety exercises. It will be up to a jury to decide if Horn was intoxicated.

"Nobody is going to testify that if you inhale or ingest those propellants, that you're then intoxicated or under the influence or you are an impaired driver, until the state can come in and establish the scientific basis for those conclusions," Fuller said.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com