When circumstances make it reasonable to do so in the absence of a written affidavit, a search warrant may be issued upon sworn oral testimony of a person who is not in the physical presence of a committing magistrate if the committing magistrate is satisfied that probable cause exists for the issuance of the warrant. The sworn oral testimony may be communicated to the magistrate by telephone or other appropriate means and shall be recorded and transcribed. After transcription the statement must be certified by the magistrate and filed with the court. This statement shall be deemed to be an affidavit for purposes of § 23A-35-4.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-35-5
(Rule 41(c)(2)) Oral testimony as basis for warrant--Transcription, certification and filing with court
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State v. Bowers (2018)
Most recently applied in State v. Bowers (June 2018)
Source: SL 1978, ch 178, § 442.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.