Justice Resnick charged with DUI (Ohio Supreme Court)

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence and driving outside marked lines yesterday in Wood County.

The 2:02 p.m. arrest by the State Highway Patrol followed several cellphone calls from motorists reporting an erratic driver on southbound I-75, according to Lt. Rick Zwayer, a patrol spokesman.

Resnick, 65, of Toledo, was pulled over near Rt. 6 south of Bowling Green, where she failed field sobriety tests, Zwayer said.

Resnick was taken to the patrol’s Findlay post, where she refused to take a test of her bloodalcohol content, Zwayer said. That led to the charge of operating under the influence, a firstdegree misdemeanor. The marked-lanes violation is a minor misdemeanor.

Her driver’s license was automatically suspended because of her refusal to be tested.

Court officials said there is no standard disciplinary action when a judge is charged with driving under the influence. Only felony charges trigger an automatic suspension from the bench.

Resnick was released by the patrol to the custody of a relative.

She received a summons to appear at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Bowling Green Municipal Court.

"She wouldn’t be considered a flight risk," Zwayer said.

Her state-owned car, a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, was impounded.

Resnick, a justice since 1989, is the seven-member court’s only Democrat. She could not be reached for comment last night.

Chris Davey, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, declined to comment. The court was not in session yesterday, but is scheduled to return today.

Resnick is a former judge of the 6 th District Court of Appeals in Toledo and before that served on the Toledo Municipal Court. She and her husband live in Toledo.

Resnick was part of a 4-3 majority — and the author of one of the edicts — that ruled against the state in a series of school-funding decisions that declared Ohio’s current setup unconstitutional.

She also was part of a fourjustice majority that in the late 1990s declared limits on civil lawsuits unconstitutional.

A four-year court battle over $4.2 million in secret contributions to a 2000 campaign to defeat Resnick ended Friday with the disclosure by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce of more than 300 donors’ names.

Resnick won a third six-year term despite the "Lady Justice" ad that showed a justice peeking from under her blindfold to see bags of cash being dumped on her desk.

Resnick defeated Republican Terrence O’Donnell, of Rocky River, 57 percent to 43 percent. O’Donnell later was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Bob Taft and was elected to complete an unexpired term Nov. 2.

Leaders of Citizens for a Strong Ohio, the chamber’s issue-advocacy group, argued it was not required to follow election law for candidates, political parties or political-action committees because it did not directly promote the election or defeat of a particular candidate.

The Ohio Elections Commission and several courts disagreed, ordering the disclosure of contributors’ names under the threat of $25,000-a-day fines.

jcraig@dispatch.com

Her state-owned car, a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, was impounded.

Well, ain't that grand? Stinking Dim-lib gets a tax-payer funded vehicle to facilitate her drunken carousing.

Resnick, a justice since 1989, is the seven-member court’s only Democrat.

And now, she's a "victim", as all Dim-Libs become once they are caught with their pants down.

She will scream long and loud that it's a right-wing conspiracy, that she was targeted by her opposition.

The disappointing fact is that there are those out there that will agree with her.

It's Bush's fault, anyway.

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