Posted on 02/01/2005 4:43:18 AM PST by smith288
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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 patrols 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 drivers 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 wouldnt 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 courts 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 Ohios 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 ODonnell, of Rocky River, 57 percent to 43 percent. ODonnell 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 chambers 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
Betty's a RINO and Petro's OK but too "establishment" for me. Blackwell's not afraid to be his own man (which is why Bob "Shaft" Taft hates him).
Ken Blackwell. First Black Ohio Governor, then President!
She not only refused to take the test but it sounds to me like she was fleeing from an officer when she got in her car and drove six miles after the officer told her not to.
ROTFLOL Do you see that big "L" on her forehead??? LOLOL
Please add me to your ping list. Thanks.
I noticed that - I was wondering if I was the only one...
It is called implied consent. When you apply for a license, which is a privilege granted by the state rather than a right, you consent to alcohol testing, whether breath testing or blood testing, if the traffic stop is reasonable. You also agree to the suspension of your license if you refuse a test.
So, the suspension is not a punishment for DUI, which she may well get, it is for failing to take the test.
thanks for that info. i knew that but had forgotten.. and i admit i had a knee-jerk reaction to this story. living in a very thinly populated ranching area and seeing the highway patrol numbers multiply insanely here in the last few years has me po'd. it's getting to feel (and look) like a police state. these cocky young guns stopping everyone and their mother... drug sniffing dogs in every other HP vehicle.... it's really getting alarming. not to mention all the new game wardens hired (also w/ guns) and this from two Republican Governors. the one in office right now won't get my vote again...
needed to explain my knee-jerk comment and vent a little..
Sounds a lot like the klintons.
Yes, but the RINO's running the Senate won't even think of trying it.
They make Congressional Republicans in DC look gutsy, principled, and conservative.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse
Resnick wont face a charge of fleeing
Probable cause needed before detaining driver
Friday, February 04, 2005
Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Police did not have probable cause to detain Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick when they initially questioned her at a gas station Monday, so she will not be charged with fleeing or eluding, authorities said yesterday.
At a hearing on Monday, Resnick, 65, of Toledo, plans to change her plea to guilty of operating a motor vehicle under the influence and driving outside marked lines. She had pleaded not guilty to both misdemeanors through her attorney Tuesday.
After driving away from police who were questioning her at a gas station along I-75 in Bowling Green, Resnick was followed by State Highway Patrol troopers. They pulled her over about 8 miles down the road after they saw her vehicle weaving.
WBNS-TV (Channel 10) obtained a newly released police videotape yesterday of the encounter with Resnick at the gas station. It shows Bowling Green Police Patrolman Mark Hanson knocking on her car window for about 6 seconds before she responds.
"I need to talk to you," he tells her.
"Im a Supreme Court justice," she says. "Im Justice Alice Robie Resnick. Im late. Im OK."
Hanson remarks that Resnicks eye is a little bloodshot.
"No, Im fine, Im fine," she says.
Resnick mentions that her 97-yearold mother-in-law has been in the hospital and that her husband is on dialysis. Asked whether she had been drinking, Resnick says, "No, Im not intoxicated."
When Resnick is asked, "Can you let us do one test on you?" she declines. "Im going to go. Im going," she says before driving back onto I-75.
Spokesmen for the State Highway Patrol and Bowling Green Police Department said officers could not legally detain her at the time because they did not witness erratic driving until after Resnick drove away. They added that evidence of alcohol was not detected until officers pulled her over.
Sgt. Joseph Luebbers, a patrol spokesman, said multiple calls about Resnicks driving were not enough to detain her.
"They had to observe a violation for it to be a lawful arrest," he said.
While some 911 callers described a gold Jeep matching Resnicks state-owned Grand Cherokee, Luebbers said that when officers spotted Resnicks vehicle at the gas station, "It was not a traffic stop. It was a contact. The initial conversation in a parking lot was also on private property. The vehicle was not moving. It was parked. They didnt classify that as a vehicle pursuit."
At the first stop, Resnick said her weaving was because of talking on a cell phone. She declined to submit to an eye test. She was told she was not free to go, but "thanked us, rolled up her window and drove off," according to a police report.
Bowling Green Prosecutor Matt Reger decided not to file an additional charge yesterday.
"I understand its not what people want," Reger said. "Sometimes you make (judgment) calls that are not popular."
Reger said Resnick was never told she was under arrest and the officers never made a lawful order for her to stop. Like Leubbers, Reger pointed out the officers also did not detect any sign of alcohol at the gas station and had not witnessed her driving erratically.
When Resnick was ultimately field tested, about 4 p.m., "she was cooperative," Reger said.
Columbus lawyer Eric Yavitch called it "solid police work." Yavitch, of Yavitch & Palmer, represents hundreds of drunken-driving clients a year. He agreed that probable cause is needed to make an arrest but said only reasonable suspicion is necessary to justify a traffic stop.
"They werent even sure they had the right person," Yavitch said of the initial police contact with Resnick.
Yet Yavitch wondered if Resnicks driving off could set a precedent.
"Others might say, I just did what the judge did, " he said.
Dispatch readers and some defense attorneys are asking whether Resnick was held to a different standard.
In one Internet conversation, a lawyer joked that his clients would have been shot at for fleeing.
Luebbers said a trooper followed protocol by radioing his supervisor while following Resnick onto I-75 after she drove off without her license and registration.
"When they get violations on camera, thats different," he said. "After she left, they videotaped her driving. At that point, they did have probable cause."
Motorists dont drive off frequently, "but it happens enough," Luebbers said, citing two motor vehicle pursuits Wednesday night, in West Jefferson and Delaware.
While Resnick registered 0.216 percent on a portable Alco-Sensor breath test more than twice Ohios limit of 0.08 the result is not admissible in court. She failed field sobriety tests but refused a Breathalyzer test of her blood-alcohol content, which can be used as evidence.
That refusal led to an automatic one-year suspension of her drivers license and threeyear ban on driving a state vehicle.
Resnick issued a statement expressing regret over the arrest Wednesday, and said it followed 22 years of sobriety.
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