BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -An Ohio Supreme Court justice who initially drove away when police wanted her to take a sobriety test pleaded guilty yesterday to drunken driving.
Justice Alice Robie Resnick's lawyer said after the hearing that she used to have a drinking problem and suffered a relapse.
Justice Resnick
for the better part of her adult life has been fighting alcoholism attorney Sheldon Wittenberg said after the hearing.
Bowling Green Municipal Judge Mark Reddin suspended Resnick's driver's license for six months and ordered her to complete a three-day alcohol rehabilitation program. If Resnick does not complete the program by May 8, she could be jailed for up to 30 days.
She also was fined $500 and another $100 for a separate traffic offense of driving outside marked lanes.
I will get through it
she said after paying the fines. She also apologized. Resnick did not comment during the hearing.
Bowling Green Prosecutor Matt Reger said the fine and license suspension were consistent with sentences handed down to first-time offenders.
She faced a maximum 30 days in jail, a $1,000 fine and a 3-year license suspension.
Resnick, 65, of Toledo, drove off without permission after being asked to take a sobriety test at a gas station, police and State Highway Patrol officials said. They had approached her car after motorists made several 911 calls about an erratic driver on Interstate 75 near this northwest Ohio town, about 20 miles south of Toledo.
The officers followed Resnick and decided to stop her when she committed a traffic violation, Bowling Green Prosecutor Matt Reger said. She then pulled over immediately and complied with requests not to leave, he said.
She failed sobriety tests, including registering an alcohol level of 0.22 percent -nearly three times the legal limit -on a portable breath test administered at the scene, according to a patrol report.
The blood-alcohol legal limit in Ohio is 0.08. She refused to take an official breath test. The portable breath test is not admissible in court.
Reger decided against charging Resnick with fleeing police because she was never told she was under arrest and the officers never made a lawful order for her to stop.
Wittenberg said Resnick was sorry but never considered resigning. Legal experts have said its unlikely she will be disciplined because she is a first-time offender.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said he expects her back on the bench when the court next meets Feb. 15.
She'll continue to deal with her problem
and she will not allow that to interfere with her work
Wittenberg said.
Resnick, a justice since 1989, is the court's only Democrat.
The judge said Resnick could apply for driving privileges to work in Columbus, but Wittenberg said she would not do so and would hire a driver instead.
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