Journal-News.com

02.08.05 Justice pleads guilty to drunken driving

 

Judge convicts Resnick, sentences her to 3-day treatment program

By Laura A. Bischoff

Cox News Service

BOWLING GREEN — Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick stood at the defendant’s table Monday in Bowling Green Municipal Court and pleaded guilty to drunken driving.

Judge Mark Reddin sentenced Resnick to a $1,000 fine with $500 suspended, 33 days in jail with 30 days suspended, two years probation and six months without a driver’s license.

Resnick has the option of serving the three-day sentence in a certified alcohol treatment program — something her lawyer said she would do.

The sixth-month license suspension imposed by the judge replaces the automatic one-year suspension that kicked in when Resnick refused to take a Breathalyzer test the day she was arrested.

Reddin also fined her $100 for failing to drive within marked lanes.

“I have, as you can see, taken full responsibility for my actions,” Resnick, 65, of Toledo said outside the courthouse. She declined to comment further and did not respond when asked if she would seek re-election in 2006.

Her defense attorney, Sheldon Wittenberg of Toledo, said, “Justice Resnick has, for the better part of her adult life, been fighting alcoholism. It’s a disease. She’s dealing with it on a daily basis. She is seeking treatment and she is under treatment now. She is very sorry for what occurred.”

On Jan. 31, drivers on Interstate 75 reported seeing a gold Jeep weaving and nearly sideswiping another car. Police found Resnick in her state-owned, gold 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee at a BP Station in Bowling Green. She told a Bowling Green officer and state trooper that she was a state supreme court justice on her way to Columbus for court. She declined to take sobriety tests and drove off, even though the officers told her not to leave.

They caught up with her on I-75 and, after witnessing and videotaping her erratic driving, pulled her over. Officers smelled alcohol on her. A patrol supervisor convinced Resnick to take an eyesight sobriety test, which she failed, and to blow into a portable breath test. Resnick registered 0.216 percent blood alcohol content, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Her arrest generated headlines and television reports across the state, and media outlets posted the police and patrol videos on their Internet Web sites.

Resnick is known among her colleagues for her dedication and quality work, Wittenberg said.

“What occurred last Monday will not affect that. She will continue to deal with her problem and she will not allow that to interfere with her work,” he said.

Wittenberg added that Resnick will arrange for a driver to take her to work in Columbus at no cost to the taxpayers.

Resnick was first elected to the court in 1988, and re-elected in 1994 and 2000. She could run once more before turning 70, after which judges can no longer seek election.

She is the only Democrat holding statewide office in Ohio.

Resnick served on the Governor’s Task Force on Substance Abuse and her official biography on the Supreme Court’s Web site says she is a speaker on substance abuse issues.

Tilde Bricker, a spokeswoman for Ohio MADD who attended the hearing, said, “I think it was appropriate.”