| ► Toledo Blade – 12/29/05 – Judges reprimand Justice Resnick for drunken driving |
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Toledo Blade – Dec. 29, 2005 – Judges reprimand Justice Resnick for drunken driving By Jim Provance
Blade Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS - Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick yesterday was handed a public reprimand by a rarely convened judicial disciplinary panel in connection with her embarrassing drunken-driving arrest 11 months ago.
No other discipline was recommended.
"It is unfortunate that a long and distinguished career at the bar and on the bench must suffer the blemish of a public reprimand," wrote Chief Justice Michael Fain of Ohio Court of Appeals, who headed the 13-judge panel sitting in the stead of a disqualified Supreme Court.
"Nevertheless, I consider it the duty of this tribunal to issue a public reprimand to [Justice Resnick], who, as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, is under the highest duty to uphold the law," he wrote.
Justice Resnick, 66, of Ottawa Hills was arrested on the afternoon of Jan. 31 after being pulled over by police on southbound I-75 near Cygnet. She had driven away after a Bowling Green officer approached her vehicle while it was parked at a gas station.
She registered a 0.216 percent blood alcohol level on a field Breathalyzer test, the results of which are not admissible in court. The legal limit is 0.08 percent. She refused to take the official test at the patrol's Findlay station.
Later, she pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and participated in a three-day alcohol intervention program in lieu of jail time. She paid a $600 fine and lost her operating privileges for six months. Her driver's license has since been reinstated.
She said at the time that she had suffered a relapse after 22 years of sobriety.
"I have accepted responsibility for the incident which took place on Jan. 31, 2005," Justice Resnick said in a statement released yesterday by the court. "Today, I can put the matter behind me and move forward with the important work of the Ohio Supreme Court."
The appellate judge panel cited her clean record, guilty plea, and cooperation in the disciplinary investigation as factors in their decision.
Through police video shown repeatedly on TV and the Internet, Ohioans witnessed a sitting justice protesting over being pulled over and repeatedly asking officers to allow her to leave.
One judge, Chief Judge Lynn C. Slaby of the Akron-based 9th District Court of Appeals, agreed with the final outcome but lamented the lack of a "full, open hearing."
Justice Resnick never had to appear before the panel, which deliberated by phone. In court filings, she admitted violating Canon 2 of the Judicial Code of Conduct, which states a judge "shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."
She and the special investigator, Dayton attorney Jeffrey McQuiston, jointly requested the reprimand. A nationwide review found that a reprimand, the least severe sanction, was the most common response for a first-time drunken driving conviction, Mr. McQuiston said.
Appeals Chief Justice Fain wrote that a reprimand appeared to be the most severe punishment for a first-time offense with no aggravating circumstances. But he took notice that the formal complaint filed by Mr. McQuiston did not include an allegation that she tried to use her position to receive favorable treatment.
"I am aware that media accounts of Justice Resnick's arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol included references to statements that she reportedly made to the arresting officer, while still under the influence, that might be construed as an attempt to persuade the officer to release her because of her high judicial office," he wrote.
"While such statements could certainly constitute an aggravating circumstance, they are not part of the record before us," he wrote.
Self-appointed court watchdog David Palmer, formerly of Maumee and now of Sacramento, filed the grievance that triggered the investigation.
"This is the equivalent of a soccer mom hollering at her son for misbehavior on the field," he said. "There's really no more to it than that. She wanted the police officers to know who she was, hoping that would persuade them that she was entitled to a little special treatment. There's no disputing that."
Mr. McQuiston said he interviewed Ohio Highway Patrol Sgt. W.H. Stidham about a statement Justice Resnick made while in his patrol car and on the video shot by a patrol car camera.
"I decide all these cases in your favor and, my golly, look what you're doing to me," she said.
Mr. McQuiston said the sergeant was satisfied Justice Resnick wasn't insinuating that decisions could be different in the future as a result of her arrest.
"They deal with people who try to talk their way out of tickets all the time," he said. "It was a single, off-hand comment. She didn't press the point, and she was under the influence at the time."
The only Democrat remaining in statewide office, Justice Resnick has yet to announce whether she will seek re-election to a fourth six-year term next year.
Her written statement referred questions to Bill Burges, a political strategist employed on her 2000 re-election campaign. Mr. Burges said his involvement is not an indication the justice is gearing up for another campaign.
The action against Justice Resnick is the first against a sitting justice since 1977 when Chief Justice C. William O'Neill, now deceased, was slapped by the ethics committee of the Ohio State Bar Association, the system that preceded the current disciplinary system. He was reprimanded for interfering in a case in a lower court.
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