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It’s summertime, and the days of ballgames, barbecues and beer drinking are upon us. While it’s not illegal to have a few drinks, it is against the law to drive under the influence of alcohol. Called many names over the years, from DWI to DUI to today’s OVI, the bottom line is that the law imposes harsh penalties against those who drive drunk. Fines, license suspensions and even jail time can await those convicted of the offense.

There are three basic forms of OVI in Ohio: 1) driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs of abuse (“impaired”); 2) driving with a prohibited level of alcohol and/or drugs of abuse (“over the limit”); and 3) being in physical control of a vehicle while impaired.

The last category involves situations where a person is not actually driving a vehicle, but is in a position to do so. This includes those individuals who are sitting in a car with the keys in their possession and who are under the influence.

The second category, driving while over the legal limit, applies when a person submits to a breath, blood or urine test, and the results are over the legal limit. Ohio has a “high tier” classification, which automatically doubles the mandatory minimum penalties when the level of alcohol in a person’s system is above that higher level.

The first category involves allegations that a driver is under the influence but no chemical test is available, either because of a refusal to take the test or an inability to obtain a sample within the time limits required by law.
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Cincinnati-area state Rep. Robert Mecklenborg handed in his resignation from the Ohio House Sunday, more than two weeks after an April drunk-driving arrest was revealed, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

The 59-year-old Republican and married father of three said he’ll step down Aug. 2 and apologized for the “pain and embarrassment” he caused his family and others. Mecklenborg was arrested April 23 in Lawrenceburg, Ind., with a young woman in his car and refused to take a Breathalyzer test before failing three field sobriety tests, the paper reported.

Mecklenborg’s announced resignation comes only days after Republican House Speaker William Batchelder publicly called on him to leave office.

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Police in Ohio say a woman insisted on picking up some fast food before she allowed an officer to charge her with drunken driving.

The Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland reports police in suburban North Royalton got a call about a car weaving and going off a road at a little after 1 a.m. earlier this month. A patrolman tracked the vehicle to the drive-thru of a Taco Bell restaurant and pulled up alongside.

The police report says the driver had sunglasses on and her speech was slurred. She was ordered to get out of the line, but first she proceeded to the second window to grab her order.

Police say the woman’s blood-alcohol level tested at nearly twice the legal limit.

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About three weeks ago, an Ohio appellate court decided the case of State v. Parker, 2010 Ohio 1092 (Ohio.App. 2010), which presented the issue of whether Ohio’s DUI sentencing law, R.C. 4511.19(G)(1)(d), was constitutional. The law, which allows a court to look back 20 years to find prior DUI convictions to use in enhancing a sentence, was not in place when some of the offenses it now covers were committed, which was the basis of Bradley Parker’s challenge.

Mr. Parker was charged with DUI on April 30, 2009 after a police officer noticed he was driving erratically. When he was indicted, his record reflected that he had been convicted of DUI offenses at least 5 times in the last 20 years, so R.C. 4511.19(G)(1)(d) called for him to be charged with a fourth degree felony.

Mr. Parker initially pled not guilty and asked the court to throw out the case against him because the sentencing statute was an ex post facto law, and therefore unconstitutional under both the Ohio and U.S. Constitutions. In the case of Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167, 169 (1925), the U.S. Supreme Court defined an ex post facto law as one that “punishes as a crime an act previously committed which was innocent when done, [or] which makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission.” The trial court disagreed that R.C. 4511.19(G)(1)(d) made Mr. Parker’s previous DUI convictions more burdensome, which prompted Mr. Parker to agree to plead guilty to the current DUI charge if his appeal of the ex post facto issue was not resolved in his favor.

On appeal, the court first observed that R.C. 4511.19(G)(1)(d) was enacted in 2004 to replace the old look-back law which allowed sentencing courts to look back a maximum of 6 years. In the court’s view, the law did not add punishments to Mr. Parker’s past conduct but only used that past conduct to enhance the sentence for his present DUI. THe court also noted that, given that the new look-back law had been in place for several years, Mr. Parker should have been aware of the additional consequences for him if he were convicted of another DUI. The court also looked to the case of State v. Midcap, 2006 Ohio 2854 (Ohio App. 2010), which ruled that the ban on ex post facto laws is meant to protect people from being punished for actions that were legal when taken or having the punishment for past crimes increased. Consequently, the court reasoned that increasing the penalty upon a new DUI based on prior convictions was not one of the legitimate interests protected by the ban on ex post facto laws. The court found support for this view in  the fact that both Ohio and U.S. Supreme Courts have accepted the idea that repeat offenders can be punished more severely than first-time offenders and in the fact that when the 6-year look-back law was first enacted, an argument very much like Mr. Parker’s had been rejected.

The Court of Appeals rejected all parts of Mr. Parker’s constitutional argument and affirmed the decision of the trial court. Because he lost his appeal, Mr. Parker pled guilty to the DUI and was sentenced to one year in jail with three years probation and was required to attend an alcohol abuse treatment program. He was also fined $1350 and his license was suspended for four years.

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An Ohio man is due in court Friday to face DUI charges for the third time after serving 10 years in prison and losing his license for life in the 1994 death of a police officer, Fox 8 reported.

Police say they received a call Sunday night from a Green, Ohio convenience store customer regarding a man who appeared intoxicated.

“They went and attempted to block this person in, the driver got in the car, maneuvered around the citizen’s car and took off driving,” Inspector William Holland of the Summit County Sheriff’s Department told Fox 8.

The customer followed the swerving car to a nearby home, where police deputies arrived and found 47-year-old Gregory Gordon, who was convicted of killing police officer George Knaff in 1994 after running a stop sign and smashing into Knaff’s car.

This is also Gordon’s second arrest for DUI since his release from prison. He was arrested in 2006 as well.

Knaff’s family is enraged that he is still able to drink and get behind the wheel.

“I think he should be locked up again, and all this crap about remorse and treatment while he was in prison, that didn’t do no good, it didn’t do no good … it’s 15 years later,” Knaff’s cousin Rosalyn told Fox 8.

Officers applauded the efforts of the convenience store customer who followed Gordon home.

“This was late at night, I’m sure they were tired, they could easily have just said I hope they make it home and got in their car and gone home,” Holland said.

Gordon is charged with driving under the influence, driving under suspension and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

“They should take a real long, hard look at him cause he has served time, you would think that 10 years would really absolutely give him the courage to be remorseful for real from the heart for what he did,” Rosalyn Knaff told Fox 8.

Click here to read more on this story from Fox8.com.

If you have been accused with an Ohio DUI you need legal assistance to beat the charge. Find a DUI attorney with experience, many of which offer free initial consultations.

Law enforcement has announced plans to beef up patrols around Summit County and operate a DUI checkpoint in Green this weekend.

The increased patrols begin at 7 p.m. Friday and continue through 3 a.m. Saturday with county sheriff’s deputies, State Highway Patrol troopers and officers from Akron, Stow, Boston Heights and Richfield enhancing their presence along Interstate 77 and state Route 8.

A vehicle checkpoint in Green, along state Route 241 near Boettler Road, will be run from 10 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday.

The efforts are designed to enforce traffic laws regarding drunk driving, aggressive driving, speeding and seat belts, according to a news release. The enforcement plan is organized and paid for by the Ohio Traffic Safety Office.

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A motorized bar stool that got an Ohio man arrested for drunken driving goes up for auction this week on eBay.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kile Wygle was charged with driving under the influence after he crashed the contraption in March in the central Ohio city of Newark. He pleaded guilty the following month and spent three days in jail.

A Licking County judge ruled in June that any profit from sale of the stool should go toward back child support. At the time, Wygle owed about $37,000.

The county seized the bar stool and plans to post it for auction on Thursday. The agency intervened after learning that Wygle hoped to sell the barstool to Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

If you have been charged with an Ohio DUI, waste no time contacting an Ohio DUI attorney.

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A new Ohio law now permits alcohol to be sold up to 2 hours earlier than before on Sundays, a change greeted openly by drinkers and restaurants and angrily by anti-DUI groups.

The change came at the end of this past legislative session when the state passed a new budget and other initiatives. As of this Sunday, over 8,000 restaurants and other locations selling liquor can open their bars at 11AM. Previously, the depots had to wait until 1PM due to an antiquated state law.

The Ohio supreme court has ruled in favor of tougher penalties for drunken drivers with prior convictions who refuse breath tests if pulled over again. The court ruled 4-3

The Union County case challenged the constitutionality of penalties for individuals with a DUI conviction on their record if they refuse to submit to a alcohol test if arrested for another DUI violation and in turn convicted.

Under the new Ohio drunk driving law, violators would face 10 additional days of mandatory jail time in addition to the mandatory 10 days in jail a repeat DUI offender must serve.

The Dispatch said the Union County case involved a DUI case in which a man was given the additional 10 days for a September 2006 DUI incident.

While the Court of Appeals upheld Hoover’s conviction, it cut out the additional days in jail based on the stance the sentence violated his 4th Amendment rights on unreasonable searches and seizures.

“Hoover has no constitutional right to refuse to take a reasonably reliable chemical test for intoxication,” Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote in Wednesday’s ruling, which upheld the initial decision against Hoover and reversed the appellate court ruling.

If you have been arrested for Ohio drunk driving, the current penalties under Ohio DUI law are harsh enough as far as you’re concerned. The right move to make is contacting a top Ohio DUI defense lawyer to go over your case.

A Northside Cincinnati, Ohio man with 5 previous Ohio drunk driving convictions was accused of DUI number six today.

The Ohio DUI suspect was northbound on Interstate 75, near the Western Hills viaduct, when he was pulled over for speeding. His blood alcohol level was .110. The legal limit in Ohio is .08.

If convicted for this drunk driving offense it will be considerd a class C felony under Ohio drunk driving laws.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in court Monday for his arraignment.

Have you been arrested for Cincinnati drunk driving?

If this is the case an Ohio drunk driving attorney’s expertise can benefit you in the regard of avoiding  a conviction and/or saving you thousands of dollars in fees and hours of aggravation.

A lawyer specializing in Ohio drunk driving and has been for many years, knows the ins and outs of Ohio DUI laws which enables them to build a case for you that will either free you of a drunk driving conviction or at the very least work out a deal with the prosecutor to minimize your sentence. Contact an Ohio drunk driving Lawyer for a free consultation today.