GIRARD Beer aside, her driving courts trouble

A woman is charged with injuring a girl with her car while under the influence.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Jody Dougherty wasn't supposed to be drinking or driving while on probation for a drunken-driving conviction from earlier this year.
But when Dougherty, of Youngstown, showed up Wednesday for a probation revocation hearing at Girard Municipal Court, she was driving a van with a can of beer at her side, court personnel noted.
At the end of the hearing, in which the 23-year-old Atkinson Avenue woman was found to have violated her probation, her attorney, Don L. Hanni Jr., said he would drive her home.
He told Judge Michael A. Bernard that he would send someone with a driver's license to pick up the van. Empty beer cans in the van could be seen by observers.
Judge Bernard didn't impose a jail sentence on Dougherty. Rather, at the request of Hanni, the judge postponed sentencing until after pending charges against her are resolved.
Girl struck
Those charges include running over and critically injuring a 13-year-old girl July 25 on Youngstown's East Side.
Youngstown police reported Dougherty was driving along McGuffey Road at the Gray Avenue intersection when her car struck the girl. Dougherty told Youngstown police she had a small amount to drink before the accident.
Reports state she failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a blood-alcohol test. As a result, charges of driving under the influence and aggravated vehicular assault are pending in Youngstown Municipal Court.
Dougherty's son was a passenger in the car at the time.
Wednesday, when Dougherty pulled up in front of the justice center in a white van, a court employee noticed she was driving -- and wasn't supposed to be.
Several DUIs
Dougherty, who the court's probation department said has several drunken-driving convictions, had been placed on probation March 6 for another DUI. As a condition of her probation for a year, she was ordered to attend a substance-abuse diversion program and to not drive or drink alcohol.
The probation department told Judge Bernard that Dougherty didn't often report to the department as required and when she did show up July 11, her breath smelled of alcohol.
yovich@vindy.com