Thursday, December 29, 2005
Her drunken driving conviction was her first infraction and she took responsibility.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A panel of state appellate judges publicly reprimanded Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick on Wednesday, saying her drunken driving conviction violated the state's judicial code of conduct.
No other discipline was recommended.
At least one other judge's law license was suspended after a third drunken-driving conviction, but Justice Resnick's case differed, the panel noted. She has had no discipline against her since she was sworn in as an attorney in 1964, and quickly took responsibility for her conviction, the judges said.
Common response
A nationwide review found that a reprimand, the least severe sanction, was the most common response for a first-time drunken-driving conviction, said Jeffrey McQuiston, the Dayton attorney appointed as special investigator in the case.
Justice Resnick, 66, also acknowledged every allegation the same day an attorney discipline complaint was filed against her in November. The complaint said she violated the part of the code that says, "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."
The high court usually handles attorney discipline cases, but the justices can't hear a case that involves one of their own. The panel was made up of the chief justice of the appeals courts and the presiding judge of all 12 appellate districts.
Both Justice Resnick and Chief Justice Thomas Moyer declined interview requests. Justice Resnick issued a written statement that she accepts responsibility.
"Today, I can put the matter behind me and move forward with the important work of the Ohio Supreme Court," she wrote.
Under the influence
Justice Resnick was pulled over Jan. 31 and at first drove away from state troopers who asked her to take a sobriety test at a gas station. Troopers then followed her and pulled her over when she committed a traffic violation.
In a video shot by a patrol car camera, Justice Resnick tells a sergeant questioning her that "I did have something to drink." She repeatedly asks to be let go and mentions her rulings as a judge, saying, "My God, you know I decide all these cases in your favor. And my golly, look what you're doing to me."
She pleaded guilty to drunken driving in February, paid a $600 fine and her driver's license was suspended for six months. She apologized at her sentencing hearing and said that she had suffered a relapse of a drinking problem.
The panel said that while statements made "while still under the influence" might be interpreted as an attempt for the troopers to free her because of her office, they were not part of the evidence submitted in the disciplinary case.
Blemish on record
The reprimand is permanently attached to her law license records -- a public reminder that acts as a deterrent for other attorneys, McQuiston said.
"My thinking was, in bringing the [disciplinary] charges in the first place, was the integrity of the system demanded it," he said. "Supreme Court justices are held to a higher standard."
In another case, former Justice C. William O'Neill was reprimanded in the 1970s for improper intervention in a lower court case.
"It is unfortunate that a long and distinguished career at the bar and on the bench must suffer the blemish of a public reprimand," Judge Mike Fain of Dayton, the chief appellate judge, wrote of Justice Resnick. "Nevertheless, I consider it the duty of this tribunal."