Court blocks tape release Vindy, TV-21 seek video of Cronin’s OVI arrest

A Vindicator lawyer says the court order has no lawful foundation.

THE VINDICATOR

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — She swayed. She staggered. She fell against a cruiser.

That’s how an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper described the actions of 54-year-old Maureen A. Cronin before the retired judge’s arrest on allegations of drunken driving.

A dashboard video camera likely recorded most — if not all — the actions. The Vindicator and WFMJ-TV 21 are seeking a court’s release of the patrol tape.

A lawyer representing Cronin was successful in temporarily blocking release of the video, which was shot late Wednesday on state Route 11 in Beaver Township.

Judge Scott D. Hunter, assigned to Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield, granted a motion filed by Youngstown attorney Scott R. Cochran to halt release of the video pending a hearing.

Cochran, in his motion to withhold the tape, said Cronin has a right to a jury pool that has not been “tainted with prior knowledge of the evidence in the case.” He requested two weeks to prepare briefs to support his argument.

Cochran told The Vindicator on Friday that he doesn’t want the video to be viewed unless it is used in a hearing or at trial. He said he doesn’t know if his motion is the first of its kind in Mahoning County.

No response

Cronin, who retired in July after 13 years as a Mahoning County common pleas judge, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Through her lawyer, she waived her arraignment on the OVI charge, entered a not guilty plea and waived her right to a speedy trial. A pretrial hearing is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 19.

Cleveland attorney David Marburger, representing the newspaper and television station, filed a motion Friday in Canfield court asking Judge Hunter to vacate his order barring release of the video. Marburger said the order withholding the tape has no lawful foundation.

Videos made by cruiser cameras are public record, and Ohio law requires the public office holding them to comply promptly with a request to view them, Marburger said.

A defendant’s rights, he said, do not rest on whether potential jurors were exposed to prejudicial publicity or even whether they have preconceived notions of guilt or innocence because of exposure to publicity.

The test, he added, is whether the court can impanel a jury of individuals who can set aside whatever preconceived notions they have and decide the case solely on evidence in court.

Cronin was charged with OVI, operating a vehicle impaired, after being stopped by a trooper at 11:54 p.m. Wednesday for a “marked lane” offense — weaving.

She had to surrender her driver’s license, and her 2002 Pontiac was seized. She had an attorney present at the patrol’s Canfield post and was released to him after refusing to submit to a sobriety — Breathalyzer — test, records show.

Earlier case

This is the second time within six years that Cronin has refused to have her blood-alcohol concentration tested. She pleaded guilty to OVI in Boardman in April 2005. No motion was filed to halt release of the videotape of that arrest, which also was made by a state trooper.

Trooper Shawn Martin’s narrative of Cronin’s arrest on Wednesday, obtained by The Vindicator, shows that her car’s right front and rear tires crossed the right side of the lane marking several times as she traveled northbound on state Route 11.

“Upon crossing the lane marking the vehicle would abruptly swerve back into its lane of travel,” the trooper wrote. “The vehicle was also weaving back and forth inside its lane of travel. I stopped the vehicle.”

The trooper said in his report that he smelled the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on the judge and noted that her eyes were red and glassy and her speech slurred. When asked, she told the trooper she had been drinking — two glasses of wine earlier that night.

She produced her license and insurance card but not her registration, the trooper said. She declined, at first, to get out of her car but did eventually get out and walk back to the trooper’s patrol car, staggering as she went, he said.

She swayed back and forth when told to stand with her feet together and fell up against the patrol car, the trooper said in his report. She refused to cooperate and did not complete any field sobriety tests.

“I then informed the suspect that I wanted to make sure she was not too impaired to be driving and the suspect replied, ‘I am too impaired to be driving,’” the trooper wrote.

meade@vindy.com