YPD: Man who rams car while driving wrong way has 7 prior OVIs
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man with seven prior driving-under-the-influence convictions is facing his eighth, and records indicate he never has been sentenced to jail for any of his previous cases.
Police said Daniel Ohle, 51, of South Schenley Avenue rammed a van about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night while driving the wrong way on the Madison Avenue Expressway.
Reports said Ohle was traveling south and collided with an SUV that was going north. That vehicle was driven by a woman who had two passengers, both children, 5 years old and 10 months.
According to the reports, Ohle was combative with EMS and firefighters who were trying to free him from the wreckage of his van and police detected a heavy odor of alcohol, reports said. He also talked in a slurred voice, police said.
The SUV that Ohle is accused of colliding with spun several times before it came to rest in the middle of the freeway. The SUV was heavily damaged, and officer Brian Ferrari wrote in his report, “Given the estimated speed and severity of the accident, it is miraculous all parties survived the crash.”
Reports said the woman and her children were examined at the hospital but released with no serious injuries.
Ohle has a broken leg, and preliminary tests show he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.375. In Ohio, the legal limit for driving while intoxicated is 0.08.
More blood was drawn and will be submitted for testing, reports said.
Ohle is charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence.
Currently, the OVI charge he faces is a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum six-month jail sentence. It could be upgraded if the blood tests show his blood-alcohol content to be extremely high.
A search of local court records for Ohle for five available cases showed the toughest sentence he received was in 2009 in Warren Municipal Court, when he was sentenced to 10 days in the Warren Alternative Sentencing Program.
Records in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman and Youngstown Municipal Court show convictions in 2007 and 2000 in Boardman and 2005 in municipal court.
In those three cases, he was sentenced to one year of probation and 180 days in jail, with 177 days suspended and the other three days to be spent in a driver’s-intervention course, commonly known as “driver’s school.”
In cases in 2009, 2007 and 2005, an additional specification that charged Ohle with having a high blood-alcohol content was dropped in exchange for his plea agreement, which is not uncommon in an OVI case.
In 1996, in Girard Municipal Court, Ohle pleaded guilty and entered an intervention program.
Reports from the Tuesday accident said Ohle has seven previous OVI convictions ranging from 1985 to 2009 in Ohio, and an OVI arrest in New Castle, Pa., in 2008.
For an OVI charge to be a felony in Ohio, the defendant must have six OVIs within 20 years or four within a six-year period.
A specification can be added if the defendant’s blood-alcohol content is more than 0.17, but that can only be used as an enhancement at sentencing.