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Struthers judge candidate has decades-old vehicular-homicide conviction
By Sarah Lehr
STRUTHERS
Jamie Dunn, a Democratic candidate for Struthers judge, was convicted of vehicular homicide in 1984 after driving drunk.
Dunn has since had his record expunged.
The Vindicator learned of the conviction this week via a tip called in to the newsroom.
Dunn, 67, is competing against Democrats James E. Lanzo, 45, the son of current Struthers Judge James R. Lanzo, and Dominic Leone, 39, the Struthers law director, in the May 2 primary.
The winner will advance to the November general election against Republican candidate Damian DeGenova, a Struthers magistrate.
Judge Lanzo has often appointed Dunn as a visiting judge in Struthers Municipal Court. The elder Lanzo said Wednesday he did not know about the 1984 conviction when he appointed Dunn.
Dunn collided head-on with Melvin Steer, 54, in 1981 while driving on state Route 14 near Salem, according to Vindicator files. Steer later died.
At the time of the crash, Dunn registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.14. In 1984, the limit was 0.10. The legal limit in Ohio is currently 0.08. This took effect in 2003.
In a conversation with The Vindicator this week, Dunn admitted he was drunk at the time of the crash, but said he does not suffer from addiction.
Dunn said he has learned from the tragedy.
“It is something that continues to affect [the victim’s] family,” Dunn said. “It has deeply affected my family. I went through the justice system, and I served my sentence.”
Dunn pointed to his career since the crash, which includes decades as a public high-school teacher and basketball coach, 30 years as an attorney in private practice and 13 years as a visiting Struthers judge, as evidence of his qualifications for the judgeship.
In 1982, a Salem judge sentenced Dunn on a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving for the incident. Dunn pleaded no contest to that charge and received community service.
A Mahoning County grand jury later indicted Dunn on a felony vehicular-homicide charge, also in relation to Steer’s death. In 1984, Judge Charles J. Bannon convicted Dunn on that charge.
Judge Bannon sentenced Dunn, who was then a 34-year-old Poland Seminary High School teacher, to a six-month suspended jail sentence, a year’s probation, a $1,000 fine and three years without a driver’s license.
Judge Bannon, according to Vindicator files, had cited several factors that complicated his perception of Dunn’s guilt, including allegations of negligence against the hospital that treated Steer.
Steer’s estate received payment after filing a lawsuit against Northern Columbiana County Community Hospital for not immediately treating Steer’s ruptured spleen, according to Vindicator files.
Additionally, Judge Bannon said he had difficulty determining who was at fault during the crash due to conflicting reports about which cars had been in which lanes.
Ida Barnes, in 1984 the local president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, however, told the newspaper “it was an injustice” that Dunn had not received jail time.
In the ensuing years, M.A.D.D. activists successfully campaigned to lower blood alcohol limits for drivers and increase drunk-driving penalties.
Under current Ohio law, vehicular homicide that occurs while someone is driving under the influence is considered aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony with a mandatory prison term of two to eight years and a mandatory lifetime license suspension.