When are multiple 911 calls reporting erratic driving not "reasonable suspicion"?

When is a police officer saying "you are not free to go yet" not a lawful order for you to stop?

Perhaps when your name is Alice Robie Resnick, and you are an Democrat Ohio State Supreme Court Justice.

Matthew Reger, Bowling Green's city prosecutor, announced yesterday that Justice Resnick will not face any additional charges for fleeing and eluding or failure to comply with a police officer because she was never told she was under arrest and the troopers never made a lawful order for her to stop.

"She asked to leave several times and both officers indicated that she could not leave," Mr. Reger said in a statement. "But these were not orders based upon reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred. Without reasonable suspicion of a crime, such as DUI, the officers' request not to leave was merely that, a request, not a lawful order."

"I understand it’s not what people want," Reger said. "Sometimes you make calls that are not popular."

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Columbus lawyer Eric Yavitch called it "solid police work." Yavitch, of Yavitch & Palmer, represents hundreds of drunken-driving clients a year. He agreed that probable cause is needed to make an arrest but said only reasonable suspicion is necessary to justify a traffic stop.

"They weren’t even sure they had the right person," Yavitch said of the initial police contact with Resnick.

Yet Yavitch wondered if Resnick’s driving off could set a precedent.

"Others might say, ‘I just did what the judge did,’ " he said.

Dispatch readers and some defense attorneys are asking whether Resnick was held to a different standard.

In one Internet conversation, a lawyer joked that his clients would have been shot at for fleeing.

Lewis Katz, a Case Western Reserve University law professor who is also a criminal-law expert and author of "Ohio Arrest Search and Seizure," told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that if police didn't smell alcohol or have other evidence, they would not have probable cause for an arrest. Katz said, however, that police telling Resnick to stay put "probably was a legal order."

Resnick was eventually stopped on Interstate 75 south of Bowling Green just after 2 p.m. Monday. She was arrested after taking a breath test at the scene, and recording a blood-alcohol level of .216 percent, more than 2½ times the legal limit of .08 percent. According to news reports, the test was conducted more than two hours after her initial stop in Bowling Green.

In a newly released police videotape of the encounter with Resnick at the gas station, Bowling Green Police Patrolman Mark Hanson is shown knocking on her car window for about 6 seconds before she responds.

"I need to talk to you," he tells her.

"I’m a Supreme Court justice," she says. "I’m Justice Alice Robie Resnick. I’m late. I’m OK."

Hanson remarks that Resnick’s eye is a little bloodshot.

"No, I’m fine, I’m fine," she says.

Asked whether she had been drinking, Resnick says, "No, I’m not intoxicated."

When Resnick is asked, "Can you let us do one test on you?" she declines. "I’m going to go. I’m going," she says before driving back onto I-75.

Ohio’s Code of Judicial Conduct specifically advises judges to respect and comply with the law, always act in a way that promotes public confidence and not "allude to" their judgeship during police traffic stops. Contact information for the Supreme Court follows:

The Supreme Court of Ohio
Chris Davy
65 South Front Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-3431
800.826.9010
614.387.9000

BG city prosecutor Matthew Reger said Thursday that Resnick, who according to the Toledo Blade has a past driving record for "weaving" and is a past member of Alcoholics Anonymous, is expected to plead guilty or no contest in Bowling Green Municipal Court at 1 p.m. Monday.

Reger's contact information follows:

Matthew Reger, City Prosecutor
City Administrative Services Building
304 N. Church Street
Bowling Green, OH 43402-2399
Telephone: (419) 354-6204
Fax: (419) 352-1262
E-mail: bgcity@bgohio.org

Related news reports:

The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that an off-duty Summit County sheriff's deputy and a witness helped to catch two Canton men suspected in a purse snatching.

According to a township police news release quoted by the newspaper, a 69-year-old woman was leaving the Stein Mart on Strip Avenue Northwest on Tuesday morning when a man approached her from behind and grabbed her purse.

An unidentified witness chased the man, who dropped the purse in a parking lot and continued to run, police said.

The newspaper reports an off-duty sheriff's deputy, Anthony Shumate, 37, joined the chase and helped catch Jackie C. Dotson, 19, of the 800 block of 11th Street Southwest in Canton. He was charged with robbery.

Officers caught a second suspect near the store and arrested him for allegedly planning the robbery, the newspaper continued. The suspect was identified as Justin L. Grant, 25, of the 900 block of Harrison Avenue Southwest in Canton.

The mainstream media is still batting 1000 - NO mention by the Akron Beacon Journal of the fact that The Strip affirmatively disarms its customers by posting "no-guns" signs at parking lot entrances (see photo).

Contact information provided to OFCC by one of the retail tenants at The Strip as follows:

Robert Stark
Stark Enterprises, Beachwood Ohio.
(216) 464-2860

Contact information for other dangerous locations is available in OFCC's Do Not Patronize While Armed database.

As you read this commentary, there are several things to keep in mind:

Remain vigilant.

February 4, 2005
The Hill

By Bob Cusack and Elizabeth Fulk

The expected election of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee this month will strike a crippling blow to the gun-control movement, lobbyists and political observers say.

Like Dean, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is a strong supporter of gun rights. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports gun control but rarely mentioned the issue before the 2004 election.

National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Director Chris Cox said Dean, whom the NRA endorsed when he was running for governor, was taking over a party that had suffered electorally for its embrace of gun control.

Over the past decade, the issue had become strongly partisan, but gun-rights groups say the political winds have shifted.

Most Democrats supported the renewal of the assault-weapons ban in 2004, but few campaigned on it. To the delight of gun-rights groups, the ban expired in September. Reid, along with five other Senate Democrats, voted against renewing the 10-year ban last March.

Reid has maintained close ties to both local and federal gun-rights groups, particularly the NRA.

On Sept. 22, 2004, Cox wrote Reid a thank-you note stating, “On behalf of the nearly 4 million NRA members nationwide, I wanted to thank you personally for your efforts in defending the Second Amendment during your tenure in Congress.”

Cox pointed out that while Pelosi was “no friend of the NRA,” close to 50 Democrats in the House support the organization.

“We continue to watch both sides of the aisle carefully,” Cox said.

Click here to read the entire op-ed in The Hill.