"WORK HARD, PLAY BY THE RULES, NEVER QUIT!"
View Article  Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Charles M. Rowland II

(937) 879-9542

View Article  Poll Watchers: The Final Weekend

As we enter the final weekend, www.electoral-vote.com and www.fivethirtyeight.com are reporting that Senator Obama is ahead of Senator McCain in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, Missouri, Virginia and Florida.  Both of these sites are great for political junkies and poll watchers alike.

View Article  State v. Mays (A Little is Enough)

The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled last month that a momentary drift a few inches over the white line at the edge of the road is sufficient grounds for a police officer to pull over an otherwise safe driver. The ruling upheld the conviction of Christopher Mays who had been stopped by a state trooper on Route 16, a four-lane highway near Newark, on March 26, 2006.

"The question of whether appellant might have a possible defense to a charge of violating R.C. 4511.33 is irrelevant in our analysis of whether an officer has a reasonable and articulable suspicion to initiate a traffic stop," Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer wrote for the unanimous court. "An officer is not required to determine whether someone who has been observed committing a crime might have a legal defense to the charge.... In conclusion, a traffic stop is constitutionally valid when a law enforcement officer witnesses a motorist drift over the lane markings in violation of R.C. 4511.33, even without further evidence of erratic or unsafe driving."
 Ohio v. Mays (Supreme Court of Ohio, 9/16/2008)
Source: www.thenewspaper.com, http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2555.asp

View Article  Hank Williams Quote of the Week

I've never seen a night so long

When time goes crawling by

The moon just went behind a cloud

To hide its face and cry.

from: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams

View Article  Arrested on a Zamboni

KINGSVILLE, Ont. - A 34-year-old woman from Kingsville, Ont., has been charged with impaired driving - on a Zamboni. Provincial police say an off-duty officer spotted the woman driving erratically on the ice resurfacer at Kingsville Arena on Thursday night. The driver was missing major spots on the ice and bumping into the boards. At one point, police allege the woman stopped the Zamboni and slumped over the steering wheel. Police say they found a bottle of vodka on the woman, whose name was not released. She was arrested and charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle and driving over the legal alcohol limit. The woman is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 2 in Windsor, Ont.

Source: Yahoo News, Canada http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081031/koddities/oddity_drunk_zamboni_driver_1

View Article  Punished for Failing to Write Tickets

Ohio Cop Reprimanded for Making More Arrests than TicketsMadison Township, Ohio officer tied for the most criminal arrests is reprimanded for not writing enough speeding tickets.Madison Township policeA Madison Township, Ohio police officer whose record of busting real criminals is unbeaten found himself reprimanded for failing to focus on writing traffic tickets. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Officer Ken Braden only wrote 85 tickets last year when his most prolific fellow officer wrote 388 while arresting fewer criminals. For that, Police Chief Greg Ryan punished Braden.

"He gets paid as much as the other officers," Ryan told the Dispatch. "He should do as much work as the other officers."

Ryan boasts that in 2006 his twelve patrol officers wrote 1935 tickets in the small Columbus suburb. The department also seized 194 cars, selling 41 of them for profit. These numbers had been boosted by a 2005 edict mandating officers meet a specific ticket quota.

"Effective immediately, all uniformed patrol officers are expected, as a minimum level of self-initiated activity, to issue one traffic citation, one traffic warning, and complete five park & walk business checks/residential vacation checks each shift worked," Ryan's memorandum stated.

The local Fraternal Order of Police union is defending Braden in a complaint against the department.

Source: www.thenewspaper.comhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2564.asp

View Article  Have You Heard This Rumor?

The Man Behind the "Obama Is a Muslim" Campaign Is Exposed"

E-mails have been circulating this year saying that Obama is a Muslim or is not a U.S. citizen, and similar things that are not true. Polls show that 10-15% of the population believe them. Ever wonder how these things get started? They are not seeded by spores from meteorites that landed on the earth 50 million years ago. They are very intentional, carefully crafted campaigns and one of the people responsible, Andy Martin, appeared on Fox News last week. The NY Times has a story on Martin. He has run for public office numerous times (once so he could "exterminate Jew power") and lost them all and has filed so many frivolous lawsuits that a federal judge once forbid him from filing any more without advance permission.

View Article  Some Specifics on SB17 (eff. Oct 1) Interlock Ignition

Beginning October 1, 2008, section 4510.13(d),(e), (f), and (g) mandates the installation of ignition interlock devises as a pre-condition for driving privileges for all repeat DUI offenders.  Court fines have been increased to cover costs for indigent offenders and section 2929.28 has been amended to authorize DUI offenders to pay for the installation.  According to 4510.43 and 4510.45 attempting to circumvent the devise is a crime as is failing to turn on all of the features.  Little known amongst the changes is that these statutes make it a crime to fail to report on someone who is circumventing the machine.

As for the way the system will work: Defendants will be required to familiarize themselves with the system.  They must take the car to an installation center.  They must watch a video about the system.  The "failure" on the machine is set incredibly low (.030) and the machine sets a random re-test within the next 5 to 15 minutes.  According to the information sent out by company representatives, "smoking, eating, drinking, or using mouthwash or medicines that contain alcohol immediately prior to a breath test may result in a failed test."  The machine, however, records all failures for later use by your probation officer.  Services will require the offender to schedule another appointment and (obviously) we don't know how these will work over time.

Other objections to the interlock devices include the failure of probable cause determinations; the wholesale abandonment of innocent until proven guilty protections, the amazingly harsh requirements placed on a misdemeanor offender, the interference with a much-needed ability to drive and the limitations of the fuel cell technology.

As reported by Lawrence Taylor, MADD has been a major proponent of the interlock ignition devices.  Why?  On their list of "Corporate Donors", six corporations are listed as "Platinum Corporate Donors" — that is, donors of $100,000 or more.  The first is a telemarketing company, DialAmerica Marketing.  Of the remaining five, three are carmakers planning IIDs in their models:  Nissan North America, Daimler Chrysler Corporation  and General Motors Companies (makers of Saab).  FOLLOW THE MONEY!  They have now locked profits into Ohio's revised code.  See his critique of the interlock scheme at http://www.duiblog.com/2008/05/06/the-truth-about-ignition-interlock-devices/

 

View Article  DUI license plates seldom issued to drunken drivers (Dayton Daily News)

By Lucas Sullivan Staff Writer Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Since 2004, Ohio law has required that judges assign special license plates to drivers with multiple drunken-driving convictions who still need a car.

But only 8,500 vehicles bore these "DUI plates" through the end of last year even though 33,000 Ohio drivers have five or more drunken driving convictions, according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

The reluctance by Municipal Court judges to issue these plates is evident in Montgomery County, which ranks last among Ohio counties with at least 500,000 residents, in the number of registered DUI plates — 191 through 2007, according to the department.

Judges in Summit County, which has roughly the same number of residents as Montgomery County, issued nearly three times as many DUI plates through last year.

"I don't order them too often," presiding Dayton Municipal Judge John S. Pickrel said. "I don't think they are that effective."

Miami Twp. police Maj. John DiPietro, a board member for a local branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the plates should be issued more often.

"I think the public has a right to know who is on the road," DiPietro said.

But Pickrel said discretion is needed to protect the innocent.

About the law

A law that went into effect Tuesday, Sept. 30, states drivers with prior DUI offenses who are suspected of driving while drunk must take a breath-alcohol test.

If drivers refuse, authorities can take them to get a mandatory blood or urine test.

The law intends to help prosecutors in cases of repeat offenders and deter drunken driving. Repeat offenders used to be able to refuse a breath-alcohol test.

www.DaytonDailyNews.com

View Article  DUI plates designed to curb drunken driving (Dayton Daily News)

By Lucas Sullivan Staff Writer Wednesday, October 01, 2008

DAYTON — Ohio's DUI plates — special yellow plates with red lettering — were designed to curb drunken driving through, to put it simply, public humiliation.

State law has required judges to issue the plates since 2004 to convicted drunken drivers who registered higher than 0.17 on a breath-alcohol test or have multiple DUI convictions and still need a car.

"It is meant to be one of the tools in the toolbox like (DUI) checkpoints," said Lindsay Komlanc, spokeswoman for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Judges have had the discretion to issue the plates since 1967. A law passed in 2004 was supposed to take that discretion away and made issuing the plates mandatory for certain offenders.

But some judges, including presiding Dayton Municipal Judge John Pickrel, have concerns about the plates.

"I think it's unfair for other family members who need to use the car," Pickrel said. "Now they have to drive with those plates on the car. You're sort of punishing the innocent."

Miami Twp. police Maj. John DiPietro, who oversees local drunken driving checkpoints, contends many judges aren't familiar with the law.

"They aren't issued as much as they need to be," DiPietro said.

Pickrel disagrees. He added that DUI offenders often plea down to lesser offenses, so judges don't have the option of issuing the plates.

"They can say they weren't advised properly on their first conviction or we recognize there are some deficiencies in the first case," Pickrel said. "I think you have to look at those numbers carefully before making an accurate judgment."

www.DaytonDailyNews.com