Ohio Common Pleas Judge Reprimanded for Drunk Driving

An Ohio judge arrested in 2019 for operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol was publicly reprimanded by the state’s highest court.

A “judge’s operation of a vehicle while intoxicated imperils public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary,” the Ohio Supreme Court said in its Tuesday opinion, which adopted its ethics board’s findings. Judge Rebecca L. Doherty’s statements about being a judge during the her arrest was “an abuse of the prestige of the office,” it added.

On a snowy Winter night in 2019, the Portage County common pleas judge drove her car off the highway and ...