Alice Robie Resnick (born August 21, 1939) is an American attorney and jurist who served as a

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

of the

Supreme Court of Ohio The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...

Early life

Alice Robie was born on August 21, 1939, in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pen ...

, the daughter of Adam Joseph and Alice Suzanne Spizarny Robie. She graduated from Siena Heights College in 1961 and the University of Detroit Law School in 1964. She married Melvin L. Resnick on March 20, 1970.

Career

In 1988, she was the second woman in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

elected and third to serve on the state bench, and was reelected in 1994 and 2000. Her career has included experience as a private attorney, assistant county

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

, municipal judge, and as a judge on the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals. One of her most controversial opinions was the 4–3 majority ruling that Ohio's school funding system was unconstitutional. On January 17, 2006, Resnick announced that she would not seek a fourth term. She left office on January 1, 2007. Resnick was selected in 1995 to the

Ohio Women's Hall of Fame The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame was a program the State of Ohio's Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Department of Job and Family Services ran from 1978 through 2011. The Hall has over 400 members. In 2019, the Hall's physical archives an ...

Conviction

On January 31, 2005, she was arrested by the

Ohio State Highway Patrol The Ohio State Highway Patrol is a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and has the primary responsibility of traffic enforcement in the U.S. state of Ohio. Divisions Operationally, the Patrol is divided into units whose varying task ...

for DUI. Several motorists had used

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s to call in a

Jeep Grand Cherokee The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a range of mid-sized sport utility vehicles produced by American manufacturer Jeep. At its introduction, while most SUVs were still manufactured with body-on-frame construction, the Grand Cherokee has used a unibody ...

showing erratic driving. State police confronted her in a gas station and she refused a field sobriety test, resulting in the one-year automatic suspension of her license. After refusal, she ignored police orders to remain at the gas station and drove off. She was pulled over a few minutes later and failed a sobriety test. Justice Resnick registered a

Blood Alcohol Concentration Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes. BAC is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume of blood. In US and many i ...

of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit in the state of Ohio. A dashboard camera recorded the incident, and much of the audio showing Justice Resnick trying to use her office to get out of the DUI charge appeared on the internet. She was convicted of DUI, a first degree

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

, required to take a three-day alcohol education program, and her license was suspended for six months, overriding the automatic suspension of one year. She was not charged with failure to comply with a police officer,

resisting arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be Interroga ...

, or fleeing from police. A new state law also implemented a mandatory jail sentence for offenders who refuse a sobriety test and show greater than a 0.17 BAC. The incident and penalty sparked a wave of public criticism, especially after portions of the 90-minute videotape surfaced on various internet video websites.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Resnick, Alice Robie 1939 births Living people Justices of the Supreme Court of Ohio Judges of the Ohio District Courts of Appeals Lawyers from Toledo, Ohio Ohio politicians convicted of crimes Siena Heights University alumni University of Detroit Mercy alumni Ohio Democrats 20th-century American women judges 20th-century Ohio state court judges 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American judges