Judge Becky Doherty DUI: An Ohio judge who runs a drug court is filmed telling police she is out of her mind and had been drinking following crash.
An Ohio judge accused of drunk driving has been filmed telling police that she was ‘absolutely out of her mind’ after her SUV drove off an icy ramp and crashed into a ditch.
Authorities say Portage County Common Pleas Judge Becky Doherty was arrested Sunday night around 9.15pm following the crash in Brimfield.
Of note- the 55-year-old woman refused to take a Breathalyzer or field sobriety test, according to the Record-Courier, but she could be heard in body camera footage admitting to police officers that she had been drinking.
As she was placed in the backseat of the police cruiser, Doherty says: ‘I am absolutely out of my mind. I am so intoxicated.’
Video from inside the Brimfield Police Station shows Doherty becoming belligerent with officers booking her on a first-degree misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle under the influence.
At one point the woman can be heard asking: ‘Do you know who I am?’
The judge was locked into a jail cell after getting increasingly loud and refusing to sit down.
Body camera video from the scene of the crash shows Doherty sitting in the driver’s seat of the silver 2016 GMC Terrain reportedly registered to an Akron woman.
An officer asks Doherty if she had been drinking, with the judge confirming that she had. The officer noted that there was vomit by her seat.
After several minutes, the officer helps Doherty out of the car and tries to escort her up a snowy embankment. She keeps falling, leading to another officer assisting the ‘challenged’ driver to get into the squad car.
Judge Becky Doherty: Afflicted with her own demons?
Once at the station, Doherty breaks down in tears- telling officers that she was on her way to a funeral on Monday. She repeatedly mentions losing one of her ‘kids’, presumably referencing a drug court defendant.
The judge, who runs HOPE Drug Court as part of her judicial duties, had previously described the drug court as the ‘best part of her week’ because she can help people recover.
‘You have no idea how it affected my probation officer and me. I can’t keep losing these kids,’ she says at one point in the video after her arrest.
Doherty also repeatedly demands that officers contact Portage County Sheriff’s Major Larry Limbert.
When officers inform Doherty that they called Limbert and he didn’t pick up, she asks for her cellphone, only to find out had been left behind in a ‘puddle of vomit’ in her car.
Doherty’s arraignment in Portage County Municipal Court in Kent is scheduled for Friday morning.
If she enters a not guilty plea, a special prosecutor will be appointed to hear the case, Portage Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci told the Record Courier.
According to court records, Doherty is still hearing cases in Portage County Common Pleas Court and had hearings on her schedule for Monday, Tuesday and Friday reported the dailymail.
The judge was elected as a Common Pleas Court judge in 2015 after having served as chief of the criminal division of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office since 2009.
Prior to that, Doherty worked as a criminal prosecutor in the in the violent crime unit of the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office from 1992 to 2008.
Not immediately understood is if Judge Becky Doherty had previous incidents involving drunk driving and whether she’d previously sought counseling for what some wonder involve her own addiction issues….
