Cincinnati Criminal Defense Blog

Authorities have placed three suspects in custody in connection with two separate high-value drug busts this past week on Ohio roads.

The first bust occurred on the Ohio Turnpike near Oberlin. Troopers observed a car speeding and initiated a traffic stop. When approaching the car, officers smelled raw marijuana and, citing probable cause, began to look in the vehicle. The search and seizure revealed a quarter pound of marijuana in the driver's backpack, but also turned up significant amounts of other drugs. The suspect had 60 bindles of heroin in powder form and 500 grams of brown heroin. The estimated street value of the drugs stands at $102,000.

Whether driving in Ohio or another state, it is always important to pay attention to the road. Recently, a man helped police track down an alleged drunk driver. While driving one morning, the man saw an approaching truck drifting in and out of its lanes and decided to take action. He turned to follow the truck and called 911. According to reports, the driver of the truck had hit a car and left the scene of the accident. The driver, a teenager, has been charged with felony hit and run with an injury in addition to misdemeanor DUI with an injury. Bond was set at $13,500.

The man followed the driver until he stopped and exited his car. The man continued to pursue the driver until he climbed a flight of stairs, where the man cornered him. The man waited there until the police arrived and arrested the suspect.

Cincinnati pharmacists know just how precarious their jobs are -- they are surrounded by serious medications all day and are filling prescriptions based off of doctors' orders. In the overall scheme of things, they have very little control over who gets which drugs and how much. They also have no control over whether patients will follow their directions or whether they will overdose. Because of this lack of control, when a pharmacists faces prescription drug charges, it calls into question his or her actual culpability.

After a Columbus pharmacist was recently charged with over 200 counts of illegally dispensing prescription pain killers, he chose to plead guilty to one count of illegally prescribing oxycodone. It is unclear how much time the man could have spent in prison if he had been convicted on all 200 plus drug charges, but after pleading guilty to the one count, he received a two-year sentence. He must also complete one year of home detention and perform over 200 hours of community service.

A Cincinnati man has recently pled guilty to aggravated vehicular assault in exchange for a plea deal that only gave him one-fourth of the maximum sentence of 16 years in prison. While this deal doesn't seem particularly out of the ordinary, the person who spoke on behalf of the suspect to the judge who recently sentenced him is. A Cincinnati police officer who was injured in a car crash the man allegedly caused, leading to the vehicular assault charge, requested the judge not sentence the man to the full 16-year prison term.

The man recently admitted that he had been driving on a suspended license in August 2011 when his car drifted into oncoming traffic. The man had been travelling east on Columbia Parkway when he seems to have crossed the center line and collided with the side of the police officer's Chevrolet Malibu. The Malibu apparently was pushed into another car before ending up on the concrete median.