A Darke Place
Ohio Disciplinary Counsel has filed a complaint alleging, among other things, misconduct arising from an attorney’s “ongoing feud with Butler Township Trustees, in Darke County, Ohio.”
The feud allegedly led to arrests and convictions.
Respondent pled guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a property dispute with neighbors where she allegedly had parked in their driveway and played the song “Insane in the Membrane” by Cypress Hill “loudly, and on loop, at least seven times.”
There were disputes in the county sheriff’s office that led to a felonious assault conviction and another incident that resulted in a guilty plea to obstructing official business.
The Ohio Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, affirmed a conviction
On June 28, 2021, Walker was charged by complaint with single counts of resisting arrest in violation of R.C. 2921.33(A), a misdemeanor of the second degree; disorderly conduct in violation of R.C. 2917.11(A)(3),(E)(3)(a), a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, telecommunications harassment in violation of R.C. 2917.21(A)(7), a misdemeanor of the first degree; and improper use of a 9-1-1 system in violation of R.C. 128.32(F), a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. Walker pled not guilty to all the charges, and the matter proceeded to a jury trial.
At trial, the State presented testimony and audio-recorded evidence establishing that on June 28, 2021, Walker made seven non-emergency telephone calls to the Darke County Sheriff’s dispatch center because she wanted to speak with a specific sheriff’s deputy—Deputy Young—about past issues with her neighbors’ stalking her. All of Walker’s calls to the dispatch center were played for the jury and admitted into evidence as State’s Exhibit 1.
Verdict
After the foregoing evidence was presented at trial, the jury deliberated and found Walker guilty of resisting arrest but not guilty of disorderly conduct, telecommunications harassment, or improper use of a 9-1-1 system. The trial court sentenced Walker to a 90-day jail term with 89 days suspended and one day of credit for time served. The court also ordered Walker to serve one year of probation with mental health treatment and to pay a $250 fine and court costs.
Dayton Daily News reported on criminal charges relating to a parking dispute
A Darke County attorney accused of striking a man with her car before she told him, “I hope you die,” faces a prison term and disciplinary action from the Ohio Bar Association.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday suspended Jessica Rae Walker for an interim period and referred her case to the Ohio State Bar Association “for investigation and the commencement of disciplinary proceedings.”
Walker, 46, of New Madison is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 in Darke County Common Pleas Court. A jury on Jan. 31 found her not guilty of all charges but one count of felonious assault.
Walker got into an argument with a man about his motor home. She is accused of driving her Mini Cooper across the center line and directly at the man before striking him with her car on Dec. 30, 2021, as he walked across the street to his mailbox.
“Afterwards, she slowed, rolled down her window, yelled, ‘I hope you die,’ and drove away from the scene,” according to documents filed in Darke County Common Pleas Court.
Walker claimed that the victim jumped on the hood of her car and rolled around, documents said. The victim testified the car struck his leg and wrist, causing him pain, bruising and tendon damage.
She initially was indicted on two counts of felonious assault, vehicular assault, failure to stop after an accident and three counts of disrupting public services for reportedly contacting Darke County emergency dispatchers repeatedly about her case and car that had been seized as evidence, records show.
Walker is held on $30,000 bail in the Darke County Jail in a separate case after she reportedly disrupted a Feb. 7 public meeting of the Butler Twp. trustees in Darke County.
She sat in front, got out her cellphone, recorded everyone in attendance, repeatedly asked a Darke County Sheriff’s sergeant whether he was going to take her to jail and became argumentative with the township trustee leading the meeting, according to an affidavit filed in Darke County Municipal Court.
Walker “had already been warned she would be removed if her behavior became disruptive to the meeting. The trustee requested the defendant be removed from the meeting so they could continue the meeting with order,” the affidavit stated.
She was escorted to the door where she refused to leave the door jamb area. During her arrest, she pushed the sergeant and struck his left hand and kicked a captain in the leg, documents stated.
That conviction was affirmed on appeal
Based on the evidence presented at trial, taken in the light most favorable to the State, a reasonable juror could have found that Walker knowingly caused harm to Yant, thus meeting the first two elements of felonious assault…
Because the evidence demonstrated that Walker knowingly injured Yant by striking him with her car, we must conclude, as the jury did, that her conviction for felonious assault (deadly weapon) was based on sufficient evidence. There was no evidence presented that this was any type of accident or that Yant was negligent. Walker simply ran into him with her car. The first assignment of error is overruled.
(Mike Frisch)