BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
C. Jodrey
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A Milford man whose drunken-driving record includes a fatal crash and at least eight convictions is facing two new charges of driving under the influence.
Charles W. Jodrey, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 10 years in prison after a 1984 drunken driving crash that killed an Anderson Township man, was arrested Thursday in Clermont County's Miami Township.
County officials say he has had at least eight DUI convictions, 11 DUI arrests and 34 other traffic convictions, but
investigators suspect he may have had additional arrests, possibly under other names in other counties. On Thursday, Mr. Jodrey, 55, gave officers a false name and false driver's license, police said.
After officers determined his real name, they discovered he had supplied the same fake name after an Aug. 23 DUI arrest in Milford.
Mr. Jodrey, who gave police several addresses, now faces DUI and driving-under-suspension charges in both incidents, as well as an array of other charges of giving police false information. He also was charged with aggravated menacing for threatening a Miami Township police officer during Thursday's arrest, police said.
Mr. Jodrey's past addresses include Mount Washington, Norwood and Amelia.
He was wanted on four traffic warrants out of Hamilton County and one out of Brown County, but it was not clear Saturday what those charges were.
Mr. Jodrey was in the Clermont County Jail after Municipal Court Judge James Shriver set a combined bond of $702,000.
"This is an individual who has complete and utter disregard for the safety of everyone else, and for the rules," said Mark Tekulve, Clermont County assistant prosecutor.
Mr. Jodrey was arrested early Thursday after Miami Township Police Officer Brett Simon received two reports, two hours apart, of a possible drunken driver. After the second report, he spotted a car fitting the description entering the parking lot of a Miami Township bar. Two men got out, but the driver stayed in the car.
Officer Simon said he smelled alcohol when he tried to talk to the driver.
"He stepped out of the vehicle and lost his balance," Officer Simon said. "He was extremely intoxicated, uncooperative and verbally abusive."
The driver had a license with the name Daniel Murphy. It was not until a jailer at the Clermont County Jail recognized him that police realized they had arrested Mr. Jodrey.
"Apparently, she had grown up with him," Officer Simon said. Mr. Jodrey's record includes a conviction in the 1984 death of Martin Ackermann. Mr. Jodrey, driving under the influence, crossed into Mr. Ackermann's lane on Beechmont Avenue in Mount Washington, colliding head-on and killing the 42-year-old man. At the time of the crash, Mr. Jodrey's blood-alcohol level was 0.24, more than twice the legal limit.
Only 14 hours before the fatal crash, Mr. Jodrey had been arrested by Union Township police in Clermont County and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. He presented them with a fictitious license.
Six days before the collision with Mr. Ackermann, Mr. Jodrey was arrested in New Richmond and charged with drunken driving and driving under suspension.
He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Mr. Ackermann's death, and Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel sentenced him to 13 to 25 years in prison. At the time, Judge Nadel said his research showed it was the stiffest sentence ever handed down in Ohio in a case involving drunken driving.
Judge Nadel was forced to reduce that sentence to five to 10 years after an appeals court ruled it was improper to give consecutive sentences for multiple charges arising out of the same incident. Judge Nadel said Saturday that he was not surprised to hear Mr. Jodrey had been again arrested for driving under the influence. "The only way you're going to keep him off the road is to keep him incarcerated," he said. "He doesn't get it. He'll keep driving. He's a walking powder keg ready to blow up."
In 1994, two months after Mr. Jodrey was released from prison, he was again arrested on Beechmont Avenue near Nagel Road in Anderson Township and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. He was convicted and sentenced to 1ï years in the Hamilton County Justice Center.
Last year, Mr. Jodrey was convicted in Hamilton County of disorderly conduct while intoxicated and sentenced to five days in jail.
