Friday, March 26, 1999
Three DUI suspects have 10 priors among them
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA — Three local men indicted in Clermont County on DUI charges have a common thread — they have 10 prior DUI convictions among them.
In the wake of two DUI-suspected accidents last month in Clermont that claimed four lives, including three members of the Shannon family of Ohio Township, the rate of driving under the influence remains a major frustration for police.
“We talk about taking away the cars, but they'll use any car they can get into,” said Police Chief Steve Bailey of Clermont's Miami Townshipon Thursday, of repeat offenders. “We've got to stop looking at DUI as a traffic offense and start looking at this as a criminal offense, and lock them away.”
Indictments announced Thursday by the Clermont County prosecutor's office include three DUI suspects:
• Mark Thornell, 43, of Oakbrook Place, Milford, who has four prior DUIs in the past six years. He was arrested Feb. 28 by Milford police, the day before he was scheduled to appear in court in Shelby County, Ohio, for a separate DUI charge. He also was indicted on charges of operation without a valid license and possession of cocaine. He refused to submit to a Breathalyzer.
• Brandon Walters, 26, of Wards Corner Road, Loveland, who has three DUI priors in the same time period and also was charged Feb. 21 by Miami Township police with operating without a valid license and receiving stolen property. The temporary tags on his car were stolen from a car parked at a White Castle restaurant on Fields Ertel Road four days earlier. His blood-alcohol level was .136 percent.
• Frank Burns, 27, of Oakwood Drive, Amelia, has three DUI priors in six years, and gave Union Township police conflicting numbers of beers he consumed but was polite and cooperative throughout his arrest. His blood-alcohol level was .145 percent, according to court documents.
Mr. Walters was stopped near his home. Mr. Thornell was stopped in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He then fled into his home and, according to police, climbed out a rear bedroom window and hid in nearby woods. He was apprehended several minutes later with the help of the Miami Township K-9 unit.
None of the arrests involved an accident. All the suspects were held in Clermont County Jail. Each faces fourth-degree felony DUI charges.
Clermont County has had 200 DUI arrests so far this year, a slight drop from the 227 arrests made for the same period last year.
In Clermont's Miami Township, , DUI arrests fell from 152 in 1995 to 131 in 1996 to 107 in 1997.
Last year, the department saw a dramatic rise, to 165.
Miami Township Police Chief Bailey said police campaigns using the media in recent years helped “scare first-timers off the road” but that “what was left were the hard-core, the alcoholics.”
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