If Judge Dan Gattermeyer finds sufficient evidence, the case will be bound over to a grand jury for consideration. Mehl is scheduled to be back May 19 in Hamilton Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing on the drug abuse charge, a fifth-degree felony. The doesn’t mean the OVI charge will disappear or won’t be considered, but “it means that I don’t want to do that now and give her an opportunity to plead guilty to it in the municipal court were I don’t have jurisdiction,” Gmoser said.Īn attorney could advise Mehl to plead guilty to the misdemeanor OVI charge, and the county prosecutor would be barred from presenting evidence of that impaired driving to support a possible aggravated vehicular homicide charge. Gmoser said that if Mehl pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in municipal court, that element of an alleged crime could not be used as an aggravated circumstance for a felony charge of aggravated vehicular homicide. “Our office has grave concerns over any plea (to the misdemeanor charges) that could affect the ability of our office to pursue additional, more serious charges stemming from Elizabeth Mehl’s operation of a vehicle,” Gmoser said in the letter. Explore 2 children killed in Butler County: What we know about the crash, ATV incidents In a letter to the Hamilton Municipal Court prosecutor, Gmoser said Hamilton police have an ongoing investigation that could lead to an aggravated vehicular homicide charge as well as other charges. But that afternoon, at the request of Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser, all the misdemeanor charges, including the OVI, were dismissed. Mehl was arraigned Wednesday morning in Hamilton Municipal Court, where bond was set at $75,000. After failing a field sobriety test, Mehl was arrested. At the police station, Mehl told officers the pills were Percocet.
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