A Summit County jury convicted a 35-year-old Doylestown man of aggravated vehicular assault and all other charges in his indictment for the incapacitating spinal injuries to former Springfield Township police officer Mark Dodez.
Michael G. Plemons, 35, will be sentenced at 9:30 this morning by Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty.
Victim impact statements are expected.
For the most serious charge, a felony, Plemons faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a lifetime suspension of his driver's license, a spokeswoman for the Summit County Prosecutor's Office said late Wednesday.
Plemons, who was arrested on his fourth DUI charge in the March 31 accident on South Arlington Road in Springfield Township, also was convicted of felony hit-skip, weaving and two counts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
April Wiesner, chief spokeswoman for Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, said the verdicts were announced after the county courthouse was closed to the public, following about two hours of jury deliberations.
Trial testimony showed Plemons was driving a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, with the driver-side headlight out about 8:20 p.m., when he crossed the center line of Arlington, striking Dodez as he and another officer were heading back to their police cruisers moments after looking for suspected contraband on the side of the road.
The call of "officer down" was made by Springfield patrolman Tom Hinerman, who was with Dodez that night near the Mash Oil gas station.
Dodez, a married father with two children, ages 3 and 5, suffered severe spinal injuries, was hospitalized for 106 days and remains in a wheelchair.
In a dramatic appearance Tuesday, Dodez wheeled himself into McCarty's courtroom and testified for an hour, mostly about his condition.
He told the jury he is on disability retirement income and, according to his doctors, will never be able to be a police officer again.
Dodez testified that he does not remember anything immediately after the accident, except for the arrival of fire department paramedics as he was on the ground, with no feeling in his legs.
His wife, Lisa, his mother, father, two brothers and five fellow Springfield Township officers were in the courtroom as Dodez testified.
The impact of the accident was so violent, Hinerman said, that he found Dodez's police badge on the ground afterward.
Copyright 2011 - The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
