Ohio: Warren

In Ohio, they could soon marry you as well.

A proposal in the Ohio legislature would give all 99 members of the House and 33 members of the Senate the power to oversee "I do."

If Rep. Tom Letson's bill becomes law, Ohio would join only California and Rhode Island in giving all state lawmakers the power to perform civil-marriage ceremonies, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

States have an eclectic mix of nonreligious officials empowered to perform marriages, including governors, former governors, speakers of the House, lawyers admitted to the bar, justices of the peace and judges.

Ohio allows probate, county and municipal judges and the superintendent for the state school for the deaf to perform civil marriages.

The Ohio Supreme Court threw out a case brought last week by Jessica Derov of Warren, who
disputed the validity of a breath test that found her to be driving under the influence. Derov's
case could have had implications for the state's new breath-testing device, the Intoxilyzer 8000,
which has drawn challenges even before it's used in the state.

The Supreme Court decided against even considering that question.

In its decision to throw out Derov's case, the court said there wasn't enough information for it
to weigh the validity of the test used on Derov -- much less the Intoxilyzer, which is a different
instrument.

The Intoxilyzer 8000 was supposed to debut in a pilot program in Clermont County early this
year, but it's still not in use, said Tom Hunter, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public
Safety.

-- James Nash

jnash@dispatch.com

Charges were dropped against Charles D. Shoemaker, now 15, when he was found incompetent to stand trial.

Unlike adult criminal law, juvenile law in Ohio is silent on competency. The law doesn't spell out standards for performing competency evaluations or say what judges are supposed to do when juveniles are found incompetent.

That leaves juvenile judges to develop their own procedures on how to handle youthful defendants who are found to be incompetent because of mental illness, mental retardation and developmental disabilities or young age.

A juvenile-competency proposal drafted by an Ohio Supreme Court committee is nearly ready to be introduced as legislation.

Judges and the state bar association have endorsed the proposal, and Gov.