BUCYRUS—A Reynoldsburg man and his Columbus attorney both appeared late to Crawford County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday for a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence.
Anthony Jenkins, 29, of Reynoldsburg, is charged with operating a motor vehicle while impaired, a felony of the fourth degree punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
Jenkins is represented by Columbus attorney Jeffery Moore.
Moore originally filed a motion on behalf of his client to suppress information obtained by law enforcement during their interrogation. The original motion was filed shortly after his arrest in October. Jenkins’ counsel asked for a continuation of the hearing on the motion and it was continued and set for 9:30 am Wednesday.
Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leüthold set the entire morning aside for the hearing.
Neither Jenkins or his attorney appeared at the time appointed. Moore arrived a half-hour late. Jenkins much later.
To the surprise of the court, Moore asked to withdraw the motion to suppress evidence and indicated he wanted to discuss a plea negotiation with the prosecutor.
Judge Leüthold was unhappy with Moore’s motion to withdraw after Moore admitted his intention was to cancel the motion before the hearing set on Wednesday.
“You could have given this court the courtesy of a phone call saying you were withdrawing the motion and still wanted to meet with the prosecutor. I set this entire afternoon aside when I could have heard other cases. I pulled an officer off the road and away from his job to protect our county so he would be here to testify. A simple courtesy call would have saved all this time and expense” Leüthold said.
Moore apologized to the court: “I realized we had no legal ground for this motion when the lab results came back this morning.”
Leüthold checked Moore and read his own motion back to him. “ Your motion to suppress has nothing to do with lab results. Your motion is asking for Jenkin’s statements to law enforcement to be discarded because he did not have legal representation at the time of interrogation.” Leüthold said.
Moore also lamented to the court that he had little contact with Jenkins during the process. He said he did make contact with Jenkins yesterday evening and told him to be in court.
About 45 minutes into the proceedings Jenkins arrived for court.
Leüthold accepted Moore’s motion to dismiss the motion to suppress he’d filed.
Leüthold continued Jenkins’ bond to give the defense and prosecution time to work through plea negotiations. Leüthold ordered the matter set for a final Pretrial within the next 45 days.