Friday, August 13, 1999
Aronoff charged with DUI after crash at Statehouse
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Former Ohio Senate President Stanley Aronoff is to be arraigned Monday on a charge of driving while intoxicated in the Statehouse underground garage.
The Cincinnati Republican, now an influential lobbyist, was traveling about 20 mph in a 5 mph zone when his 1999 Cadillac struck a concrete garage pillar Tuesday evening, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol report.
According to the report, Mr. Aronoff, 67, smelled of alcohol and failed three sobriety tests. After a telephone conversation with Charles “Rocky” Saxbe, a Columbus lawyer, Mr. Aronoff declined to take a breath-analysis test.
Mr. Aronoff said he wasn't injured but declined further comment. Bill Meeks, a criminal attorney referred to Mr. Aronoff by Mr. Saxbe, said his client will plead not guilty.
“I'm going to conduct my own investigation into this matter,” Mr. Meeks said.
If convicted of DUI, Mr. Aronoff could face three days in jail or an alcohol-treatment program, and a $250 fine. Because he refused to take a breath test, his driver's license automatically was suspended for one year.
This is the second time Mr. Aronoff has been arrested on drunken-driving charges in Columbus.
Mr. Aronoff pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless operation after an August 1982 arrest for DUI. Columbus police said he ran a red light a few blocks from the Statehouse, causing oncoming vehicles to swerve or stop suddenly.
A test then showed his blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent. Under state law, a person is considered to be driving drunk at 0.10 percent.
He was given a suspended nine-day jail sentence, fined $150 and lost his driving privileges for 30 days.
During his 36-year legislative career, Mr. Aronoff was the General Assembly's most ardent supporter of the arts, brought money and reform to Ohio's public schools and spearheaded efforts to give 18-year-olds the right to vote — all while securing millions of dollars worth of public-works projects to Hamilton County.
Symbols of his influence include the Stanley J. Aronoff Center for the Arts in downtown Cincinnati — an $82 million project made possible because its namesake pushed for $40 million in state funding — and the Aronoff Center for Design and Art at the University of Cincinnati.
He stepped aside as Senate president in late 1996. After a one-year ban on lobbying his former colleagues expired, Mr. Aronoff quickly collected a stable of clients that includes Cinergy Corp., Ameritech, BP Amoco, Firstar, Philip Morris and the Cincinnati Ballet.
The man who replaced Mr. Aronoff as Senate president, Republican Richard Finan of Evendale, half-jokingly remarked earlier this year that his one-time mentor retains the clout he wielded as a legislator.
“Here's the most influential man in state government,” Mr. Finan said after greeting Mr. Aronoff prior to the inauguration of Ohio Treasurer Joseph Deters.
Just as Mr. Aronoff survived the previous drunken-driving charge, he bounced back from pleading no contest in February 1996 to two misdemeanor counts of failing to file accurate financial disclosure statements.
Mr. Aronoff, one of 11 lawmakers caught up in the General Assembly's “pancaking” scandal, failed to report $4,500 in speaking fees from subsidiaries of The Limited Inc. in 1991 and 1992.
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