Lima resident Amy Hobson was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison following her fourth drunk driving arrest since 2009. She was convicted by a jury earlier this month of OVI, leaving the scene of an accident and spitting on a Lima police officer.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima woman convicted by an Allen County jury earlier this month on charges of drunk driving, leaving the scene of an accident and spitting in the face of a law enforcement officer was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in prison.
Amy Hobson, 39, maintained her innocence prior to sentencing, when she denied she was at fault for an injury accident last August. She told Judge Terri Kohlrieser she did not receive a fair trial because of the racial make-up of the jury. She also denied spitting on a Lima police officer.
The Lima woman was indicted by a grand jury in October as a result of a traffic accident that occurred Aug. 14 at the intersection of North and Charles streets in Lima and left one person hospitalized overnight. It was her fourth drunk driving incident since 2009.
Court records show Hobson left the scene following the accident but called the Lima Police Department a short time later to report she was involved in the mishap. The woman on Wednesday told the judge she was advised “by the 911 operator” that she could leave the scene.
Apprehended a short time later at her residence on West Elm Street in Lima, the reporting officer said Hobson was observed to have “thick slurred speech, an odor of an alcoholic beverage on her breath and was unsteady afoot.”
Hobson refused to submit to a field sobriety test and was taken into custody. While being handcuffed, she reportedly tried to pull away and, while being placed in a police cruiser, allegedly spit in the face of the arresting officer.
Prior to sentencing Wednesday, Hobson admitted she was “irate with the cop” at the time of her arrest “but I did not spit on her.”
She also denied causing the accident in question.
“They (the other vehicle involved) hit me; I had the green light. And I don’t think I had a fair trial. The jury was not made up of my peers,” said Hobson, noting she is of a Black and Hispanic heritage.
“There was just one black man on the jury,” she said. “I don’t want to do ‘woe is me,’ but I don’t think I deserve to go to jail when I didn’t do anything wrong.”
The judge disagreed, sentencing Hobson to 30 months in prison (120 days of which is mandatory) and suspending her driver’s license for 10 years. She was ordered to forfeit to the Lima Police Department the 2013 Ford Edge she was driving at the time of the incident and must enroll in a substance abuse program.
Hobson had a previous felony conviction for OVI in 2013 and misdemeanor drunk driving offenses in 2009 and 2011.
