Pitts goes to court to challenge evidence

2/6/2007
Pitts
Pitts

The Rev. Michael Pitts is challenging evidence gathered by the Ohio Highway Patrol in a drunken driving case against him, according to a court document.

Mr. Pitts, 42, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Maumee, claims his car was illegally stopped on Dec. 6. He also questions the accuracy of urine tests to measure sobriety.

Maumee Judge Gary Byers is to hear a motion to suppress evidence at 10 a.m. Feb. 20.

The Highway Patrol's Toledo post maintains Mr. Pitts was randomly stopped on U.S. 20A that December afternoon by a trooper who was pulling over motorists for routine vehicle inspection checks.

During the stop, the trooper suspected Mr. Pitts was impaired and put him through a field sobriety test. Mr. Pitts, who admitted to drinking two glasses of wine, was arrested and taken to the Toledo post, where a urine sample was taken after a Breathalyzer malfunctioned.

It was determined that Mr. Pitts had a concentration of 0.13 of one gram by weight of alcohol per one hundred milliliters of his urine, which is more than the legal limit of a 0.11 concentration for that test.

Mr. Pitts' attorneys, Stephen Hartman and Richard Kerger of Kerger & Associates, said they intend to prove their client was illegally stopped and that the urine test is unreliable.