Driver gets jail time, probation in vehicular assault case
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (Dec. 5, 2023) – The impaired driver responsible for the crash that seriously injured a Dover Township man while he was mowing his lawn is beginning his punishment.
53-year-old Robert A Schwartz will spend six months in the Tuscarawas County Jail and five years on probation for the May 11th wreck on Crooked Run Road. Prosecutor Ryan Styer says Schwartz was four beers into a six-pack he picked up to drink on the way home from Wooster and driving around 90 miles an hour when he lost control of his truck, plowed through a utility pole, and ran over the victim, who spent weeks in the hospital and will never fully recover from his injuries which included a severed carotid artery.
“Although it has substantially healed, it has a lot of scar tissue and he has extreme limitations in terms of his ability to exert energy or any kind of exertion without having a risk of an aneurysm.”
A grand jury didn’t hand down charges against Schwartz, who pleaded guilty to a bill of information charging him with vehicular assault, OVI, and not being in control of a motor vehicle. The prosecution and his attorney jointly recommended the punishment, which Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Ernest doled this morning.
“You are going to be ordered in this matter to follow all rules of the supervising agency; pay the costs of this action; use no drugs, alcohol, or substances of abuse; no entering of bars and taverns; and you will be subjected to random drug screens.”
Schwartz was also ordered to pay more than $22,500 in restitution and is only permitted to drive for work during the five years he’s under supervision.