Darke County attorney suspended after felony conviction

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A Darke County attorney accused of striking a man with her car before she told him, “I hope you die,” faces a prison term and disciplinary action from the Ohio Bar Association.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday suspended Jessica Rae Walker for an interim period and referred her case to the Ohio State Bar Association “for investigation and the commencement of disciplinary proceedings.”

Walker, 46, of New Madison is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 in Darke County Common Pleas Court. A jury on Jan. 31 found her not guilty of all charges but one count of felonious assault.

Jessica Walker

Credit: Darke County Jail

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Credit: Darke County Jail

Walker got into an argument with a man about his motor home. She is accused of driving her Mini Cooper across the center line and directly at the man before striking him with her car on Dec. 30, 2021, as he walked across the street to his mailbox.

“Afterwards, she slowed, rolled down her window, yelled, ‘I hope you die,’ and drove away from the scene,” according to documents filed in Darke County Common Pleas Court.

Walker claimed that the victim jumped on the hood of her car and rolled around, documents said. The victim testified the car struck his leg and wrist, causing him pain, bruising and tendon damage.

She initially was indicted on two counts of felonious assault, vehicular assault, failure to stop after an accident and three counts of disrupting public services for reportedly contacting Darke County emergency dispatchers repeatedly about her case and car that had been seized as evidence, records show.

Walker is held on $30,000 bail in the Darke County Jail in a separate case after she reportedly disrupted a Feb. 7 public meeting of the Butler Twp. trustees in Darke County.

She sat in front, got out her cellphone, recorded everyone in attendance, repeatedly asked a Darke County Sheriff’s sergeant whether he was going to take her to jail and became argumentative with the township trustee leading the meeting, according to an affidavit filed in Darke County Municipal Court.

Walker “had already been warned she would be removed if her behavior became disruptive to the meeting. The trustee requested the defendant be removed from the meeting so they could continue the meeting with order,” the affidavit stated.

She was escorted to the door where she refused to leave the door jamb area. During her arrest, she pushed the sergeant and struck his left hand and kicked a captain in the leg, documents stated.

She was indicted Feb. 23 for two felony counts of assault and misdemeanor counts of disturbing a lawful meeting, obstructing official business, resisting arrest and harassment with bodily substance, records show.

Her attorney Dennis Lieberman of Flanagan, Liberman & Rambo in Dayton said it was too early to comment until after sentencing.

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