WARREN — Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Ronald Rice is facing a felony weapons charge and drunken driving after he allegedly possessed a firearm while intoxicated and crashed on Scoville North Road north of Niles Vienna Road in Vienna Friday night.

Rice, 69, who was re-elected to another six-year term as judge in November, had a single-vehicle rollover crash at 6:52 p.m., according to the Warren post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which investigated the incident.

The highway patrol did not state in a news release whether Rice was injured. No crash report was available Monday afternoon. The crash remains under investigation, Ohio State Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Logan Nowlin stated in an email Monday.

Nowlin stated that Rice, of Brookfield, was driving a 2025 Mini Cooper south when he failed to negotiate a curve and traveled off the right side of the road. The vehicle struck two traffic signs and overturned in a ditch.

Meanwhile, Rice’s wife, Cynthia Westcott Rice, who is also a Trumbull common pleas court judge, filed for divorce Wednesday, according to the court’s online docket.

Filing in Trumbull County Domestic Relations Court, Rice’s wife cited gross neglect of duty, extreme cruelty, adultery and incompatibility as reasons she is seeking divorce, according to the docket.

Judges David Engler and Samuel Bluedorn recused themselves Friday from the case.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy on Monday assigned Debra L. Boros, a retired Lorain County Common Pleas Court judge, to hear the divorce case.

A restraining order request against Rice by his wife was granted, according to the docket. The two both work in the county courthouse.

Judge Ronald Rice has cases on his docket set for 1:30 p.m. today.

WEAPONS CHARGE

Ronald Rice’s weapons charge filed in Girard Municipal Court is a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in prison if convicted.

The Ohio Revised Code statute he was charged under in Girard Municipal Court states that no person shall “knowingly transport or have a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle if, at the time of that transportation or possession,” the “person is under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them.”

His criminal complaint in Girard alleges that he possessed a loaded handgun while driving under the influence.

He is due for an initial appearance in Girard Municipal Court this morning on the weapons charge, the first-degree misdemeanor drunken driving charge and a minor misdemeanor charge of failure to control a motor vehicle.

His attorney, Robert Kokor, filed a written not guilty plea to the two misdemeanors on Monday, and Rice presumably will not be in Girard Municipal Court today to answer the charges as a result. A plea is not required at the municipal court level on felony charges.

The drunken driving charge Rice was charged under states that “no person shall operate any vehicle … if, at the time of the operation,” the “person is under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them.”

Kokor also filed a motion to stay Rice’s administrative license suspension on the drunken driving charge.

No additional hearing in the case was listed yet for Rice as of Monday afternoon. It’s possible a visiting judge and prosecutor will have to be appointed to handle the case, which could cause a delay.

Rice was first elected to the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, General Division, in 2012, according to biography on the common pleas court website.

In 1992, he was elected judge of Trumbull County Eastern District Court, where he served through 2012. He also served as a part-time instructor in “Law and Ethics in the Medical Profession” at Youngstown State University. He holds a private pilot license.

Staff writer David Skolnick contributed to this report.