Judge fined for failing to comply on breath test

A CIRCUIT Court judge has been fined €600 after he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a request by a garda to use a breathalyser in Connemara last year.

The Courts Service has confirmed the fine was imposed on Judge James O’Donohue (54) under section 2 of the Road Traffic Act at Clifden District Court last Thursday.

Judge O’Donohue,with an address in Dublin 3, had failed to comply with a request for a breath specimen made by Garda Dean Landers on August 19th, 2011, at Ballyconneely, Clifden, Co Galway.

He was driving a car registered in 2009 at the time.

He was asked for the specimen under section 12 (2) of the 1994 Road Traffic Act, as substituted by section 2 of the 2003 Road Traffic Act and by section 2 of the 2011 Road Traffic Act.

The case came up at Clifden District Court on May 24th and was listed again for mention on Thursday of this week. There were no reporters in court when the case was heard. Judge O’Donohue pleaded guilty and the fine was imposed.

The relevant section of the legislation does not refer to disqualification as a penalty.

Under section 12 of the 1994 Road Traffic Act, a garda who is of the opinion that a person “in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle in a public place” has consumed alcohol, he or she may require that person to provide a specimen through a breathalyser.

Section 12 (2) of the Act says that a person “who refuses or fails to comply . . . shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000” or the equivalent in euro, or to “imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both”.

Judge O’Donohue was educated at University College Dublin and the Law Society of Ireland. He qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and has worked in the practice O’Donohue Solicitors.

He was appointed to the Circuit Court bench in November 2002, filling one of two vacancies created by the retirements of Judge Dominic Lynch and Judge Liam Devally.