đ¨The Josh Williams golf cart DUI footage is here đ¨
Williams, then a mere "highly intoxicated and uncooperative" candidate for the Ohio House, got charged after officers observed what they deemed to be reckless operation of a golf cart.
An Ohio manâs inaugural voyage to Put-in-Bay ending in an arrest for suspicion of drunk driving a golf cart is a story almost as old as time itself.
But itâs a story that also could have changed the stateâs political history.
In the early morning hours of July 23, 2022, agents with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources stationed on South Bass Island arrested then-Ohio House candidate Josh Williams for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or the combination thereof, as well as a marked lane violation.
The report notes that, while questioning another driver, the agents observed Williams behind the wheel of a golf cart that almost struck the golf cart belonging to the motorist they were currently questioning.
As the report states, the officers suspected Williams of driving drunk almost immediately.
The driver had a dazed look upon his face staring forward with droopy eyelids. I introduced myself and the driver slowly turned towards me. I asked for identification and the driver slowly pulled his wallet from his pocket. While he was doing this I asked about weapons and he shook his head indicating no in a slow unsharpened manner and slowly muttered the word no.
While Joshua E. Williams was obtaining his driver license I observed his fingers slip off the license and he regripped it and removed it from the wallet. He handed me his license and I noticed he had red bloodshot and watery eyes and there was an odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath. I checked his identification on my computer and re-approached the vehicle.
I asked Mr. Williams where he was coming from and he slowly/unfocusedly pointed in direction of downtown Put In Bay and said downtown. I asked if he had any alcoholic beverages and he said no slowly shaking his head indicating no. I
You can download the entire report as obtained by The Rooster, sans personal information about Williams, below:
Williams, while speaking to The Rooster on Wednesday evening after an Ohio House session, denied that he had been drinking, claiming that he had been prescribed blood thinners after surgery and drinking would have been âagainst doctorâs orders.â
You can judge Williamsâ sobriety, or lack thereof, for yourself in the seven-minute body camera footage of the incident, also obtained by The Rooster:
Williams denied all forms of sobriety testing, which, according to Ohio law, should have meant an automatic suspension of his license for a year. (According to court documents, Williams would later plead to a lesser charge and have a six-month suspension backdated to the date of the offense while serving as a freshman state legislator in 2023.)
The report notes that Williams, whom they labeled as âhighly intoxicated and uncooperative,â spent six hours in South Bass Islandâs drunk tank.
The holding cell might have done him some good, as the report goes on to mention that Williams, who is a licensed criminal defense attorney, was âassisting officers with [the Ohio Revised Code]â while they were âdiscussing chargesâ of another unrelated person.
When speaking to The Rooster, Williams said the cops were trying to figure out how to charge the drunken man with a gun crime, which would seemingly be at odds with both his profession as a criminal defense attorney and his reputation as a defender of the Second Amendment in the Ohio Legislature.
You can view the entire ten-minute discussion in the video below:
Coincidentally, The Rooster reported early Wednesday morning that former State Rep. Derek Merrin, who is expected to challenge Williams for the Republican nomination in Ohioâs 9th Congressional District, had been shopping an opposition research file on Williams that included some sort of âpolice footageâ to Northwest Ohio media outlets.
Roughly 12 hours later, a âconcerned citizenâ anonymously submitted the report and videotape to The Rooster.
âIt isnât a coincidence,â Williams said, though he called it âdeeply disappointingâ from someone he calls a friend.
Weâll have more as this story develops. But it would appear that the gloves are already off in the Ohio 9th Congressional Republican primary before either of the favored candidates has officially entered the race.
Williams is expected to launch that candidacy with a âspecial announcementâ scheduled for Monday, June 23. A source in Toledo also told The Rooster that Merrin is expected to make it official on that day, too.
I love emergency dispatches. God bless that concerned citizen.
Critical support to Merrin. Whiteclaw Willaims must be stopped at all costs.