CATHERINE DONKERS APPEALS CONVICTION

The story continues. The breast feeding driver, Catherine Donkers, and her husband, Brad Barnhill, have filed papers to appeal the August 8th ruling of Portage County Judge David Martell. In the verdict, she was found guilty of driving without a valid operator's license, failure to comply with a police officer's request, and violation of the Ohio child-restraint law. Donkers was found not guilty of child endangerment.

The appeal filed by Donkers and Barnhill is contending that she had inadequate representation at her trial and, therefore, the verdict was not just nor fair. The basis of the appeal is curious since Donkers represented herself after she fired her court-appointed lawyer. It seems she's saying that the ruling should be overturned because she's inadequately prepared to represent herself. If she wins the appeal, it appears that she could claim the same upon conviction in a retrial.

I have been following this story since the beginning and my previous posts are 8/8/03, 8/7/03, 8/6/03, 8/4/03, 6/26/03, 6/21/03.