Bridesmaid charged with DUI following Batavia crash

Owensville resident Jennifer Wheeler was arrested for driving under the influence while en route to her sister’s wedding.

Wearing a yellow bridesmaid dress, Wheeler, 28, was driving a red Dodge Neon when she crashed into a fence and a tree on Bauer Road the afternoon of April 13.

Her two children, a boy aged three and a seven-year-old girl (who was also supposed to be in the wedding party), were in the car when Wheeler lost control and ran off the road; no one was hurt in the accident.

In a Clermont County municipal courtroom April 14, Wheeler pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, possession of drugs, an invalid driver’s license, failure to control the vehicle, and child endangerment.

Hidden inside a food storage bag in Wheeler's purse and her bra (found through a strip search), jail officials found Xanax pills, 23 in all. Also found hidden was one Ativan pill.

When Wheeler told the judge that she was not intoxicated while driving, Judge Herman said that she was being charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs of abuse; she replied that she was prescribed the Xanax.

Wheeler told Judge Herman that she considers herself a great mother and said that she had had never been in any trouble before this incident.

Judge Thomas Herman set bail at $5,000 for the charges - all misdemeanors - and scheduled an April 21 hearing, which has now been continued to mid-May, to hear the charge of taking drugs into the Clermont County Jail.