Tuesday, June 24, 2003


Man uses strict faith as defense

A woman given a ticket for breast-feeding her daughter while driving on the Ohio Turnpike last month could have gone on her merry way with a slap on the wrist and a $100 fine.

At least that was the offer from the Portage County Prosecutor's Office on May 9, the day after a trucker called 911 to report that he had seen the woman driving her car with a baby in her lap.

The woman's husband, however, is trying to make a federal case out of it -- literally -- by claiming she is not the real defendant.

He said he is.

He made that claim, citing Mosaic law from the Old Testament and writings from the days of the Founding Fathers because of the couple's ``deeply held spiritual beliefs'' that the husband is ``the sole head of the family'' and the only one who can punish the wife for a public act.

He said he would go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to prove his position....