By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — A Marshall County judge has been assigned the drunk driving case involving Kosciusko County Council member Kimberly Cates.
Court paperwork shows the case was assigned to Marshall County Superior Court Judge Dean Colvin.
Colvin filed his acceptance of the appointment Wednesday, paperwork shows.
Cates faces two charges related to a traffic stop that happened March 9 but did not come to light for several weeks.
The two charges are operating a vehicle while intoxicated — endangering a person, and operating a vehicle with an ACE of 0.15 or greater.
Both charges are misdemeanors.
She has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Thursday before Colvin in Marshall County.
Whitley County Prosecutor Daniel Sigler was assigned the case because of a conflict of interest Cates has with the Kosciusko County court system.
According to police, Cates’ vehicle crossed the fog line several times during a five-mile stretch while she was driving on SR 13 south of Syracuse on March 9.
Court paperwork said she failed three sobriety tests and was unable to perform a breathalyzer test at the traffic stop. She was then taken to a hospital for a blood draw.
Her blood alcohol level was 0.20 — 2.5 times the legal limit in Indiana.
She was not taken to the jail or booked afterward. Instead, a Kosciusko County officer drove her home.
