A judge who moves a drunken-driving trial from his courtroom to a local high school each year as a cautionary tale to students is now himself charged with the offense.

A judge who moves a drunken-driving trial from his courtroom to a local high school each year as a cautionary tale to students is now himself charged with the offense.

Perry County Judge Dean L. Wilson was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failing to stop after an accident. A Mercedes-Benz that Columbus police say he was driving hit a Central Ohio Transit Authority bus on Sunday night in the Arena District.

The charges are first-degree misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of six months in jail for each.

Wilson is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Franklin County Municipal Court on Wednesday.

During the past decade, Wilson has taught the dangers of drunken driving to hundreds of local high-school students by moving an actual trial from his courtroom to New Lexington High School.

The drunken-driving trials, moved off site with the permission of defendants, have become a tradition, scheduled each year in the spring to coincide with prom season.

Wilson, a 60-year-old Republican first elected to the Perry County Court in 1990, has spoken with pride about how viewing the trials has helped deter students from drinking and driving.

Wilson was driving a 2014 Mercedes about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday on W. Spring Street near John H. McConnell Boulevard, a police report says, when he changed lanes, hit a COTA bus and kept going in the $45,000 vehicle.

No one was injured. A Columbus Division of Police helicopter helped track the car as it traveled east along I-70, and a patrol car stopped it near Brice Road.

Wilson refused to take a breath test or field sobriety tests, the report says.

He was arrested and charged, and his driver�s license was automatically suspended for his refusal to take the breath test, his attorney, Jon Saia, said yesterday. He was released after posting bond of $164, court records show.

Wilson was not in the office yesterday, a court spokeswoman said, and he did not return a message left at his Roseville home seeking comment.

Saia said he hadn�t had a chance to sit down with Wilson to review the charges, so he was not prepared to say what pleas Wilson will enter.

The Mercedes was a loaner from Germain Mercedes-Benz of Easton while Wilson�s car was in for servicing, Saia said.

mlane@dispatch.com

@MaryBethLane1