(a) The operator of a motor vehicle shall display the operator’s driver’s license, or furnish satisfactory proof that the operator has a driver’s license, upon demand of any peace officer or of any person damaged or injured in any collision in which the licensee may be involved. When a demand is properly made and the operator has the operator’s driver’s license on or about the operator’s person, the operator shall not refuse to display the license. A person’s failure to furnish satisfactory evidence that the person is licensed under Ohio R.C. Chapter 4507 when the person does not have the person’s license on or about the person’s person shall be prima- facie evidence of the person’s not having obtained a driver’s license.
(b) (1) Except as provided in subsection (b)(2) hereof, whoever violates this section is guilty of an unclassified misdemeanor. When the offense is an unclassified misdemeanor, the offender shall be sentenced pursuant to Ohio R.C. 2929.21 to 2929.28, except that the offender shall not be sentenced to a jail term; the offender shall not be sentenced to a community residential sanction pursuant to Ohio R.C. 2929.26; notwithstanding division (A)(2)(a) of Ohio R.C. 2929.28, the offender may be fined up to one thousand dollars ($1,000); and, notwithstanding division (A)(3) of Ohio R.C. 2929.27, the offender may be ordered pursuant to division (C) of that section to serve a term of community service of up to five hundred hours. The failure of an offender to complete a term of community service imposed by the court may be punished as indirect criminal contempt under division (A) of Ohio R.C. 2705.02 that may be filed in the underlying case.
(2) If, within three years of the offense, the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to two or more violations of Ohio R.C. 4507.35 or a substantially equivalent municipal ordinance, the offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree.
(ORC 4507.35; Ord. 3540. Passed 11-16-11.)