(a) No person whose driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, or nonresident’s operating privilege has been suspended shall operate any motor vehicle upon a public road or highway or any public or private property after the suspension has expired unless the person has complied with all license reinstatement requirements imposed by the court, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or another provision of the Ohio Revised Code.
(b) Upon the request or motion of the prosecuting authority, a noncertified copy of the law enforcement automated data system report or a noncertified copy of a record of the registrar of motor vehicles that shows the name, date of birth, and social security number of a person charged with a violation of division (a) of this section may be admitted into evidence as prima facie evidence that the license of the person had not been reinstated by the person at the time of the alleged violation of division (a) of this section. The person charged with a violation of division (a) of this section may offer evidence to rebut this prima facie evidence.
(c) Whoever violates this section is guilty of failure to reinstate a license, and shall be punished as follows:
(1) Except as provided in division (c)(2) of this section, whoever violates this section is guilty of an unclassified misdemeanor. When the offense is an unclassified misdemeanor, the offender shall be sentenced pursuant to § 698.02, § 698.03 or 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 § 698.02(d) or R.C. § 2929.26; notwithstanding § 698.02(f)(1)B.1. and R.C. § 2929.28(A)(2)(a), the offender may be fined up to $1,000; and, notwithstanding § 698.02(e)(1)C. and R.C. § 2929.27(A)(3), the offender may be ordered pursuant to § 698.02(e)(3) or R.C. § 2929.27(C) to serve a term of community service of up to 500 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 R.C. § 2705.02(A) that may be filed in the underlying case.
(2) If, within three years of a violation of division (a) of this section, the offender previously has pleaded guilty to or been convicted of two or more violations of this section, R.C. § 4510.21 or a substantially equivalent municipal ordinance, the offender is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.
(3) In all cases, the court may impose upon the offender a class seven suspension of the offender’s driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, probationary driver’s license, or nonresident operating privilege from the range specified in R.C. § 4510.02(A)(7).
(ORC 4510.21)
(d) It is an affirmative defense to any prosecution brought under this section that the alleged offender drove under suspension, without a valid permit or driver’s or commercial driver’s license, or in violation of a restriction because of a substantial emergency, and because no other person was reasonably available to drive in response to the emergency.
(ORC 4510.04)