LISBON — A Columbiana man accused of being impaired during a crash which seriously injured a woman in 2023 lost his attempt to have blood toxicology evidence thrown out.

Christopher Mele, 64, Lucretia Lane, filed a motion to suppress through his attorney regarding the blood sample taken from him after the accident.

He claimed the blood sample wasn’t drawn in compliance with the Ohio Administrative Code, arguing the blood sample wasn’t refrigerated from the time it was collected to being placed in the mail and sent to the lab.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Judge Megan Bickerton denied the motion to suppress, agreeing with the state’s argument that the blood sample was in transit from the time it was collected on Aug. 12, 2023 until it arrived at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Crime Lab on Aug. 16.

In her ruling, the judge noted that a criminalist testified during the suppression hearing that there was nothing to indicate the test results were unreliable.

There’s a status hearing set for April 4 in the case.

Mele was charged with third-degree felony aggravated vehicular assault, fourth-degree felony vehicular assault and two counts of misdemeanor operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them.

The indictment alleged that Mele on Aug. 12, 2023, while operating a 2022 Buick Envision, caused serious physical harm to Samantha Harris as a proximate result of committing an OVI. According to Common Pleas Court records, Harris was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Matthew Murphy when Mele’s eastbound vehicle on state Route 14 allegedly crossed the center lane and struck Murphy’s westbound vehicle.

Harris and Murphy filed a personal injury lawsuit against Mele in September 2023 over the crash. The civil case remains pending, with a status hearing set for Aug. 15 and a jury trial set for Sept. 16.