At trial, appellant gave defense counsel a note indicating that from his jail window he had observed that a juror was given a ride by someone who he believed to be court personnel. Defense counsel brought the note to the trial court's attention. Thereafter, the following discussion occurred between the prosecutors, appellant, counsel for appellant, and the court:
"THE COURT Judge Robert P. Ruehlman: Yeah. That was juror No. —It was Janet Miller, Juror No. 7.
"Last night, it was about—oh, what time was it? I think it was after 6 o'clock. I think it was after 6.
"THE DEFENDANT: It was before 6. I was looking out the window. I got back up to the pod unit—it was like 5, 5:30, and went straight to the window, because I was writing a letter to my girlfriend, and looked out the window and happened to see her coming from this side of Court Street. And I seen her. She went to a bench to go catch her bus. She was sitting there for a minute. I was like: That's one of my jurors. You know what I'm saying? I had seen her Monday.
"THE COURT: Right. She missed her bus. She missed her bus.
"THE DEFENDANT: She walked to the bus stop. She backed up. And he parked. And he was talking to her. And she waved her hand off like: No, I want to catch my bus. My bus haven't came sic yet.
"She waved her hand up. The bus came. She walked to the bus and stood there and didn't get on. And she took a ride with the dude.
[2000 Ohio 103]
"THE COURT: What happened—she went back to the bus, and the bus driver said there's no more rides back out to where she lives.
"At that point she was downtown by herself, and there was bad storms coming up, with clouds, within ten minutes. It was really bad rainstorm, bad thunderstorm. And so I gave her a lift back to the Park and Ride. So it's as simple as that. We didn't talk about the case.
"MR. PIEPMEIER prosecution: You were the one that took the—
"THE COURT: Yeah, She was parked at the Park and Ride. There was no buses out there, going out there. So that's why she went back to the bus.
"And she said: My God, I missed the bus.
"I said—well, because I was wondering what she was doing sitting on the bench all by herself, because it's not a great part of town to live in, and there's a lot of crime down here and she's the only woman sitting all by herself on the bench.
"So the bus came. I told her to check. She checked. The bus driver said: No more buses going your way.
"So I said: Get in, and we won't talk about the case.
"And I gave her a lift out.
"MR. PIEPMEIER: Okay.
"THE COURT: If you want me to take her off, I can always take her off the jury. She's a fairly reasonable juror. I think she's actually kind of—kind of one of those noncommittal jurors as far as the death penalty. If I were a defense attorney, I'd want her on the jury, you know, but it's up to you.
"MR. PANDILIDIS defense counsel: If we may have just like a minute or so to consult with our client at the table, and then we'll let you know.
"THE COURT: Sure. We didn't talk about the case at all. But my staff transports these people around. You know, they transport them to the scene and everything else. And they all work for me. So it's—whether I take her or somebody from the staff takes her, there was nobody from my staff around, and she was stuck down there.
"* * *
"THE COURT: You want to question the juror?
"MR. PANDILIDIS: No. I don't want to make a big deal—
"THE COURT: You have the right to question the juror, if you want to ask what we talked about.
"MR. PANDILIDIS: You gave me the opportunity to consult with my client after we brought this to your attention a few minutes ago.
[2000 Ohio 104]
"THE COURT: Okay.
"MR. PANDILIDIS: The client indicates to me he wants her off the jury. That is what I'm conveying to the Court now, to have her removed and replace her with the first alternate.
"MR. DETERS prosecution: Judge, you have access to these jurors all the time.
"THE COURT: Oh, sure. We tell them where to go. We talk to them.
"MR. LONGANO prosecution: The bailiff is with them 24 hours a day when we sequester them.
"MR. DETERS: If the trial judge in any case cannot be believed when he said he didn't talk to a juror—
"THE COURT: I've given him an opportunity to talk to this juror with his client present. He can talk to this juror and ask her. And he doesn't want to talk to her. So I'm going to overrule the motion.
"MR. PANDILIDIS: If you want—okay. I will question her, but I—
"* * *
"THE COURT: Let's bring her in.
"* * *
"MR. BREYER prosecution: I think the bottom line here is that the Court is a neutral party here. Since the Court is not one of the parties, he's not an adversary here. It's the Court's function to look out for the jury and to supervise the jury and for the Court.
"THE COURT: Exactly.
"MR. BREYER:—In the face of a juror who is in that strange part of town who needs a ride—
"THE COURT: I think it's important to establish we didn't talk about anything."
Thereafter, the following discussion took place in the judge's chambers: "MR. DETERS: Ma'am, why don't you sit right there?
"* * *
"THE COURT: * * *
"Last night she was waiting for a bus and I saw her. I don't know what time it was. 5:30, quarter to 6. It was getting late. It's not a nice part of town. And I stopped and asked her what was going on.
[2000 Ohio 105]
"And about that time another bus came up, and she talked to the bus driver, and evidently found out there was no more buses going out to the place where she had to park and ride. She parks her car and then takes a bus.
"So a thunderstorm was coming, and it was actually a very bad thunderstorm. There were tornado storm warnings and everything out. This—there was actually a funnel cloud.
"So I—actually, what I did, I put her in my car and I gave her a ride to the Park and Ride. And the first thing I said to her was: `We can't talk about the case or anything.'
"Did we talk about the case?
"JUROR NO. 7: No.
"THE COURT: Say anything about the case?
"JUROR NO. 7: No, not at all.
"THE COURT: Okay. Good.
"I'm saying as an officer of the Court I didn't talk about the case. She's indicating that too.
"Did you want to ask anything?
"MR. PANDILIDIS: Mr. Dixon will inquire. Just a few questions, your Honor.
"MR. DIXON defense counsel: Ms. Miller, what time was this? Do you recall?
"JUROR NO. 7: It was around like 20 till 6 or something like that.
"MR. DIXON: Is that immediately after we got out of court last night?
"JUROR NO. 7: It was a little after that. I mean—well, when I—
"THE COURT: It was a lot after that.
"JUROR NO. 7: Yeah, because I was trying to get the bus.
"MR. DIXON: Was anybody else in the car?
"JUROR NO. 7: Excuse me?
"MR. DIXON: It was just you and the Judge?
"JUROR NO. 7: Yes.
"MR. DIXON: How long of a ride was it?
"JUROR NO. 7: Well, from here to Loveland. I'm guessing—what?
"THE COURT: Twenty-five minutes.
"JUROR NO. 7: I was going to say twenty minutes.
[2000 Ohio 106]
"THE COURT: Nothing was said about anything dealing with this particular case?
"JUROR NO. 7: No. As a matter of fact, I didn't say anything to anybody about anything.
"MR. DIXON: I have nothing further.
"JUROR NO. 7: Family or no one.
"THE COURT: All right.
"MR. PIEPMEIER: We have no questions.
"THE COURT: You guys all know—you can check with the weather service. They had a tornado warning out last night.
"MR. DETERS: I don't think a common act of courtesy is any problem at all.
"THE COURT: I don't either, as long as we're not talking about the case. I'm not going to let her stay in a bad part of town, especially with a thunderstorm.
"MR. PANDILIDIS: I would just ask Mrs. Miller not discuss it with the other jurors.
"JUROR NO. 7: I didn't say anything. I absolutely said nothing to no one, no family, nothing."
In propositions of law one through four, appellant raises various arguments predicated on the fact that Judge Ruehlman gave juror Miller a ride to her car after realizing that she had missed her bus. Appellant contends that the contact between Judge Ruehlman and Miller was "presumptively prejudicial," that the state failed to demonstrate that the contact was not prejudicial, that the judge should not have presided over the in-chambers...
