MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – Police body-camera video released in connection with the drunken-driving case against a Warren judge shows his arrest after officers say he rear-ended a SMART bus, and a breathalyzer test showed his blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit.
Judge John Chmura is charged under Michigan’s high blood-alcohol-content drunken-driving law, which applies when a driver’s blood-alcohol level is 0.17% or higher.
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The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 25, 2026, in the area of Van Dyke Avenue near Triangle Drive.
Video from four Sterling Heights police officers who responded to the crash shows Chmura telling an officer he was leaving an event.
Asked how much he had to drink, Chmura replied: “I don’t know. Evidently too much.”
Police said two bus passengers were treated for injuries at the scene and released.
In the footage, Chmura identifies himself as a judge with the 37th District Court.
The video shows Chmura struggling to perform sobriety tests and initially refusing to take a breathalyzer test.
After being arrested, he later agreed to take the test.
An officer tells Chmura that the test showed a 0.16% blood-alcohol reading, about twice Michigan’s legal limit of 0.08% for operating a vehicle.
Because Chmura oversees cases brought by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, a St. Clair County prosecutor has been assigned to the case.
Chmura is scheduled to appear in court again in August.
Defense attorney David Kramer, who is representing Chmura, declined to comment on specifics of the case. In a statement, Kramer said Chmura “is a very respected jurist with a fine reputation, and we’ll deal with this case as it comes.”