Home Notice Box Top Stories ‘Total team effort’ results in 120 arrest warrants being cleared

‘Total team effort’ results in 120 arrest warrants being cleared

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XENIA — The Greene County Prosecutor’s Office, Greene County police departments, and the United States Marshals Service have cleared 120 active felony arrest warrants during the last two years.

The arrest warrants were issued by the Greene County Common Pleas Court in cases involving many different types of charges including aggravated burglary, robbery, rape, abduction, and aggravated trafficking in drugs. The warrants were entered into a national database and assigned a pick-up radius. Prosecutor’s Investigator Fred Meadows and Greene County detectives spent hundreds of hours tracking down these fugitives and bringing them back to Greene County, according to Prosecutor David D. Hayes.

“When I took office in January of 2021, one of my first priorities was to take a look at our outstanding warrants, locate these wanted individuals, and bring them to justice,” Hayes said. “To that end, I asked my assistant prosecutors to review the active warrants, prioritize them based upon the seriousness of the offenses, and provide that list to Investigator Meadows. Investigator Meadows worked with our Greene County law enforcement partners, in addition to the Marshals Service, to find these folks and have them brought back to answer for their crimes.”

These arrest warrants were issued in cases where the defendant was still awaiting trial and failed to appear or where the defendant had pleaded guilty and failed to show up for sentencing, Hayes said in a release. Under either circumstance, the defendants were impeding the speedy operation of the criminal justice system and, in many cases, denying justice to crime victims, Hayes said. Once brought back to Greene County, their case proceeds forward to a timely resolution.

“We have found these fugitives all across Ohio and the United States,” Hayes said. “Investigator Meadows has brought them back from Michigan, New Jersey, Washington state, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Colorado. Finding these fugitives comes at a financial cost. I want to reassure the taxpayers of Greene County that these costs have been paid for with seized funds and not taxpayer money. That being said, there is a considerable cost to our criminal justice system when we do not aggressively pursue those who are charged with breaking the law. As long as I am the Greene County prosecuting attorney, if you break the law in Greene County we will pursue you, we will find you, and we will bring you before the court. I know that all of our police departments and our Greene County Sheriff Scott Anger feel the same way.”

Meadows has worked for the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office since 2016. Prior to working for the prosecutor’s office, Meadows spent 25 years as a police officer with the Xenia Police Division.

“This was a total team effort,” Meadows said. “All of Greene County law enforcement worked together to get this done.”