Wanted in America
No one knows how many felons are named in unserved felony warrants but a Dayton Daily News survey last week found more than 1 million warrants in databases maintained by federal and state authorities and area sheriff’s offices. The highest priority warrants are entered in the federal NCIC and Ohio LEADS systems. County and local authorities are responsible for entering their felony cases in LEADS.
1,045,738 NCIC (as of Aug. 29)
35,181 LEADS (as of Sept. 5)
Area County Sheriff’s Offices:
10,309 Montgomery
306 Warren
861 Butler
After six years on the loose, James Scott Jr. was arrested during a random traffic stop – the way many of those wanted on felony warrants are picked up, if they are apprehended at all.
“There’s just too many,” said Pat Sedoti, U.S. Marshal in charge of three Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Teams. “You have to pick the ones you want to go after.”
No one knows exactly how many wanted felons are on the loose, and no one is actively pursuing many of them.
Last week, authorities said more than 1 million warrants were listed in the National Crime Information Center database. There are 35,181 in Ohio’s counterpart, the Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The most serious of Ohio’s warrants are to be included in the federal database but it’s unclear exactly how many are in both systems.
During the past two months, the Middletown Journal/Hamilton JournalNews gathered data and talked with experts and authorities at the local, state and national level about the issues and problems that keep them from bringing more fugitives to justice.
The numbers outstanding in area sheriff’s offices ranged from 861 in Butler County to 306 in Warren County.
High-profile cases, such as murders, lead to intensive law enforcement searches. So can a good tip.
But there are hundreds of thousands of people wanted on warrants who couldn’t be found after charges were filed, who skipped bond while awaiting trial or who have violated the conditions of probation or parole. Many are accused or convicted of serious crimes like sexual assault, drug trafficking or felonious assault — even murder.
Scott, 46, was wanted for trafficking in crack cocaine for six years. He was featured on the America’s Most Wanted TV show and identified as a SOFAST target. Still he remained at large until March 24, when he was pulled over by a police officer. He struggled with the officer, then gave in after the officer used a Taser on him.
While considered the best approach being used today, even SOFAST fails to bring in every case.
Five years ago, two investigators with the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office joined SOFAST to catch Scott and Enrique Torres, a Mexican man on the loose for six years after being named in warrants accusing him of stabbing Kevin Barnhill, 27, of Maineville, to death in Mason.
Scott walked out of the courthouse in Lebanon as the jury in his drug trafficking trial went to lunch before beginning deliberations. He hid for six months in the basement of a Middletown church before disappearing again until the Dayton traffic stop.
Torres vanished after being released from jail while the investigation continued.
Barnhill’s parents continue to urge authorities to pursue Torres, who was in the country illegally according to the Warren County prosecutor’s office, is believed to have returned to Mexico. The Barnhills have established a charity in their son’s name, while urging lawmakers to consider immigration reforms.
“We feel our government has let us down. We’re taxpaying citizens. We deserve to be protected,” Bill Barnhill said.
Law enforcement officials looking for felons on the loose say they are hindered by inconsistencies in how felony warrants are tracked, budgetary limitations, competing priorities and sometimes a lack of jail space. Suspects may be continuing to engage in illegal behavior and can pose dangers to the officers who happen upon them.
Last month, Sedoti said his SOFAST task forces were working 381 cases.
Felony warrants are issued when a person is charged with a crime, when a person who is awaiting trial doesn’t show for a hearing, or when a convicted felon violates terms of probation or parole.
In Ohio, operators of the LEADS system were unable to say how many wanted individuals were reflected by about 35,181 warrants currently listed in their system, according to Lt. Anne Ralston of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Other than SOFAST, some Ohio sheriff’s offices and police departments assign officers to special details to bring in wanted felons and pursue suspects in key cases.
“Otherwise you just hope they get pulled over, really,” Sedoti said.
AN INCOMPLETE LOCAL PICTURE
In Ohio, there is no state agency tracking county felony arrest warrant data. A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said it would require a legislative act to require statewide reporting. None of the counties surveyed by the newspaper had them immediately available.
In Butler County, five full-time officers serve warrants issued from courts throughout the county. Sheriff’s office Sgt. Rick Bucheit noted that it isn’t always easy to find people who don’t want to be found.
“The successful service of a warrant is based on the deputy’s ability to mine credible information from individuals with knowledge of the suspect’s patterns and whereabouts,” Bucheit said in an email.
HIT AND MISS
There are successes finding fugitives. For nearly 12 years, Mark Adkins searched for Chi Q. Du, who was accused of trying to kill his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend on the Wright State University campus in 1997.
Du, who slashed his ex-girlfriend’s throat during the ambush attack, had spent years hiding in Canada under a fake name. He was found in Toronto after the case was broadcast on the TV show America’s Most Wanted in 2008.
Returned to Ohio, Du pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder of his ex-girlfriend and was convicted by a jury of the same crime against the boyfriend. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Adkins, a deputy with the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office assigned to SOFAST, said he’s apprehended three of the four cases he helped get shown on the America’s Most Wanted and taken hundreds of others into custody. But success varies by case, he said.
“You never know,” said Adkins on finding wanted felons. “Some days you get one, some days they’re falling out of the trees.
“I’ve picked up murderers, rapists, child molesters, burglars, drug dealers, all types of people. I’ve driven everywhere in this country.”
In Miami County, Chief Deputy Dave Duchak said there are twice as many active felony warrants (245) than jail spaces (111) available and the jail downtown always has more than 100 inmates: “We are not actively going out on warrant roundups for non-violent, low-level crimes.”
A 240-bed facility north of Troy was closed in 2009 because of budgetary reasons. Duchak said Sheriff Charles Cox is working with county commissioners to open 120 of those beds, at a cost estimated at more than $1.6 million.
“We’ve had this conversation our whole careers,” said Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims. “We’ve always known there’s a stockpile of warrants on wanted people.
Most officers want to reduce the chronic backlog, but staff and funding limits cause sheriff’s offices to concentrate on patrol, jail and other operations dealing with spontaneous issues inundating the criminal justice system.
Fines and costs collected go to the court system and county general funds, not the sheriff’s office budget. “That revenue stream doesn’t offset the expense of going to get these people,” Sims said.
The problem remains despite several attempts to address it.
In the 1990s, the Massachusetts legislature studied the problem. California, New York City and Boston have mounted initiatives to bring in more of the worst criminals on their streets. Several studies commissioned by the National Institutes of Justice, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, have reviewed aspects of the problem.
Federal officials were unaware of research or initiatives aimed at developing methods or overcoming problems preventing authorities from catching more of those sought on outstanding felony warrants.
“They all say the same thing. It’s chaos. They’re overwhelmed,” Kennedy said. “It undercuts the power and the standing of the criminal justice system.”
Staff writer Doug Page contributed to this report.
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