Drug sweep nets 18

By Jane Beathard

Staff Writer

Deputy Kelly Sparks escorts Jessie M. Leming into the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Leming was arrested Friday morning on one count of drug trafficking.

Months of investigation by local law enforcement officials ended Friday morning in a round-up of suspected drug dealers in the county.

Beginning at 7 a.m., six teams of Madison County Sheriff’s deputies and London police officers fanned out across the area in search of 27 people indicted by the grand jury on Sept. 12 on felony drug charges. By 11:30 a.m., 18 were either arrested or issued summonses to appear in common pleas court on Sept. 21. A handful were already behind bars on unrelated charges. Others were tracked down by authorities in Union and Franklin counties.

Those arrested on drug trafficking charges were:

• Precious M. Klegman, 20, charged with 11 counts.

• Danelle M. McHenry, 27, charged with six counts.

• Joshua M. Douglas, 37, charged with one count. Douglas was arrested in Franklin County.

• Jessie M. Leming, 20, charged with one count.

• Richard L. Boltz, 21, charged with three counts.

• Richard Dale George, Jr., 36, charged with two counts. George, Jr. is also under indictment in Champaign County in connection with an Aug. 6 break-in at the Village Pharmacy in Mechanicsburg. He was arrested Friday morning in Union County.

Deputies also served arrest warrants on four suspects currently serving time in Tri-County Regional Jail and one who is jailed in Franklin County on unrelated charges. That number included:

• Tevin Jackson, 19, charged with two trafficking counts , one count of drug possession and one count of receiving stolen property.

• Cortney J. Freeman, 19, charged with three trafficking counts.

• Eric R. Miller, 36, charged with five trafficking counts.

• Weston L. Moore, 27, charged with four trafficking counts.

• Cinda Lou Storm, 49, charged with three trafficking counts. Storm is the Franklin County inmate.

Robert F. Cox, III, 44, currently serving time in Madison Correctional Institution on an unrelated drug conviction, also received a warrant. Cox is charged with one count of trafficking marijuana.

Summonses went to:

• Cassandra Lynn Matheny, 19, charged with one trafficking count.

• Bridget B. Adams, 41, charged with one trafficking count.

• Darren E. Cain, Jr., 26, charged with three trafficking counts.

• Joshua A. Davis, 30, charged with one trafficking count and one count of permitting drug abuse.

• Jamie L. Rice, 26, charged with one trafficking count.

• Tereasa A. Petit, 51, charged with three trafficking counts.

Friday’s round-up was part of an ongoing effort by all local authorities to squelch illicit drug activity in the county, according to Sheriff Jim Sabin.

“This kind of activity knows no jurisdictional boundaries,” “Sabin noted.

Drugs involved included heroin, marijuana, crack and powdered cocaine and a pharmacy of prescription opiates such as morphine, Oxycodone and Suboxone. Much of it came from Clark County, Sabin said.

Deputies and officers focused special attention on several homes in Green Meadows Mobile Home Park on state Route 29 in Deercreek Township, as well as apartments above 64 S. Main St. in London. All were targeted as suspected drug dens.

However, officers came away from Green Meadows empty handed as those on the “wanted” list had either moved or were evicted. That came as no surprise to Sabin.

“These individuals frequently move around,” he noted.

Sabin expected additional arrests throughout the weekend. He said the names of suspects who remained at large Friday evening would be entered into the nationwide Law Enforcement Automated Data System (L.E.A.D.S.).