By Halea Franklin

After an exhaustive fight with law enforcement, a 30-year-old Lawrence County man is behind bars on preliminary charges of attempt to disarm law enforcement, possession of a schedule 1 controlled substance, possession of a syringe, resisting law enforcement, and battery on a public safety official.

On Friday morning Major George Dallaire and Deputy Harvey Holt of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department were investigating a truck and trailer parked in the roadway on County Road 315 N near J&M Recycling. The officers recognized this vehicle as reported stolen from Lawrence County on March 31.

The driver of the vehicle, Paul Aiden Jones, a suspect in more than 25 other vehicle thefts in other counties, was found sleeping in the vehicle. Jones resisted arrest by Dallaire and Holt and was taken into custody after an exhaustive fight with the aid of other officers from Worthington Police Department, Jasonville Police Department, and Bloomfield Police Department. Greene County Ambulance Department also assisted at the scene.

Jones was transported to Jennings County for incarceration after he was medically cleared at Greene County General Hospital.

Deputy Holt was treated for minor injuries and released from Greene County General Hospital.

“I’m really proud of the guys. They’ve been putting in a lot of time and energy in these cases,” Dallaire said. “We have an awesome crew and they have been getting enough on this guy to find out who he was and where he was and they’ve worked with multiple jurisdictions.”

Dallaire continued, “We’ve been working multiple cases where we have developed this guy as a suspect. Now we should be able to link him to other cases.”

According to a press release from the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, additional criminal charges are likely. Detective David Elmore of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department will be the investigating officer on the case.