BLANCHESTER — Blanchester’s police chief says he is trying to get more information on an incident in the village involving an out-of-county law enforcement agency seeking a suspect, during which BPD was requested to assist.
At around 3:45 a.m. Sunday deputies from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office informed the Blanchester Police Department “that they would be attempting to apprehend a fugitive at a Blanchester address, but that they did not BPD’s assistance,” stated BPD Chief Scott Reinbolt in a press release. “About 15 minutes later three Clermont County Sheriff’s deputies called the Blanchester Police Department requesting assistance after the wanted man barricaded himself inside an apartment at the complex at 815 E. Cherry St.”
He said Ptl. Justin Peel responded to their request for assistance.
Reinbolt said the Clermont County deputies told Ptl. Peel that they held a felony arrest warrant for a Russell Bonham — who had allegedly been involved in a shooting in Clermont County a week earlier — and the deputies learned that Bonham was a guest at an apartment at 815 E. Cherry St.
“In order to lure Bonham from the apartment, the deputies set up a drug buy from Bonham, which was to take place at the apartment. Unfortunately, this intricate plan was not shared with anyone from the Blanchester Police Department prior to its execution,” said Reinbolt.
The deputies knocked on the apartment door in order to make the drug buy, but Bonham thwarted their plan by sending a female friend to the door with the drugs, said Reinbolt, and the woman, seeing the uniformed deputies, immediately discarded a large quantity of drugs in some bushes in front of the apartment and Bonham apparently locked the apartment door and refused to come out.
At that point the Clermont County deputies called the Blanchester Police for assistance, said Reinbolt.
He said Ptl. Peel found a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine in the bushes at the front of the apartment. While Ptl. Peel was at the rear of the building, the Clermont County deputies reported that they had apprehended Bonham.
Reinbolt continued, “No one from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office has contacted me to provide further information on this matter, or to explain their legal authority to set up an illegal drug buy outside of Clermont County.”
