Man charged with arson, two other felonies
VAN BUREN TWP. — Wesley Shadley, a 27-year-old from Shelbyville, faces three felonies, including arson, after an incident last month.
Around 3 p.m. on Dec. 12, Sgt. Colton Magner with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office was patrolling Hamilton Creek and Bob Allen roads when dispatch alerted of smoke in the area of Poplar Grove and Hamilton Creek roads, near the Civil Service Conservation Club.
Magner responded to the scene and walked on foot into the conservation club property and observed a building that was mostly burned. Local fire departments arrived and extinguished the fire and Magner left the scene.
Later that day he was dispatched back to the scene by the fire department due to signs of foul play on the property.
At the property, Magner was shown a mount for two floodlight security cameras on the building, with the cameras broken off the mounts of each.
According to the probable cause affidavit, both cameras showed that they had been removed by force, with wires pulled out of them.
There was a broken chain link at a barn near the building that burned that appeared to be freshly cut, Magner said in the affidavit.
Inside, a second set of doors had a broken padlock on the ground that Magner observed to also be freshly cut. Outside of the barn, Magner located a utility knife and ratchet strap on the ground. A fiber internet cable coming into one of the buildings on the property appeared to be ripped out of the service box, according to the affidavit.
Magner obtained surveillance footage from cameras on the property and found a male, later identified as Shadley, carrying a black bag with bolt cutters showing out of the top.
According to the affidavit, Shadley is seen on the property trying to make entry into the two clubhouse buildings, ultimately making entry into the storage barn.
Shadley is also shown breaking the camera off of one of the clubhouses and carrying two leaf blowers from the scene. No leaf blowers were found at the scene, Magner reported.
Someone at the conservation club reportedly told Magner that Shadley matched the description and is the son of the property owner.
According to the affidavit, Magner found Shadley through online investigations and he matched the individual in the video footage.
Magner found on additional surveillance footage that Shadley’s vehicle traveled from Brown County into Bartholomew County less than two hours after the video footage at the crime scene.
Leaf blowers were found at the residence where Shadley was staying, as well as a ski mask he wore in video footage.
Shadley was interviewed and reportedly admitted to the acts on the scene. He was arrested and jailed in Shelby County on unrelated offenses.
Shadley was formally charged in the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 22 with a Level 4 felony for arson, a Level 5 felony for burglary and a Level 6 felony for theft.
Man faces multiple felonies, misdemeanors
JACKSON TWP. — A Bloomington man, 54-year-old John Mitchell, was charged with multiple charges, including a felony-level battery charge, after an incident last month.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Brown County Dispatch advised of a possible intoxicated driver on Owl Creek Road on Dec. 12.
Brown County Sheriff’s Deputies Austin Schonfeld and Derek Frensemeier and Nashville Police Officer Dylan Smock responded.
When en route, dispatch advised that the vehicle driven by the possibly intoxicated driver had followed the caller into their driveway.
The caller had approached the vehicle to check on the driver, and they reportedly almost ran her over. It also appeared that the vehicle had been involved in an accident. At one point, the caller’s husband took the keys from the male driver which resulted in a fight.
According to the report, Smock was the first to arrive on scene and advised the others that he had one person detained. He then asked dispatch to contact IU LifeLine EMS for check of a bite. The male driver had bit the husband. Frensemeier and Schonfeld arrived shortly after.
Upon arrival, Schonfeld observed Smock standing by a handcuffed male by his patrol vehicle. The male appeared to have injuries to his face and a towel wrapped around his arm.
Smock also observed a car parked in an odd position, compared to the other vehicles at the property. It was backed against another vehicle parked in the driveway, had significant damage to the passenger side and the front passenger fender was missing.
Smock approached the detained man, who unwrapped the towel from his arm, which revealed several bite marks. At that time, the male began to tell Smock his side of the story.
According to the report, the man said that his wife was returning home when she observed a car stopped in the eastbound lane, facing the wrong direction. She pulled into their driveway and the car followed her, parking in their yard.
She exited her vehicle and approached the other vehicle on foot to check on the well-being of the driver, who then accelerated into their driveway, almost hitting her in the process.
The female then called her husband, who came outside and confronted the male driver, later identified as Mitchell, and believed him to be intoxicated. He took the driver’s keys and threw them into their yard.
EMS arrived at that time and Schonfeld escorted the male to the ambulance. Inside, he photographed the man’s injuries, which were bloody and starting to bruise, according to the report.
The man’s face was also swelling up. His right hand also had an open wound, but Schonfeld was unsure if it was a bite mark or if it had been injured during the fight some other way. EMS transported the male to the hospital.
Schonfeld then spoke to the woman at the scene, who had called in the situation. According to the report, she told the same story as her husband, and added that when she approached the vehicle to check on the driver, he “gunned it,” nearly hitting her, then continued up the driveway and hit a landscaping rock that separated the driveway from the yard. He then backed into one of their vehicles and came to a stop.
The driver exited his vehicle and the female approached him once more, and she said he appeared to be drunk. She said she told him to get a hotel room and that she would take him to one, which he refused.
She said she then asked him where he was from, and he told her Illinois. He was allegedly attempting to leave at that point, so she called her husband and then 911.
Her husband came outside and took his keys away from him, which led to a physical altercation between the two.
Schonfeld then spoke to Smock about the male driver. Smock said he did not identify himself, but they located his wallet and phone and identified him as Mitchell.
Smock then said that when he arrived on scene, the men were fighting on the ground, and as he approached them, he observed Mitchell biting the other man’s forearm.
Schonfeld spoke with Mitchell, who was allegedly argumentative and did not want to answer questions.
Mitchell refused a field sobriety test. According to the report, Schonfeld observed Mitchell as having to lean against the patrol vehicle and having slurred speech, an argumentative attitude and an inability to formulate sentences. Due to these signs, Schonfeld contacted Prosecutor Ted Adams for a search warrant for a blood-draw, then typed the warrant and sent it back to Adams and to Judge Mary Wertz for approval.
Mitchell was transported to Columbus Regional Hospital for the blood-draw and jail clearance. A wrecker arrived to tow his vehicle. During the initial search of Mitchell’s vehicle, officers identified a Big Woods Pizza box in the vehicle, so Schonfeld and Smock relocated there to collect more information.
While there, the officers spoke with the manager and other employees. According to the report, employees recalled Mitchell being in the restaurant and advised he had three beers. They produced the receipt of his order for the officers, then told them what time he left and that they did not know where he went after leaving.
After the blood-draw and jail clearance, Mitchell was transported to the Brown County Jail the jail staff advised Schonfeld that Mitchell was refusing to comply with the book-in procedure.
The affidavit was filed on Dec. 13. Mitchell was charged with the following:
Battery Resulting in moderate bodily injury, a Level 6 felony;
Intimidation, a Level 6 felony;
Operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor;
Disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor;
Operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor.
County man faces trespassing charge
HAMBLEN TWP. — A Nineveh man, 50-year-old Larry Lambert II, was charged with criminal trespass, a Class A Misdemeanor, after an event last month.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Brown County Dispatch received a call for criminal trespass for Lambert on Dec. 17. Upon arrival, Lambert was at the entrance of the driveway and stated he was just trying to use the phone at the residence.
When the officers exited the patrol vehicle, Lambert reportedly walked up to them and said, “go ahead and take me.”
Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Frensemeier escorted Lambert to the patrol vehicle, placed him in handcuffs and searched him. According to the affidavit, Lambert was trespassed from the same address in October 2022.
The homeowner who placed the call stated Lambert was looking through vehicle windows and tried to hide in the woods. The homeowner’s son advised that Lambert was in the driveway, looking in vehicles with a flashlight.
The homeowner’s son then stated he confronted Lambert when he tired to leave, ten held him until law enforcement arrived. The homeowner then stated that Lambert had trespassed previously, but he did not call it in at that time. He also said that Lambert lived across the road and has access to cell phones.
Lambert was transported to the Brown County Jail and booked in without incident. The probable cause affidavit was filed on Dec. 22.
Two cars sideswipe on Greasy Creek, one towed
On Dec. 13, Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Kyle Minor responded to a crash at the intersection of Shiloh Morning Drive and Greasy Creek Road.
According to the accident report, 25-year-old Jered Claburn was traveling south on Greasy Creek Road, going approximately 50 miles per hour.
He told police that as he was coming down a hill, he saw three cars heading towards him in the opposite lane. He attempted to slow down and move over to the outside of his lane because the road was narrow.
In the report, Claburn said he went into the ditch when he tried to get over. As he tried to correct his steering, his rear end struck one of the cars in the other lane.
The driver of the other car, 41-year-old Ronnie Burgess of Morgantown, said he saw Claburn’s vehicle cross the center line and attempted to get over to avoid a head-on collision.
Burgess then stated the rear end of Claburn’s vehicle struck his.
Claburn was uninjured and was able to drive his vehicle from the scene.
Burgess complained of neck pain and his vehicle has to be towed to his residence because of significant damage it sustained down the driver’s side. According to the report, the driver-side window had been shattered.
The report includes that multiple tire marks matched the Claburn’s description of events.
Vehicle overturns in southern part of county
VAN BUREN TWP. — A Brown County woman, 45-year-old Rowena Teague, was transported to the hospital following a crash in December.
Brown County Sgt. Colton Magner responded to the 6600 block of Christiansburg Road around 4 p.m. on Dec. 22 for an overturned vehicle.
Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Frensemeier also responded and spoke with the driver, Teague, at the scene. She said she could not move her left arm and had blood on her right hand.
The vehicle was overturned and partially in the road.
Teague told officers she hit her head and as she was being assessed by the fire department, she began to go in and out of consciousness.
IU Health LifeLine arrived on scene and transported Teague to the hospital.
Magner reported that it appeared the vehicle went off the road then overturned and hit a tree. The vehicle was towed from the scene.
Two vehicles crash on Lick Creek Road
JACKSON TWP. — Two vehicles involved in a crash on Dec. 26 were towed at the scene on Lick Creek Road.
Around 2 p.m. on Dec. 26 Brown County Sgt. Colton Magner responded to a two-vehicle crash after being alerted by dispatch.
At the scene on Lick Creek Road, Magner made contact with both drivers, who said they were approaching each other and could not stop due to the snow and slush conditions on the road.
According to the report, neither driver could specify which one of them crossed the center line but said it was probable they were both favoring the center of the road.
One vehicle, a Chevy Impala, had rotated clockwise and pushed into a ditch.
Drivers nor passengers required medical transport and were treated at the scene.
