BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDEPENDENCE -- The man used to call the Kenton County child support office and taunt: You'll never catch me.
Thomas Dwyer was wrong.
He did get caught and now faces jail time for not paying $80,000 to his children. He's one of the more recent arrests made by the Kenton County Police Department.
The department recently hit the 200 mark in arrests of people on its weekly Top 10 list of most wanted scofflaws.
Officers Brian Kane and Mark Richardson are the fugitive finders, a team created 18 months ago after a series of Enquirer stories showed the list of unserved arrest warrants in Kenton County had mounted to more than 9,000.
"They're doing a great job for us," said Capt. Ed Butler, department spokesman.
More Kenton County statistics, accurate as of Aug. 1:
Total warrants served: 1,290.
Felonies: 426; misdemeanors, 864.
People arrested: 896. (Some were served with multiple warrants).
Mr. 200 was Lawrence Behanan, featured in the Top 10 for nine weeks this spring and summer. Wanted for trafficking in drugs, he was arrested July 30 in Cincinnati with the help of Ohio officers. "We worked on this guy for a while," Officer Richardson said. Other recent notable arrests included that of Ronald Patton Jr., wanted for the rape of a 12-year-old. Tips from Most Wanted readers led officers to Indiana, where he was found. With help from the Indiana State Police, Mr. Patton was arrested without incident. The arrest of Mr. Dwyer in April was particularly sweet for the team because of the allegations that he repeatedly called the child-support office and bragged that he'd never be caught.
"Brian hunted him for something like five months," Officer Richardson said. "And now he's back in court."
Because of the team's success and support from the fiscal court for continuing to findfugitives, the department has no plans to stop.
That means two teams of Kenton County officers will be searching for scofflaws if Sheriff Gary Lay gets his planned team off the ground. "I don't see us backing out of the business any time in the near future," Capt. Butler said.
"There's plenty to go around anyway."
