A Portage County grand jury indicted a Rootstown man who was arrested following a foot pursuit in Ravenna that involved a K-9 officer.
A grand jury indicted Cody Baldwin-Neiswanger, 31, with aggravated trafficking in drugs and aggravated possession of drugs, both second-degree felonies; fifth-degree felony obstructing official business; and first-degree misdemeanor resisting arrest. The trafficking charge includes a specification for the forfeiture of $612.
The indictment was filed July 10 in Portage County Court of Common Pleas.
Baldwin-Neiswanger was ordered on July 7 in Portage County Municipal Court in Ravenna to be held on $25,000 cash or surety bond
According to a Ravenna police report, an off-duty Ravenna police officer saw Baldwin-Neiswanger entering the Subway restaurant on East Main Street about 1 p.m. July 5. The officer recognized him from previous encounters and knew the Ohio Adult Parole Authority had issued a warrant for his arrest.
The officer contacted an on-duty K-9 officer on patrol, who responded to the area and saw Baldwin-Neiswanger standing at Main and Chestnut streets. The officer said that as he drove past, Baldwin-Neiswanger held a cell phone up to his face, as if trying to cover it, but the officer still saw tattoos under his eyes that he recognized from an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction photo he pulled up on his in-car computer.
Baldwin-Neiswanger continued walking west on Main Street and the officer stopped him between Park Way and Meridian Street. The officer said he warned Baldwin-Neiswanger that he had K-9 Drago with him. Shortly after, two other officers arrived.
During questioning, according to the report, Baldwin-Neiswanger repeatedly misidentified himself as a relative of his and gave incorrect and conflicting answers when asked for his age and Social Security number.
When the officers tried to detain Baldwin-Neiswanger, he ran south across Main Street. The officer used a remote door device to release Drago, giving him a command to apprehend Baldwin-Neiswanger.
Baldwin-Neiswanger was running south on South Park Way, with the dog right behind him, when he tripped and fell on the sidewalk near Ravenna City Hall. He tucked his arms under his body and the dog “muzzle punched him in the right shoulder blade area as he was looking for a way to apprehend,” according to the report.
Drago’s handler caught up and grabbed the dog’s collar and held him back with one arm while trying to gain control of Baldwin-Neiswanger’s left arm. Another officer joined in and and they both grappled with Baldwin-Neiswanger, who continued to resist by holding his arms under his body.
Baldwin-Neiswanger eventually was handcuffed as the third officer arrived with a cruiser to detain him. He continued to resist, the report said, and the officers had to restrain him by holding him against the cruiser as they searched him.
Three plastic bags containing suspected meth, weighing a total of 35.27 grams, and $612 in cash were found in his pants pockets, according to the report. The substance in the largest bag, weighing 29 grams, field tested positive as meth, the report says.
Baldwin-Neiswanger claimed that despite the amount, the drugs were for personal use and he was not trafficking. He also claimed Drago bit him, but an examination for injuries only uncovered abrasions consistent with scrapes across asphalt or concrete.
Baldwin-Neiswanger declined transport to a hospital and was booked into Portage County Jail later that afternoon, according to a jail booking report.
According to Portage County court records, Judge Becky Doherty sentenced Baldwin-Neiswanger to four years in prison in May 2021 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of fourth-degree felony unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and fifth-degree felony interference with custody, all involving a girl who was 14 at the time of the offenses.
Doherty also determined that Baldwin-Neiswanger is a Tier II sex offender, which requires him to register with the sheriff of any county he lives, works or goes to school in every six months for 25 years.
In a plea deal, additional charges in a grand jury indictment were dismissed, including five counts of rape and a single count of kidnapping, all first-degree felonies, and two additional counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The dismissed charges involved the same victim.
He was released this past May and placed on five years probation under the supervision of Adult Parole Authority, according to Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections records.
The police report and court records include the same address for Baldwin-Neiswanger on New Milford Road in Rootstown. However, online Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records say he resides in Summit County and the electronic sex offender registry shows an Akron address for him as of July 10.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna K-9 stops wanted man after off-duty cop spots him at Subway
Reporting by Jeff Saunders, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
