Police: Local man tossed fentanyl near daycare kids while fleeing stop

Credit: SHELBY COUNTY JAIL

Credit: SHELBY COUNTY JAIL

A local man was arrested after allegedly throwing a baggie with 17 grams of an acrylfentanyl/fentanyl mixture on a daycare property near children while trying to flee Dayton police.

Anthony James Franklin Jr., 29, is being charged in Dayton’s U.S. District court after a Nov. 8 incident when he and the driver of a Volkswagen Passat fled a traffic stop near Rugby Road in Dayton, according to a criminal complaint.

The driver escaped but Franklin was apprehended more than eight blocks away on Hillcrest Avenue. The stop was part of a Dayton drug and crime “blitz,” the complaint said.

Franklin reportedly tossed $1,300 in cash, a bag, a digital scale with narcotic residue, eight cell phones, baggies and a bag of drugs that tested positive for fentanyl and acrylfentanyl, according to the complaint.

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“The suspected fentanyl was discarded by Franklin on a child daycare property where several small children were present,” the complaint said.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Sharon Ovington ruled this week that Franklin be detained before trial. Franklin’s public defender, Kevin Schad, did not object to the recommendation of detention. Schad said the issue of bond may be revisited after he and his client dealt with a state case.

Franklin was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on Nov. 8 but released two days later. Two state counts were dropped but action on a parole violation is pending, according to online jail records.

Franklin was booked into the Shelby County Jail on Nov. 16, according to online jail records. A preliminary hearing in the federal case is scheduled for Nov. 29.

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The count includes maximum punishment of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Fentanyl is a Schedule II drug and acrylfentanyl — a highly potent analog of fentanyl — is a Schedule I controlled substance.

Surveillance video from a neighbor’s camera showed Franklin and the unidentified driver fleeing the vehicle and the driver had a handgun, the complaint said.

The complaint listed Anthony’s five previous felony convictions.

Those convictions are: felonious assault with a deadly weapon in 2007; tampering with records, receiving stolen property and having a weapon under disability, all in 2011; and failure to comply with the signal or order of a police officer and felonious assault with a deadly weapon, both in 2015.

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The police report by officers Zachary O’Diam and Mark Orick and criminal complaint indicate police were patrolling the area of Kensington Avenue and Prescott Avenue when they observed a dark blue Passat with what appeared to be illegal window tint.

That’s when, according to the complaint, the Passat “began to speed up and attempt to flee from officers.” The complaint said a pursuit and surveillance continued.

The police report indicated the vehicle is owned by a 21-year-old woman.

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