Bainbridge man sentenced in Highland County 'Operation Fetty Stop' case
A Bainbridge man was sentenced to nearly five years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to his role in a large-scale drug trafficking investigation in Highland County.
Evan Scott Clay, 30, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in September as part of “Operation Fetty Stop,” which is the ongoing work of the Highland County Task Force and all county law enforcement agencies to stop the trafficking and use of fentanyl in Highland County. The arrests were focused in Madison Township, the Village of Greenfield and the Rocky Fork Lake area, according to the HCTF.
Clay’s charges included engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony; nine counts of possession of a fentanyl-related compound, one fourth- and eight fifth-degree felonies; nine counts of trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound, one fourth- and eight fifth-degree felonies; and a forfeiture specification.
Clay pleaded guilty Nov. 9 to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity; a fourth-degree felony and a fifth-degree felony count of trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound; and the forfeiture specification, with the other 16 charges dismissed.
For those charges, it is alleged that on or about Nov. 1, 2022 through May 1, 2023, Clay and alleged co-conspirators “did recklessly, while being employed by or associated with, directly or indirectly, conduct or participate in the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of corrupt activity and at least one of the incidents of corrupt activity is a felony of the fourth or fifth degree.”
For one trafficking charge, it is alleged that on or about Feb. 8 in Greenfield, Clay was observed “passing something through the window” to a person in a car, while under surveillance by the task force. Officers later stopped the car due to an alleged traffic violation, at which point a passenger removed a bag containing drugs from their underwear and advised it had been “obtained … from Evan Clay,” a bill of particulars alleges. The drugs were later determined via BCI analysis to be a fentanyl-related compound.
Also in February, it was alleged that Clay sold a plastic bag of drugs to a confidential informant in the parking lot of a Greenfield business. The drugs were later determined to be a fentanyl-related compound weighing 1.02 grams, the bill of particulars said.
Subject to forfeiture was a 2002 silver Ford truck “used or intended to be used” in the course of Clay’s criminal behavior, according to the bill of particulars.
Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss accepted Clay’s guilty pleas and sentenced him to a definite determinate term of four years on the corrupt activity charge. Under the Reagan Tokes Law, that sentence could be up to six years.
For the fourth-degree felony trafficking charge, Clay was sentenced to another 11 months, for a total of four years and 11 months in prison minimum, or a maximum of six years and 11 months. (The fifth-degree trafficking charge carried a nine-month sentence to run concurrently to the other sentences.) He had jail time credit of 11 days.
Along with the forfeiture of his truck, Clay was additionally ordered to pay restitution to the HCTF, including $100 alone and a joint and several $1,240 with alleged co-conspirators.