WILMINGTON — A man involved in a local SWAT standoff gets time behind bars.
Thaddeus “Teddy” Knapp, 38, was sentenced to 17 months in prison on Monday in Clinton County Common Pleas Court. Knapp was granted credit for 109 days he has already spent incarcerated.
Knapp pleaded guilty to felony 4 resisting arrest in July, resulting in an additional charge of felonious assault — a felony 1 — being dismissed.
According to court documents, Knapp’s previous criminal record was noted by the court.
“[Knapp] has a lengthy criminal history spanning two decades,” the records state. “His first prison term involved a third-degree felony burglary conviction from this Court in 2001.”
Since his release for that, Knapp had “committed a multitude of various felonies and prison terms” in Clinton, Hamilton, Butler and Allen Counties. Knapp currently has pending charges in Montgomery County for felony drug-related charges and Greene County for an O.V.I., hit-skip, and driving under suspension charges.
Knapp, along with Jennifer Roush and Brandon King, was barricaded in an apartment after police attempted to serve an evidence search warrant from Xenia Police. This resulted in a standoff between the three people and a SWAT team.
King and Roush finally surrendered after tear gas was shot into the building. SWAT members had to enter the apartment to get Knapp.
During the apprehension of Knapp on the second-floor building, Wilmington Police Officer Matt Hamilton was seriously injured in a fall down the stairs.
As the News Journal previously reported, “Hamilton — wearing a helmet and gas mask, making it difficult to see — and 50 to 60 pounds of extra gear, took a hard fall down the stairs of the second-story apartment.”
Wilmington Police Chief Ron Cravens has reported that his officer suffered a spiral fracture of the tibia and fibula of the right leg, plus a broken ankle. Officer Hamilton also sustained a rupture of his Achilles’ tendon in his left leg, said the chief. The injuries resulted in Hamilton needing five hours of surgery.
The resisting arrest charge in the indictment alleges Knapp “did recklessly or by force, resist or interfere with the lawful arrest of himself and during the course of, or, as a result of the resistance or interference, the said Thaddeus A. Knapp recklessly caused physical harm to Ptl. Matthew Hamilton of the Wilmington Police Department, by means of a deadly weapon.”
Roush was indicted in March on charges of allegedly inducing panic and obstructing official business in Clinton County Municipal Court.
King, the subject of the search warrant, was charged with three counts of alleged burglary and two counts of alleged breaking and entering in Greene County.
