Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office news release
WATERTOWN, NY — On Tuesday, May 2, at approximately 6:21pm, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a residence on US Route 11 in the town of LeRay for a report of a burglary.
The victims’ home had been entered, personal items stolen, and a blue 2011 Jeep Compass taken from their garage.
Later that same evening, while on patrol on Towne Center Drive in the Town of Watertown, a New York State Trooper spotted a vehicle with spray paint obscuring the rear license plate. The trooper conducted a vehicle stop and discovered it was the stolen Jeep, which had been spray-painted black in an apparent attempt to disguise the vehicle.
The vehicle was occupied by two adults and a child.
The driver, later identified as Francis T. Green, 45, of Pierrepont, NY, was arrested by the State Police on charges relating to the vehicle stop and was later turned over to the Sheriff’s Office.
Green was then charged by the Sheriff’s Office with Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree, a class D felony.
Green was arraigned this morning in City of Watertown Court acting as CAP Court and is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $20,000 bail. Green is a probationer in St. Lawrence County and has a warrant for an unrelated charge from the Potsdam Police Department.
In addition to presumed stolen property recovered from within the vehicle, other items presumed to be stolen were recovered from two separate hotel rooms in the Towns of Pamelia and LeRay. The investigation is ongoing and more charges may be pending as more victims are identified.