Man arrested after allegedly fleeing meth lab trailer home on ATV

PAINESVILLE TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A Painesville Township man is in custody after authorities say he tried to flee deputies who discovered a meth lab at a trailer home.

On Friday, sheriff’s deputies responded to a trailer home on Huntington Road that was recently condemned by the Lake County Health Department as the result of a clandestine methamphetamine lab, after reports of a man entering.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they said they a man fled the trailer on an ATV. Deputies pursued the suspect, driving an ATV into Painesville City until it became disabled on a snow drift.

Deputies said the suspect then took to foot north of Fobes Street toward State Route 2. Along with the Painesville City Police Department, sheriff’s deputies assisted in the search which led north across both lanes of Route 2 and north into an area west of Huntington Trailer Park.

The suspect was found hiding under brush in the area and then arrested. He was identified as 29-year-old James McElroy, of Painesville Township.

An investigation at the scene showed that McElroy was in possession of several individually wrapped packages of suspected Methamphetamine.

McElroy was taken to the Lake County Jail and charged with Criminal Trespassing, Failure to Comply with the Signal of a Police Officer and Drug Trafficking charges.