Father, son charged with 99 felonies each
A father and son recently arrested for receiving stolen property were arrested again on Monday for hundreds of charges relating to the alleged illegal practices at their recycling and salvage business, authorities said.
Jason Dewayne Green, 35, 325 Oak Hills Drive, Russellville, and Travis Green, 61, of Franklin 56 in Russellville, have both been charged with a total of 99 felonies including one count of operating an auto theft facility, a Class B felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison if convicted; and 98 counts of having no records of secondary metal recycling transactions over $500, a Class C felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison if convicted.
The father and son pair have also been charged with 30 counts of having no records of secondary metal recycling transactions under $500 and 215 counts of having improper scrap metal records, both of which are misdemeanor charges.
According to Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver, the charges stem from an investigation into the Greens’ business, Franklin County Recycling and Salvage, conducted by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office that has been ongoing for the past two years.
“We’ve received complaints from other counties and other states about the way the Greens were running their business,” Oliver said. “These charges are just the tip of the iceberg.”
Investigators said the hundreds of charges were only in relation to vehicles and scrap metal and didn’t go into other property the Greens had at the business.
Inv. Jason Holcomb said the Greens were given numerous opportunities and warnings to run their business the proper way, but failed to comply with officers’ requests in the four years they were in operation.
“Travis Green admitted in open court they didn’t run their business the right way,” Holcomb said. “We gave them plenty of warnings, but enough is enough.”
Holcomb said on top of the criminal charges, the Greens had operated Franklin County Recycling and Salvage without a county business license for the past three years. He also added the Greens’ never received a dismantling license from the state department of revenue giving them permission to accept, buy, sell or dismantle vehicles.
“The Greens had quite an operation going,” Oliver said. “They were receiving an average of 100 vehicles per month. After several offenses and many complaints, something had to be done.”
Defense attorney Billy Underwood said he had never seen a case involving so many different charges in his 32-year law career.
“You have to commend the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department for spending over 400 hours filling out the paperwork just to charge the Greens with some non-descript offense,” Underwood said.
“This is the biggest overkill of something minor that I have seen in my 32 years of practicing law.”
“This may seem like a lot of charges, but that’s how many offenses there were,” Oliver said. “We can’t just overlook all the charges because it would seem like too many. We are obligated to enforce the law, and that’s what we’ll do.”
The most recent offense came at the beginning of September when Jason and Travis Green were both arrested for receiving stolen property, which stemmed from the investigation of a stolen wrecker found on the business’ property.
During the investigation of the stolen wrecker from Daleville, officers with the FCSO said they also found a stolen semi-truck used to haul mobile homes, two other stolen vehicles and a vehicle with an altered VIN.
“The Greens receiving several stolen vehicles is where the charge of operating an auto theft facility comes from,” Holcomb said. “We’ve recovered anywhere from 10 to 20 stolen vehicles since the business has been in operation.”
The investigation in this case is still ongoing.
Underwood said that he would push to fight all of the charges separately.
“I have had to hire another attorney to help me because I anticipate this will take five years to bring them all to trial,” he said. “I will resist every effort by the district attorney to try these cases all at once.
“I think that I will win all of them, but if I lose any one case in district court, I will appeal each one to a jury trial in circuit court. I definitely think there are some personal vendettas or an ax to grind against the Greens by someone in the sheriff’s department.”
Travis Green was released from custody on an $86,000 bond.
Jason Green remains in custody due to a bond revocation in the April murder case where he is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, 30-year-old Shay Nicole Ledlow, on Jan. 30.
