Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies responded about 12:40 a.m. Sunday January 15, 2017 to a report of a domestic battery occurring in a vehicle. The 9-1-1 caller reported the incident was occurring in a vehicle, on the side of the westbound I-94 off-ramp at Route 60 in Mettawa.
Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies and Illinois State Troopers responded to the scene. Prior to their arrival, the offender, Jermaine D. Ausley, 30, of Chicago, fled the scene. The vehicle Ausley fled from was found to be stolen.
Deputy John Forlenza and his canine partner, Dax, responded and began tracking the scent of Ausley. Canine Dax and Deputy Forlenza successfully tracked the scent eastbound to the 1900 block of Amberley Court, Lake Forest. Canine Dax located Ausley hiding under a tarp, in an outbuilding, in the 1900 block of Amberley Court. Once found, Ausley was taken into custody without further incident.
Ausley was turned over to Illinois State Troopers. Troopers transported Ausley to the Lake County Jail, and he was subsequently charged with two counts of domestic battery, obstructing a peace officer, criminal trespass to building, and criminal trespass to vehicle.
Ausley is being held in the Lake County Jail on $40,000.00 bail. His next court date is Friday, January 20, 2017 at 1:30PM in courtroom C-120.
Officers from Lake Forest Police Department, Lake Bluff Police Department, and Lincolnshire Police Department also responded and assisted Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies and Illinois State Police troopers.
Sheriff Curran reminds the public the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
In May 2016 Dax found an offender who fled after punching a Fox River Grove Police Officer on a traffic stop at US 14 & Opatrny Drive.
In November 2017, Dax helped located a driver who fled on foot after crashing a vehicle that was involved in eluding police in Round Lake earlier in the evening. Dax was able to track the suspect from the crash at Milwaukee Avenue and West Casey Road in unincorporated Libertyville, but the suspect ran away. Dax was then released to apprehend the suspect, was then transported by paramedics to Advocate Condell Medical Center for treatment of a dog bite.