A Batavia Township man is accused of intentionally running down another man with his vehicle, a felony that could send him to prison for years if he's convicted. Jason Chadwick faces a felonious assault charge stemming from an incident at a home on Wooded Ridge Drive, according to law enforcement records tied to the case.
The Clermont County Sheriff's Office responded to the address on Wooded Ridge Drive, where deputies documented a formal incident report, according to public safety request logs. As reported by WKRC, Chadwick is accused of running down a man with a vehicle, and the sheriff's office provided the image caption attribution used in reporting on the case. Batavia Township, an unincorporated area east of Cincinnati in central Clermont County, has no municipal police department of its own — it relies on contract deputies for patrol coverage.
Why a Car Becomes a Deadly Weapon Under Ohio Law
Ohio prosecutors have a specific legal path for cases like this one. Under state law, a vehicle can be classified as a deadly weapon when it's used in a way capable of causing death or serious physical harm, which is what separates an intentional hit-and-run assault from an accidental or reckless driving offense, per Funkhouser Law. That distinction is why an allegation like the one against Chadwick can be charged as felonious assault rather than a lesser vehicular offense.
Felonious assault under Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11 is a second-degree felony, carrying a potential two to eight years in state prison and fines of up to $15,000, according to Ohio law. It's one of the state's most serious non-homicide violent crime classifications. Convictions at that level also fall under Ohio's Reagan Tokes Law, which allows state correctional authorities to extend an inmate's prison stay by up to 50 percent past the minimum term for institutional infractions, per Zukerman Law.
Sheriff's Deputies Cover the Township Under Contract
Because Batavia Township has no independent police force, the Clermont County Sheriff's Office handles calls like the one on Wooded Ridge Drive through a dedicated substation on Clough Pike, staffed by eight full-time assigned deputies, according to the sheriff's office. Emergency medical response in the township falls to the Central Joint Fire-EMS District, while the sheriff's office covers both the growing residential subdivisions and the more rural stretches surrounding the Village of Batavia.
Once a felony arrest like this moves forward, the case is handed to the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office, which decides whether to seek a formal indictment from a grand jury in the Clermont County Court of Common Pleas in Batavia. Whether that indictment comes through in Chadwick's case remains an open question, as does the victim's current medical condition and any prior relationship between the two men — details that have not yet been made public.
Part of a Pattern of Violent Disputes in Batavia Township
This is not an isolated case in the township this month. Just a week earlier, on August 21, a road-rage pursuit on Breckenridge Way escalated into gunfire and a SWAT standoff, resulting in second-degree felonious assault charges against two suspects, as Hoodline previously reported. In July, deputies arrested a 37-year-old Batavia Township resident on Sweetbriar Drive after a verbal dispute escalated into a non-fatal shooting.
That same month, Clermont County authorities separately investigated a case in which a hit-and-run victim allegedly fired a handgun at a fleeing SUV following a traffic dispute elsewhere in the county. Taken together, the cases point to a broader pattern this year of roadway and neighborhood disputes in Clermont County escalating into felony-level violence, with the sheriff's office and prosecutor's office repeatedly stepping in after confrontations that started as arguments turned into weapons charges.
