A Warrant for Your Arrest? Safely Surrender

Those with an outstanding warrant will be given a one-time opportunity to safely surrender.

The Ohio Poverty Law Center and the Mid-Ohio Reentry Coalition are co-sponsoring an Outstanding Warrant Day. This is an opportunity for anyone with an outstanding warrant to have an immediate court hearing. Equal Justice Work Fellow Melissa Lindsay said the judges will be in a good mood, and plan to make as few arrests as possible.

"An opportunity for folks to deal with these without having to worry about being arrested infront of family and friends, at the work place, you know wherever the Sheriff happens to find them," said Lindsay. "This is an opportunity to come in and deal with those now and like I said, hopefully arrest as few people as possible."

Outstanding Warrant Days are often held at the Federal Level. Lindsay believes this is one of the first times the opportunity is being offered to the Zanesville-Muskingum area. She said Columbus sponsored a similar event where 500 people came forward in the first day. Overall, she said the day benefits both the offender and law enforcement.

"Serving outstanding warrants, even for low level offenses is very dangerous tasks for law enforcement," said Lindsay. "It can get violent very quickly, so this is an opportunity for law enforcement to not only avoid that violence but to just clear their record so to speak."

The day is open to any who has or thinks they may have an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor or child support offense from Zanesville or Muskingum County Courts.

Bishop Fenwick Elementary School
Activity Center
139 North 5th Street

Saturday Aug. 27th from 1-4:00.

Muskingum County Common Pleas Court- Misdemeanor
Zanesville Municipal Court- Misdemeanor
Muskingum County Domestic Relations Court- Child Support

*Depending on the circumstances of your individual case, you may receive favorable consideration for appealing and handling your outstanding warrant.

What you can expect:

– To be checked if you have outstanding misdemeanor or child support warrants.

– If you have outstanding warrants, you will receive further instructions, meet with a defense attorney (free of charge), wait for your case to be called, and appear before a judge to hopefully resolve your case.

– If your case cannot be resolved at OWD, it may be set for a future hearing or in the case of a very serious offense, you may be arrested.

– You will be able to submit a request for a FREE copy of BCI&I criminal background check ( a $27 value) and get a information about correcting any inaccuracies. (~50% of all background checks are inaccurate!)

*Warning

If you have an outstanding warrant for violent or sexual offense you are likely to be arrested! They hope to keep arrests to a very small number, but there is a risk you will be arrested.