By Marty Trese, KnoxPages.com Editor
MOUNT VERNON – A Mount Vernon man who impersonated a state trooper in 2001 and has been on the run from the law for the past 14 years has turned himself in to the Knox County jail. According to the sheriff’s office Jeremy Henthorn showed up at the sheriff’s office Thursday afternoon.
Back in March 2002 Henthorn was charged with 14 counts of theft by deception. A complaint filed in Mount Vernon Municipal Court said he deceived 14 little league baseball players into giving him $20 each for baseball equipment, and then never made good on his end of the deal.
Henthorn then fled the state to avoid the charges and the attorney he hired at the time withdrew from the case. In March 2016, Attorney Phillip Lehmkuhl of Mount Vernon filed a notice of appearance as legal counsel and has asked to see the evidence in the case. He has also asked for a jury trial.
A state-wide warrant was issued for Henthorn’s arrest in 2003.
In 2004, Henthorn surfaced in Wood River, Nebraska, where he became a pony league baseball coach. He left town after a parent found out about his past and the Village Council voted to have him removed from the baseball association.
Marty Brown was president of the association when Henthorn showed up in Nebraska and said he could tell something just didn’t add up.
“He told me that he had a degree in turf management, he was a licensed medical helicopter pilot, and umpired several little league world series games,” Brown wrote in a social media posting on Saturday. “Long story short, when I had enough evidence to kick him out, we approached him with law enforcement and he had all the equipment and money in his car ready to leave.”
Records show Henthorn lived in Kansas, where he took a job as a sheriff’s office dispatcher. After his past came to light, he reportedly moved a few more times — once to Greybull, Wyoming and then to Tooele, Utah, according to an e-mail from Shannah Muller sent in 2004.
Muller said Henthorn lived with her and other family members in both states.
Henthorn eventually landed in Sitka, Alaska where he apparently served as a firefighter. Photographs appeared on the internet of Henthorn at fire conventions and on a fire helmet company’s website where he gave a testimonial of their product.
Henthorn was forbidden from being on the grounds of any public safety agency as a condition of his probation in Mount Vernon on the impersonating charge.