UPDATED @ 8:10 p.m. (March 31)
Jeffrey Martinez (spelled Jeffery in a news release from the Union County Sheriff’s Office) remains in the Tri-County Regional Jail on bond, on a charge of felony inducing panic stemming from the investigation into what is being described as a “fictitious bomb threat.”
He is to be arraigned Friday morning in Marysville Municipal Court and the case will be forwarded to the county prosecutor’s office for consideration of additional charges, Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said.
Patton said “good old fashion police work” that included interviews led to the arrest on the Honda Marysville Auto Plant campus Thursday afternoon.
Martinez had reported to the plant for his job as a contract worker for NEX Transport Inc. just like he did Wednesday, said the sheriff, who noted that he’s not sure what the man’s assignment was inside the facility.
The note found written in English on the wall of a bathroom sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. prompted Honda security to evacuate the facility. The decision was made to evacuate the facility beginning at 11:30 a.m. as a precaution, according to officials with the automaker.
Patton wouldn’t release the contents of the note or what was used to write it, but said Martinez confessed to investigators that he was the author.
According to the investigators, no one else was involved in the incident, Patton said.
Officials with NEX Transport Inc., located in East Liberty (Logan County), declined comment. NEX Packaging provides services for more than 100 supplies throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to nextransportinc.com.
Auto production at the plant resumed about 6:30 p.m., according to company officials. Statewide, about 1,400 residents in Clark and Champaign counties work for Honda and many of them are employed at the Marysville facility.
The hours-long shutdown of the plant because of the evacuation cost Honda at least $500,000, Patton said of the early estimates from Honda officials.
Patton told the Columbus Dispatch that as the case moves through the courts, law enforcement will seek to recoup the cost of the investigation from Martinez and the prosecutor’s office will also seek to recover Honda’s lost income.
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