Wilkes County deputies have made arrests in two cases that reach back several months.

After a months-long investigation, Lavaris R. Dunn, 26, of Rayle, was arrested by Wilkes County deputies in September and charged with trafficking in cocaine and two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He is held on $350,000 bond.

Dunn and his alleged crack cocaine supplier had been the target of a GBI task force investigation, Wilkes Investigator Bud Harrison said, and authorities had used an informant to trace the source of crack that made Dunn Tignall's "big man" when it came to drugs.

Two undercover buys of alleged crack cocaine were made from Dunn in October 2007, and armed with a search warrant, officers found more of the alleged drug in his Tignall home.

The trafficking charge means that Dunn was found to have more than 28 grams, about an ounce, of alleged crack in his possession.

In a separate case, an escaped convict that attacked a Good Samaritan here in February after she offered him a ride has been arrested and charged with several crimes.

Gary Gaylord Ford, 38, of Athens, was arrested September 3 by Wilkes County deputies and charged with felony aggravated battery; felony robbery; felony battery; felony motor vehicle hijacking; felony false imprisonment; and felony aggravated assault. He is held on $77,000 bond.

Ford had walked away from the Augusta Transitional Center, where he was finishing a 15-year sentence for a 1997 robbery in Clarke County, Harrison said, and was hitchhiking on the north Bypass in Washington in February when two women, thinking he was a student, stopped for him. When they realized that Ford was not a student, they stopped and asked him to leave the car. He refused, and assaulted one of the women. Two men passing by in a pick up saw the assault, stopped and intervened. Ford assaulted one of the men, stole his truck, and fled for Athens, Harrison said.

The following day, the truck was spotted during a strong-arm robbery in Athens, and police located the truck and identified Ford. Soon after, Ford was arrested for sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman jogging in Athens.

On that assault, Ford was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated sexual battery, kidnapping, and armed robbery.

Now Ford has been indicted and arraigned in Wilkes County on the charges here. "He's in a lot of trouble, both in Athens and here," Harrison said.