MARION COUNTY — A 48-year-old Walnut Hill man took an odd step in Marion County Court Tuesday, when he attempted to take out orders of protection against a sheriff’s deputy and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.

According to Marion County State’s Attorney Matt Wilzbach, Mark Linkon initially claimed deputies burned his house down, then claimed they set his Jeep on fire, but when he appeared in front of Judge Mark Kelly said he was tired of being arrested.

Judge Kelly denied Linkon’s requests as there as he has no family or household connection to the deputy and there is no basis in law for filing an order of protection against a governmental agency.

Wilzbach says the situation began Monday night when a Marion County Sheriff’s deputy who had stopped in the parking lot of a Walnut Hill church to work on a report. heard a call for the fire department to respond to a vehicle fire down the road from where he was parked.

The deputy responded to the scene where a Jeep was on fire. Linkon reportedly climbed into the deputy’s squad car where he told his story. He then left the squad car, grabbed two backpacks from behind the Jeep and ran into his house.

When the deputy named in the order of protection responded to the scene he inquired about the backpacks, which Linkon brought out empty.

According to Wilzbach, the deputies then ran everyone at the scene, and Linkon’s girlfriend was found to have an outstanding Marion County warrant for her arrest and his son had an outstanding Shelby County warrant for his arrest. They were both taken into custody, but Linkon was not.