Michigan Criminal Lawyers Blog

June 12, 2020

Upper Peninsula Man Charged with 125 Wildlife Crimes

Original Case Details

A 56-year man from Pickford in the upper peninsula has been charged with 125 wildlife crimes after investigators uncovered that the man had both harvested and killed endangered and protected species of animals. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced the charges after an investigation done by their Law Enforcement Division. The man is accused of illegally harvesting as many as 18 wolves. Wolves are on the federal endangered species list and are also protected under Michigan state law. The man is also accused of killing and dumping three American bald eagles. Bald eagles are protected under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act as well as state law. He is also accused of illegal conduct involving deer, turkeys, bears, and bobcats. It appears that there are other suspects with similar conduct that will be charged in the near future as well. Since the animals that he allegedly harvested and killed are also protected under federal law, the man may also face federal charges which would be a separate proceeding from the state cases.

Criminal Charges Involved

June 11, 2020

Officer Charged with Murder in Minneapolis

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

A video surfaced during the last week of May which showed a Minneapolis police officer restraining a man by kneeling on his neck until he lost consciousness and eventually died. Three other officers stood by and prevented anyone else from intervening to try to save the man. The man, George Floyd, is now someone known worldwide and has become the latest victim of unchecked police brutality. Floyd was pinned down for nearly nine minutes, as he called for help and repeatedly told the officer that he couldn’t breathe. The video shows Floyd pinned after he lost consciousness for almost three minutes. The officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with third degree murder as well as a manslaughter charge. The other three officers as of this writing still have not been arrested or charged with anything. This incident as well as how it has been handled has sparked worldwide protests and outrage. A search into police records has shown that Minneapolis police officers have used neck restraints on 428 people since 2012, with at least 58 of those people losing consciousness due to the neck restraint. About two thirds of the people put into neck restraints were black, a stark number considering the black population in Minneapolis is less than 20% of the city’s population.

Nationwide Protests

June 10, 2020

Breathalyzer Technicians Charged with Felonies for Faking Records

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

Earlier this year, the Michigan State Police suspended its contract with vendor Intoximeters who issues and calibrates their Datamaster machines. A Datamaster is the breath test you take at the police station if you have been arrested on an alcohol-related offense. The Michigan State Police suspended its contract with Intoximeters due to discrepancies in their maintenance records. This resulted in all 203 statewide Datamasters to be pulled from use to be checked and re-calibrated before going back into use. Upon further investigation, Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged two technicians that work with Intoximeters with felonies for their roles in faking repairs and diagnostic testing on the state’s Datamasters. The technicians, who are both in their 50s, are Andrew Clark of Oxford, and David John of Kalamazoo. Clark faces six felony charges while John faces nine felony charges for allegedly creating fake documents made to show that certain testing and repairs were done to the Datamasters when they actually were not serviced. There are two specific Datamasters in question; one at the Beverly Hills Police Department in Oakland County, and the other at the County Sheriff’s Office in Alpena.

Community Fallout

June 9, 2020

Michigan Woman Convicted of Killing Husband in House Fire Seeks New Trial

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

Linda Stermer, 55, of Van Buren County has spent eight years in prison after being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her husband in a house fire. She has spent the past 18 months outside of prison however, after successfully appealing her conviction and getting a new trial granted by a federal District Court judge.

Stermer was found guilty of setting a house fire with her husband inside and hitting him with a van after he escaped the burning house. The prosecution said that she intentionally ran him over while the defense contended that it was accidental as it happened as she was trying to drive to a neighbor for help. She was convicted of felony murder and arson in 2010. It took the prosecution two years to charge Stermer after the death of her husband.

June 8, 2020

Former Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Indicted with Extortion

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

The fallout from alleged corruption in Macomb County continues. Former Macomb County public works commissioner Anthony Marrocco is the latest in a line of officials to be criminally charged for actions while in office. He’s accused of making lavish expenditures on himself using illegal money obtained in an extensive extortion scheme. The alleged scheme involves Marrocco directing his operations manager Dino Bucci and others inside Marrocco’s office to pressure local builders and contractors to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in tickets to Marrocco political fundraisers. He allegedly kept lists of who bought tickets and who didn’t and would punish those who didn’t by making it difficult for them to obtain permits, payments, and even refusing to award Macomb County work contracts altogether. Bucci has already pled guilty for his role as a “bag man” in what is described as a pay-to-play mafia-type scheme.

Criminal Charges & Allegations

June 5, 2020

Wayne County Circuit Court Trials to Resume in July

by Grabel & Associates

Pandemic Closures

Back on March 11, 2020, Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack issued a memo recommending adjournments to all state trial courts. This recommendation to adjourn was later extended to recommend delaying all jury trials until at least June 22, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many courts have closed to the general public, and are only partially open for specific reasons, usually requiring an appointment. Certain services such as court marriage ceremonies have remained suspended throughout the pandemic, while other services such as the city assessor require an appointment to access and file real estate paperwork. The Michigan Supreme Court has already resumed activity, participating in some of the first oral arguments via Zoom with attorneys for a handful of cases. There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel as the two busiest courts in the city of Detroit appear to be on the path towards reopening.

Current Operations

June 4, 2020

Macomb County “Bag Man” Pleads Guilty in Extortion Scheme

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

A figure who has been at the center of an alleged extortion scheme alleging public corruption has pled guilty. Dino Bucci, long known as a “bag man” for the now-indicted Macomb County Public Works commissioner Anthony Marrocco made his guilty plea in United States District Court, via videoconference in front of Judge Robert H. Cleland (the courthouse is closed due to the pandemic). Bucci pled guilty to both extortion and theft conspiracy charges. He admitted to extorting money from engineering firms and construction developers by pressuring them to buy Anthony Marrocco political fundraiser tickets. Bucci was allegedly directed by Marrocco to let these people know that if they did not purchase the tickets, they would face “economic consequences.” He also admitted to being part of another scheme, this one being a kickback scheme to steal $96,000 from Macomb Township. Bucci faces up to ten years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. Federal prosecutors have indicated that they will be seeking a lesser sentence for Bucci from Judge Cleland due to Bucci’s health issues. Before he is sentenced, Bucci is required to report to the probation department for a pre-sentence interview. Here, a presentence report will be generated and submitted to Judge Cleland for Bucci’s sentencing.

Macomb County Corruption Fallout

June 3, 2020

Interim Macomb County Prosecutor Named

by Grabel & Associates

Judicial Vote

The Macomb County Circuit Court Judicial bench has now officially named Jean Cloud as interim Prosecutor of Macomb County. Cloud was voted in by a 14-1 vote in her favor by the Macomb County Circuit Court Judges which was conducted remotely on Zoom. She has been in the Prosecutor’s office for twenty years and had already assumed the duties within the office as now-former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith is facing public corruption charges related to misuse of public funds. Cloud will serve out the final six months of Smith’s term before the position opens back up in the general election. Cloud has stated her intentions to not seek election as Macomb County Prosecutor once this term ends. There are seven candidates running for the position that will be available this November.

Attempt to Move Past Office Corruption

May 28, 2020

Woman Arrested After Spitting At Police Over Mask Dispute

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

A woman has been arrested in St. Clair Shores and charged with assaulting a police officer, assault and battery and refusal to submit to fingerprinting after allegedly spitting on police officers after she was told to leave a Nino Salvaggio grocery store when she refused to wear a mask. The woman is accused of assaulting a store employee when the employee told her that she needed to wear a mask or leave the store. She is also said to have behaved erratically until she was taken into custody by St. Clair Shores Police. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office acting lead Prosecutor Jean Cloud said that even during the heightened tensions of the current pandemic, the woman’s repeated inappropriate behavior could not be tolerated, and her actions clearly demonstrated a willful disregard for the safety of everyone around her. The woman is locally known in Macomb County as she unsuccessfully ran for Roseville mayor back in 2017, losing by a wide margin to current mayor Robert Taylor.

Current Pandemic

May 27, 2020

Wayne County Prosecutor To Testify Over Former Senator Virgil Smith Case

by Grabel & Associates

Original Case Details

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is set to testify over her handling of Former state senator Virgil Smith’s criminal case. Smith was sentenced to ten months in the Wayne County Jail back in 2016 for a felony charge of malicious destruction of property along with admitting that he brandished a gun and fired shots at his ex-wife’s car. An initial plea deal with negotiated where the Wayne County Prosecutors Office agreed to drop three charges if Smith agreed to resign from the Senate along with agreeing to not hold elected office during his probation period, which would have been set for five years. When the negotiated plea deal went in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Talon, the judge removed both requirements relating Smith’s ability to hold elected office from the deal, stating that the terms were unconstitutional. Prosecutors didn’t agree with a deal that did not include resignation and no elected office so they attempted to withdraw the deal, but Judge Talon would not allow the withdrawal. Prosecutors appealed the Judge’s decision and won at the Michigan Supreme Court in 2018, where the ruling said that the judge should have allowed prosecutors to withdraw from the deal since key parts of it were removed by the judge. After the deal was successfully withdrawn, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy then offered Smith a new deal if he pled to two felonies, which included the previous malicious destruction of property charge in addition to felonious assault. Seeing as Smith had already served his jail time in 2016, and had no new charges or violations, he found this to be vindictive on Worthy’s part since Smith had a deal that included only one felony conviction previously. Smith had also unsuccessfully attempted a run for a seat on Detroit City Council after serving his jail time.

What Is The Current Situation?