St. Johns: Ex-Mich. school janitor sentenced in sexting case
ST. JOHNS, Mich. (AP) — A 23-year-old Lansing man who worked as a junior high school janitor has been sentenced to three months in jail after police say he stole a girl’s cell phone and “sexted” her friends.
John William Boggs pleaded guilty last month to larceny in a building and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Clinton County Circuit Court Judge Randy Tahvonen sentenced Boggs on Monday.
Boggs’ attorney, John Maurer, declined comment to the Lansing State Journal.
Authorities say Boggs stole a cell phone from a bag in a girls locker room at DeWitt Junior High School on April 14. They say he then sent text messages to eight of the girl’s friends listed in her contact list.
The text messages contained sexual innuendoes and asked personal questions.
Lansing: Diocese: Dead priest molested boys years ago
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A priest molested at least a half-dozen boys in the 1950s and ‘60s, according to the Catholic Diocese of Lansing, which has been looking into the matter over the past two months.
Officials with the diocese announced the findings on Monday and urged others who may have been abused by the Rev. John Martin to come forward so they can receive counseling.
“I pray to God there are no more victims,” said Bishop Earl Boyea, leader of the diocese that serves more than 200,000 Catholics in 10 counties. “Think about these men carrying that burden all these years.”
Boyea said he learned of the abuse claims on June 10 after two men told their stories to the Rev. Duaine Pamment, who is the pastor at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Laingsburg.
Martin was pastor of St. Isidore from 1941 to 1966. He died in 1968.
Notices were placed in church bulletins asking anyone with concerns about Martin’s pastorate to contact Monsignor Steven Raica, chancellor of the diocese. The additional victims then came forward.
Boyea and Raica said the men were interviewed individually and that their stories were consistent. Diocese officials said they believe the allegations are true.
The victims were between the ages of 11 and 17 at the time the incidents occurred, Raica said.
Jack and Julie Risch started attending St. Isidore in 1962 and raised their eight children in the church. Both were surprised to hear of the allegations.
“We would never guess that,” Julie Risch, 72, told the Lansing State Journal.
Jack Risch, 75, said he did volunteer work at St. Isidore and described having a good relationship with Martin.
“Personally, I don’t have any recollection of anything improper,” he told the newspaper.
The Risches said a 1966 fire burned the church to the ground, devastated Martin and prompted his retirement.
Ann Arbor: Chair of Gulf oil spill panel to teach at U-M
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A former secretary of the Navy who recently was chosen to chair a Gulf oil spill investigation committee will be teaching at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering this fall.
Donald Winter is leading a panel put together by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council that is looking into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill. A preliminary report is scheduled to be released in October.
Winter also is a retired executive at Northrop Grumman Corp. and served as Navy secretary from 2006-09.
He received a doctorate in physics from Michigan in 1972.
The Ann Arbor school announced Tuesday that beginning next semester, Winter will teach Engineering 599, a graduate level Introduction to Systems Engineering class.
Port Sheldon Township: Woman married in hospital day before dying
PORT SHELDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A woman married her boyfriend in a hospital ceremony the day before succumbing to injuries she suffered when a car struck her in Ottawa County.
Amanda Lawrence was set to wed Shane Swift next month. Instead, she married him on Friday, the day before she died.
The 21-year-old Hudsonville resident had been in critical condition following the crash Aug. 18 in Port Sheldon Township. A 16-year-old driver says he didn’t see Lawrence walking due to the position of the sun. He struck her with a GMC Silverado.
Her co-worker, Debbie Petolick, told The Holland Sentinel a family member picked up the wedding bands at Lawrence’s workplace, Kay Jewelers, so they could perform the wedding on Friday.
Pontiac: Suspect in 1968 killing heading back to Michigan
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A convicted killer is being extradited to Michigan from Ohio to face a first-degree murder charge in a woman’s death from four decades ago.
Oakland County sheriff’s deputies headed south on Monday to pick up 67-year-old Nolan Ray George, who is suspected in the slaying of a Pontiac woman in 1968.
George was ordered extradited to Michigan by a judge in Butler County, Ohio, on a first-degree murder warrant in the death of 22-year-old Gwendolyn Perry.
George had been fighting the extradition since last month when he was arrested in Ohio.
He is expected to be arraigned this week in Perry’s death.
George has served prison time in Michigan and Ohio in the deaths of two women.
George’s attorney, Jacob Long, says it’s unfair to prosecute his client in a case so old.
Lansing: Tests confirm 3 in Michigan had rare encephalitis
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan health officials say lab tests confirm that three people contracted Eastern equine encephalitis, a brain disease that is rare but deadly among humans.
The Michigan Department of Community Health said Monday that test results show two Kalamazoo County men and a Barry County woman were infected with the mosquito-borne disease.
A 61-year-old man is recovering at home, while a 41-year-old man remains hospitalized and a 52-year-old woman is in a rehabilitation center.
The state says about one-third of humans who get sick with the illness die when symptoms such as fever, chills and vomiting lead to seizures and coma.
Human cases of the virus are rare. Michigan’s cases come amid an outbreak of the disease among horses.
Lansing: Former fugitive falcon back home at zoo
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A peregrine falcon that had escaped its enclosure is back home at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing.
Zoo veterinarian and animal curator Tara Harrison tells the Lansing State Journal the wayward bird was located around 6 p.m. Monday.
Some people spotted the falcon and kept him within their sights until zoo staff arrived. The fugitive falcon flew up into a tree, then circled around and eventually landed on a zoo van.
Harrison says “he was pretty hungry.” She says staff “had a mouse waiting for him.”
