State Roundup

Warren
Lawsuit: Church’s ‘blind eye’ led to boy’s assault
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — A lawsuit claims officials at a suburban Detroit church should have stopped a former pastor from influencing a 15-year-old boy he later sexually assaulted.
The civil suit filed against the Antioch Baptist Church and Academy in Warren also claims Christopher Settlemoir shouldn’t have been hired because officials knew about his pedophilic tendencies.
Settlemoir last year pleaded no contest to charges he sexually assaulted the boy and accosted another. The 29-year-old former Warren resident is serving a seven- to 15-year prison term.
The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens says the suit filed Friday by “John Doe” in Macomb County Circuit Court seeks more than $25,000 in damages and claims a minor child was assaulted “dozens of times” while staff turned a “blind eye.”
Senior Pastor Doug Brandenburg declined comment.

Ann Arbor
Enrollment at U-M rises to new high, reaching 43,426
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The University of Michigan says it has its largest student body in school history for the fourth consecutive year.
AnnArbor.com reports enrollment at the university’s Ann Arbor campus is 43,426, up 1.7 percent from fall 2011. The increase comes despite a 1.3 percent decline in freshmen enrollment to 6,171. The number of freshmen the previous two years led to a housing crunch and some larger classes.
Overall, there are 27,979 undergraduates and 15,447 graduate students.
The University of Michigan has said it has seen six consecutive years with a record number of applications.
Lansing
Disease kills more than 10,400 deer in state counties
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Officials say an insect-spread deer disease has been found in at least 29 Michigan counties and is to blame for the deaths of more than 10,400 deer in the state.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced new figures Monday on the illness.
It’s called epizootic hemorrhagic disease. The virus causes extensive internal bleeding and is transmitted by a type of biting fly called a midge.
The disease isn’t a threat to humans.
The DNR says it expects that hunters will find more dead deer. It wants people to continue to report sightings of dead deer.
The DNR will be taking reports of dead deer that are likely EHD-related until Jan. 1. Reports may be made to wildlife offices or by filling out an online form.

Howell
Teen pleads guilty in crash injuring school worker
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — A 16-year-old Michigan high school student who authorities say struck a security officer with a vehicle in a school parking lot has pleaded guilty in the case.
The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell reports the boy entered the plea Monday to operating a vehicle while intoxicated and causing injury. He was charged as a juvenile and is due back in court Nov. 19 for sentencing on the charge and a marijuana possession charge.
The Livingston County sheriff’s department says the boy in May sprayed a household product from an aerosol can into a rag and passed out after inhaling it. Susan Hazzard was hit outside Hartland High School in Hartland Township, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit. She was hospitalized afterward.

Lansing
Community health centers get some federal support
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Nearly two dozen community health centers in Michigan are getting funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
The Michigan Department of Community Health announced Tuesday that the money for 22 centers aims to enhance the quality of care and allow more women to be screened for cervical cancer.
Each community health center will get $55,000. Locations are around the state, including Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, Detroit, Marquette, Muskegon and Kalamazoo.

Eaton Rapids
Children’s home worker facing sex charges dies
EATON RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a Lansing-area woman charged with criminal sexual conduct following allegations that minors at a VFW National Home for Children were abused has died.
Eaton Rapids police Chief Paul Malewski says his department responded Saturday night to a call of a woman in distress and she died despite life-saving measures. Malewski says a cause of death for Misty Botke wasn’t immediately known.
The 44-year-old Botke was arraigned last Tuesday in Mason District Court. She pleaded not guilty.
Two people told authorities they were assaulted from 1998 to 2006 at the VFW home in Eaton Rapids. Ingham County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Lisa McCormick says charges will be dismissed.
Botke’s lawyer, Lawrence Nolan, says an autopsy was performed Monday and toxicology tests ordered to determine a cause of death.

Hillsdale
Feds and owner of slaughterhouse in dispute over visit
HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) — Federal inspectors are suing to get inside a small slaughterhouse in Hillsdale County after the owner said they could visit only “over my dead body.”
The legal action is the latest salvo in a seven-year feud between Hickory Hills Processing and the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service. Donald Carpenter said he’s exempt from inspections because he only butchers animals, typically cows, for people who want meat for personal use. He doesn’t have retail or wholesale sales.
The government acknowledges there’s an exemption for custom shops but insists it has the right to visit Hickory Hills, look at records and inspect the premises, about 80 miles south of Lansing.
“They don’t need to be here,” Carpenter said in a phone interview Monday. “You bring me a cow. I butcher it. You take it home. ... They just want to push me to see how far they can push me because I stood up for my rights.”
The government first learned about the slaughterhouse in 2005, and asked Carpenter to allow an inspection. He refused, which sparked months of conflict.
Armed with a court order in 2007, inspectors entered and said they found two violations, including pest control. They got another court order to enter two years later, although Carpenter refused to turn the lights on, limiting the review.
Inspectors haven’t been back inside since September 2011, when they found a handful of problems, including sanitation issues. The latest lawsuit says the government called in July to set up an inspection, but Carpenter replied: “over my dead body.”
In an Oct. 5 filing in Grand Rapids federal court, the government accused Carpenter of a history of “defiant behavior” and threats.
Unless a judge intervenes, the government will be prevented from “fulfilling its public safety mission of ensuring that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, not adulterated, correctly marked, labeled and packaged,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Almassian said.
Carpenter, 61, said he has no employees and does the work himself.
“I’ve got two packets of paper, 2 inches thick. I haven’t read through it,” he said of the lawsuit. “I’m ready to just quit.”

Boston
3 Mich. residents sue Mass. firm after injection
BOSTON (AP) — Three Michigan residents have filed suit in Massachusetts after allegedly developing fungal meningitis following an injection of a tainted steroid produced by a Massachusetts company.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, two women and a man, said the lawsuits filed Monday in Suffolk County are the first filed in Massachusetts against the New England Compounding Center of Framingham.
Chicago attorney Elizabeth Kaveny said the suits are just the “tip of the iceberg” for the company, which has ceased operations and recalled all its medicines. A company spokesman declined comment.
The outbreak has sickened nearly 300, including 23 who died. Each received a steroid shot, mostly for back pain.
Federal health officials matched the shots produced by the New England Compounding Center to the outbreak after finding the deadly fungus in more than 50 unopened vials there.

Lake Orion
Former girl’s lacrosse coach faces sex charges
LAKE ORION, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-old former high school girl’s lacrosse coach faces charges stemming from an alleged relationship with a female student.
The Oakland County sheriff’s office says Monday in a release that Reanna Douglas of Auburn Hills was arraigned on third-degree criminal sexual conduct charges.
Sheriff’s officials said the family of a 15-year-old at Lake Orion High School, north of Detroit, reported an inappropriate relationship.
Douglas had been contracted to coach the team. Her contract was terminated after the district learned of the allegations.
Douglas was given a $15,000 bond at her arraignment last week in Rochester Hills District Court.
Her attorney, John Freeman, tells the Detroit Free Press that Douglas is presumed innocent and there are no allegations of force or coercion.