State Roundup

Detroit
Overdue taxpayers being turned away by county treasury
DETROIT (AP) — Delinquent taxpayers trying to save homes from foreclosure are being turned away in July by the Wayne County treasurer’s office.
The Detroit News reports a new policy gives local communities and the state a month to decide if they want to buy the properties.
Sixty-two-year-old Kathleen Butler of Detroit showed up last week to pay her $700 bill, but instead left without getting it done. She says she fell behind on taxes on the home she’s owned for 37 years because of medical problems and calls the change “horrible.”
Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz had been letting owners pay bills and retain their properties up to the September and October foreclosure auctions. His office says taxpayers can still save their properties in August, if local communities and state don’t want them.

Grand Rapids
Lawsuit: Girl allowed to leave school, was raped
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The parents of a 14-year-old girl have filed a federal lawsuit alleging their daughter left her Grand Rapids school last year without their permission, then wound up being repeatedly raped.
The suit was filed Monday against Hope Academy of West Michigan and the Grand Rapids police, among others. The police are accused of treating the case as that of a runaway.
Grand Rapids City Attorney Catherine Mish says she has no comment. A message was left Tuesday with Hope Academy.
According to the lawsuit, the student was told by a school worker that she was suspended for misbehaving and not to be on school property.
The girl left and was approached by a man who raped her inside his home. The lawsuit says she was gang-raped at two other places.

Kalamazoo
Review planned after stray bullet hits home, woman
TEXAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A group in southwestern Michigan plans to review local firearms regulations after a stray bullet shot during target practice hit a home and a woman.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the board of trustees in Kalamazoo County’s Texas Township on Monday approved plans for the work group.
At a May meeting, Lindsey Seelye told the board that on April 27 a rifle bullet struck her home, ricocheted off the house and hit her mother in the back. Seelye says the bullet was traced by investigators to a property where target practice took place.
Officials want to look at how or whether to regulate firearm use in the township.

Shelby Township
911 calls capture anxiety as shots reported on 4th
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A series of 911 calls capture fear of suburban Detroit residents reporting a vehicle with a mounted machine gun that they thought was firing shots on the Fourth of July.
It turned out that the armor-plated military-type vehicle that featured a modified World War II .50-caliber machine gun had been converted to fire compressed gas, which produced bright flashes and loud gunfire sounds. Still, the reports sent officers swarming late Thursday.
Police in Macomb County’s Shelby Township say a man in his 40s was arrested and they confiscated the vehicle. He was released Friday and charges are pending.
In one recording, sounds similar to gunshots can be heard. About 10 minutes later, a caller told police that the vehicle was owned by a neighbor and real shots weren’t fired.

Keene Township
Probe into fire on historic bridge could take weeks
KEENE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Investigators say it could be weeks before they officially determine the cause of a fire that destroyed one of Michigan’s oldest covered wooden bridges.
Trevor Slater, a detective sergeant with the Michigan State Police fire investigation unit, tells The Grand Rapids Press that he has “an idea” on the origin of the Whites Bridge fire. He says officials are awaiting results of a lab analysis before being more specific.
The Ionia County sheriff’s department has described the early Sunday fire as arson.
A criminal investigation is ongoing. On Monday, investigators took debris samples and walked the remains of the bridge with accelerant-sniffing dogs.
The bridge was built in the late 1860s. It crossed the Flat River in Ionia County’s Keene Township, about 15 miles east of Grand Rapids.

Port Huron
Ore. woman to face trial in mom’s death
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — A judge has ordered an Oregon woman to stand trial on a murder charge in the death of her 89-year-old mother whose body was left outside a Michigan thrift store.
Judge John Monaghan says there’s evidence that reckless acts by Kelly Rhodes contributed to the death of Mary Grenia of Salem, Ore. He says the dumping of the body near Port Huron was a “callous” act.
Rhodes and Grenia lived together. Traveling in a truck, they passed through Michigan while attempting to move to Ontario, Canada, in March but were turned away at the border. Grenia died in the truck a few days later. An autopsy revealed heart and lung disease.
Rhodes is charged with an open count of murder. A jury can determine whether it’s first- or second-degree murder.o