Blissfield
Plans in works for agricultural museum in state
BLISSFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A new agricultural museum in Michigan would include a collection of 6,000 farm toys as well as displays on the history of agriculture and agriculture technology, organizers said.
Rhode Island-based architect Friedrich St. Florian, who designed the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., showed a design concept last week for the Agricultural Awareness and Preservation Museum, The Daily Telegram of Adrian reported.
St. Florian said he was inspired by barns in the design for the 30,000-square-foot museum, which would be built in Blissfield, about 55 miles southwest of Detroit. He said the design was obvious and he wanted to use a structure that was a versatile and flexible part of the family farm.
“I wanted to start with a barn,” he said. “But you can’t just copy in architecture. With architecture, you have to be inspired.”
The museum is designed as three connected barns. The museum would have two floors with the upper mezzanine overlooking the entire main floor. The site is adjacent to farmland, which could be used as a classroom setting and a demonstration farm, St. Florian said.
But the heart of the museum will be the farm toys, said Melissa Growden, marketing coordinator and secretary of the museum’s board. The museum board looked at several different possible sites, but decided on Blissfield because of its rich agricultural heritage.
Fundraising is taking place for the project.
Plans call for the museum to be built at the site of the former Blissfield Canning Co. The village bought the 35-acre property about four years ago, and village President Mike Gunter said the village council supports the idea for a museum at the site.
“We see a lot of potential for what this can do for the village and for Lenawee County,” Gunter said. “This embraces Blissfield, it embraces our history, our heritage. To have something along these lines come into the village, it fits, it just makes sense.”
Bay City
Man requests 35-year sentence in boy’s death
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) — A man who killed a 4-year-old boy on a central Michigan Indian reservation is asking for a 35-year prison sentence, five years under the maximum in his deal with prosecutors.
Anthony Bennett returns Thursday to Bay City federal court. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December, admitting he delivered a fatal punch to Carnel Chamberlain and then burned the body.
Bennett lived on the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation with the boy and the boy’s mother. Carnel was killed in 2012.
In a court filing Monday, attorney John Shea says Bennett has taken responsibility and will accept the “just consequences.” Bennett can withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial if Judge Thomas Ludington chooses a prison sentence beyond 40 years.
East Lansing
Man to get exam in slaying near Michigan State
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A 34-year-old man charged in two fatal shootings minutes apart near Michigan State University will undergo tests to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
District Court Judge Richard Ball on Tuesday ordered Ricard Taylor to be evaluated at a state psychiatric facility. The Lansing State Journal reports the request for testing was made through an agreement involving prosecutors and defense lawyer Keith Watson.
Taylor is charged two counts of murder and five gun-related charges.
Police say 35-year-old pharmacist Michael Addo of Mason was killed on May 12 at a Rite Aid store in Lansing Township. Shot minutes later at his East Lansing home was 27-year-old Jordan Rogers.
Taylor lived next door to Rogers. Taylor was arrested following a standoff in connection with both shootings.
Grand Rapids
Guard attacked by inmate wins disability pension
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Kent County jail guard who was fired after being attacked by an inmate will receive disability benefits.
The Grand Rapids Press reports Tuesday the county pension board found that Jaclynn Rodriguez is eligible for the benefits, which will continue indefinitely unless she is offered the same job by the sheriff’s department.
Rodriguez was 23 and had been on the job for about 9 months when she was nearly choked to death by robbery suspect Willie Lee-Wilson Williams during a 2012 escape attempt.
Following the assault, Rodriguez went on leave but remained an employee of the sheriff’s department for more than a year until the department terminated her saying she did not successfully complete a probationary period.
Williams is serving an 80-to-160-year prison sentence for the attack on Rodriguez.
Watersmeet
Feds challenged over boats in Upper Peninsula
WATERSMEET, Mich. (AP) — Owners of property in the western Upper Peninsula are suing the U.S. Forest Service over restrictions on gas-powered boats in a wilderness area.
David and Pamela Herr say they fear prosecution if they use boats on Crooked Lake in Gogebic County. They received a letter from the government in 2013, three years after buying property.
The government’s lake restrictions were turned into a well-publicized legal battle in the 1990s. The Forest Service says only people who sued in that case can use gas-powered boats within the Sylvania Wilderness Area.
The Herr property is outside the designated wilderness area, but the couple wants to use boats on the rest of the lake that is part of the wilderness. The Herrs have filed a lawsuit in Marquette federal court.
Ionia
Jury convicts funeral director of embezzlement
IONIA, Mich. (AP) — A jury in western Michigan has found the ex-owner of Ionia County funeral homes guilty on all counts in a case that accuses him of creating false death certificates and stealing about $500,000.
Michigan Assistant Attorney General Denise Hart says checks were written to the personal business account of Marti Schrauben after he submitted dozen of claims to insurance companies for people who were alive.
On Monday, an Ionia County Circuit Court jury found the 40-year-old guilty of 26 counts that include embezzlement, racketeering and forgery.
No sentencing date was immediately set. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Schrauben took a plea deal in 2013 but it fell apart after Judge David Hoort said he couldn’t follow the maximum one-year jail sentence.
Sturgis
Prosecutor: Fire trooper who pulled gun on speeder
STURGIS, Mich. (AP) — A southwestern Michigan prosecutor has called for the firing of a state trooper who pulled a gun on an 18-year-old woman whom he had stopped for speeding.
The Kalamazoo Gazette obtained a video showing the trooper leaving his cruiser with gun drawn, then handcuffing the woman and putting her in the backseat of his cruiser.
State police asked St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough to investigate the April 15 traffic stop on U.S. 12 near Sturgis. The Associated Press is not naming the trooper because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
In a statement, the prosecutor said he was “appalled and disgusted” by the trooper’s actions. McDonough said he did not want the trooper “to have the opportunity to do anything like this again and certainly not in St. Joseph County.”
Authorities say the woman was driving 77 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone and stopped about 35 seconds after the trooper activated his lights and siren. They say she was rushing home because her father had called her to say that their home had been burglarized.
“I chased you for two miles with my lights and sirens at almost 80 mph. Do you see a problem with that?” he asked her.
“Yes, I do,” she responded in the video recording. “I honestly didn’t see you.”
In a written statement to a supervisor, the trooper said he was thinking about the 2013 fatal shooting of Michigan state Trooper Paul Butterfield II during a traffic stop.
“With the recent incident ... at the forefront of my mind, I elected to ‘clear’ the vehicle for my safety as I feel the vehicle could have suddenly pulled to the side in an effort to lure me into a vulnerable position where I could easily be shot,” the trooper said in the statement, which the newspaper obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The trooper is on paid leave during the investigation.
