Detroit
2 charged in city attack waive their prelim hearings
DETROIT (AP) — Two Detroit men charged in the beating of a motorist after he collided with their vehicle while driving the wrong way on a city street have waived key hearings in the case.
The Detroit News reports 33-year-old Demond Williams and 20-year-old Toriano Williams on Tuesday waived preliminary hearings in the case in 36th District Court. They’re scheduled to make initial appearances on July 22 in trial court.
They’re charged in the June 7 beating of 34-year-old Nate Szczerbinski (sher-BIN’-skee) of Grosse Pointe Park. Charges include assault with intent to do great bodily harm and aggravated assault.
Szczerbinski is white and told police several black men beat him and called him racially derogatory names. The prosecutor’s office says it brought charges based on what could be proven in court.
Detroit
Records: Mayor’s campaign boss owes home taxes
DETROIT (AP) — Records show the chairman of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s election campaign hasn’t paid taxes on a home for the last two years.
The Detroit News reports Conrad Mallett bought the 7,600-square-foot home from the Rev. Jim Holley for $320,000 and didn’t file required paperwork informing the city of the July 2012 sale. That kept it listed as a tax-exempt parsonage.
Taxes are about $10,700 annually. Mallett says he’s ready to pay up and notified the city last month when he discovered the error. He says his real estate agent failed to file paperwork and says he thought his mortgage holder was paying taxes through an escrow account.
Mallett, a former Michigan Supreme Court chief justice, says there was “no intent here at all to not appropriately pay all taxes.”
Lansing
Activist joins campaigns for wolf hunt issue
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The president of the Humane Society of the United States is visiting Michigan to support ballot initiatives designed to stop wolf hunting.
Wayne Pacelle is joining other activists Tuesday at the state Capitol in Lansing to ask that voters be allowed to decide the wolf hunting issue in the election this November.
Pacelle also plans to meet volunteers and potential voters in the Kalamazoo area.
Hunting opponents have gathered enough petition signatures to force two statewide referendums on whether to repeal laws that could allow wolf hunting. But hunting supporters have collected their own signatures in favor of letting the appointed Natural Resources Commission make the decision.
If the Legislature approves that measure, the fall referendums will be moot. If not, voters will see three wolf-related measures on the ballot.
Flint
Lawsuit planned over death during trooper chase
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A prominent Michigan plaintiff’s lawyer and former Democratic nominee for Michigan governor said Monday that he is preparing a lawsuit after a state police car broadsided a vehicle while chasing a suspect in Flint, killing a woman and critically injuring two others.
Three people were returning from a salon Thursday when the police car sped through an intersection and hit their car, attorney Geoffrey Fieger said.
The crash killed Jacqueline Nichols, 64, and injured Precious Cochrane, 61, and Robbie Head, 39, Fieger said. His office said the suit was being filed on behalf of Nichols’ family. Details on when the suit would be filed and in what court were being released at a news conference Tuesday, Fieger’s office said.
The trooper and a civilian passenger sustained less serious injuries.
“It is well known that police take the public’s lives into their hands when they engage in unnecessary and inappropriately conducted police chases,” Fieger said in the statement.
According to preliminary police findings, the car in which Nichols was riding normally would have had the right of way at the intersection, said state police Capt. Gene Kapp, commander of the district that includes Flint.
It is also true that drivers have a legal obligation to yield to emergency vehicles that have activated their lights and sirens, he said. Kapp said it appears that the trooper had turned on the siren and lights. Fieger said the trooper failed to do so.
“Our hearts go out to these victims,” Kapp said.
The investigation of the crash continues, with particular focus on catching the driver whose refusal to stop started the chase, Kapp said.
Flint
Woman sentenced in 2013 shooting of her husband
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting death of her husband in the basement of their rural Michigan home.
The Flint Journal reports Diane Arellano on Monday received the mandatory sentence during a hearing in Genesee County Circuit Court after a jury earlier found her guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Michael Arellano.
Prosecutors said that Arellano’s stepson came home March 1, 2013, to find the 65-year-old man face down in the basement with two gunshot wounds. The home in Genesee County’s Forest Township is near Otisville, about 15 miles northeast of Flint.
Her attorney, Kenneth Karasick, argued that his client was abused by her husband and that Michael Arellano had a drinking problem.
