Man charged in theft of artifacts from museum
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A 61-year-old man has been charged in the theft of artifacts from a western Michigan museum that’s housed on a World War II-era warship.
Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson says John Anthony Zaputil is named in a warrant this week charging him with larceny.
Hilson said Zaputil is from Iowa, but had been staying at a Muskegon-area hotel in recent months.
Zaputil declined to comment, citing the advice of an attorney. The Muskegon Chronicle reports Zaputil is a licensed osteopathic physician in Michigan.
Police have said about a dozen items were taken Aug. 3 from the USS LST 393 Veterans Museum in Muskegon, including medals, a shoulder patch and lapel pins. Hilson says they weren’t immediately recovered.
WOOD-TV reports a surveillance photo helped lead investigators to Zaputil.
Michigan courthouse will keep paintings with nude figures
PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — Officials in a Michigan county have reversed course and won’t cover up courthouse paintings that have nude figures and bare-breasted women.
WOOD-TV says Van Buren County commissioners heard from people on both sides Tuesday and decided to leave the paintings alone.
One painting in a stairwell shows a bare-breasted woman holding a decapitated head and a spear. Another painting above a judge’s bench shows a nude man and nude woman begging a woman for mercy. Breasts are exposed on one woman. One painting could be more than 100 years old.
Judge Kathleen Brickley says the paintings are contrary to efforts to “de-escalate trauma rather than revisit trauma.”
But Rose Rook spoke to commissioners and asked, “Do we have to shelter everything?” She says there are attempts to get rid of everything that “makes us uncomfortable.”
Dad accused of abusing, imprisoning kids sentenced to prison
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — One of two Michigan parents accused of punishing their five children with whippings and confinement in a dark, locked bedroom described by one officer as a dungeon has been sentenced to 5 1/2 to 10 years in prison.
The Lansing State Journal reports 33-year-old Yenier Conde was given his punishment Wednesday after earlier pleading no contest to child abuse. He cried in court as his lawyer spoke.
Sarah and Yenier Conde were charged last year. The abuse allegedly occurred over several years and was discovered in 2017 in Lansing. They have lost custody of the children.
Twenty-nine-year-old Sarah Conde was sentenced last month to 3 to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse.
Prosecutors say the children, now between the ages of 7 to 12, are doing well.
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