State Roundup

Tecumseh Hearing on challenge to cemetery mausoleum plan TECUMSEH, Mich. (AP) -- A Lenawee County judge has scheduled an Oct. 10 hearing on a man's complaints about city plans to replace bronze doors with aluminum ones at the 97-year-old mausoleum in Tecumseh's Brookside Cemetery. The Daily Telegram in Adrian says Roland von Kaler is seeking a court order to temporarily halt city plans to replace the original doors with aluminum reproductions. His motion says the city failed to sufficiently explore its options and says the mausoleum "was built of stone, marble and bronze," so "cheap aluminum replacement doors" would be out of character. City Manager Kevin Welch says Tecumseh has been working on the problem for five years and says the City Council voted Aug. 15 accepted a $7,200 bid to replace the doors. Bad Axe Mother of 7-year-old driver faces neglect claim BAD AXE, Mich. (AP) -- The mother of a 7-year-old Michigan boy who took his stepfather's car on a 20-mile journey in June is facing a neglect allegation. The Huron Daily Tribune of Bad Axe and the Detroit Free Press report the woman is due in court Oct. 6. Huron County Prosecutor Timothy Rutkowski says the boy's mother is accused bringing her son with her to spend the night in July at the home of a convicted sex offender. No abuse is suspected. The allegation came to light as authorities looked into the family's situation after the ride June 20 in Huron County. After the ride, Rutkowski in a petition charged the boy, now 8, with unlawful use of a motor vehicle. He says the petition will be dismissed. The boy's father is seeking custody. Howell 2 enter pleas in case of preserved alligator theft HOWELL, Mich. (AP) -- Two of three men who authorities say stole a 14-foot flattened and preserved alligator, strapped it to a pickup truck and took it off-roading have entered pleas in the case. Fifty-five-year-old Douglas Ward of Linden pleaded no contest Friday in Livingston County Circuit Court to breaking and entering while 53-year-old John Sanborn of Harrison pleaded guilty to the same charge. Sentencing is Nov. 10. The case against 60-year-old Roy Griffith of Linden is pending. The charges stem from a June 25 theft from a barn in Hartland Township, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit. Authorities say the alligator's owner found tire tracks near his barn and followed them to a party in Deerfield Township where people were driving their vehicles around in the mud. Authorities say the men were intoxicated. Grand Rapids Court takes car insurance case involving dad, son GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- An insurance company has persuaded the Michigan Supreme Court to decide whether the insurer must pay the medical bills of a man who was drunk and had no license when he crashed his father's car into a tree. Farm Bureau Insurance has been ordered by lower courts to pay about $33,000 to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. Craig Smith Jr. wasn't supposed to be driving his father's Ford Explorer. But Smith's girlfriend had consent and turned the wheel over to him. Farm Bureau says it shouldn't have to pay for what it considers an "unlawful taking" of the vehicle. But a Kent County judge and the state appeals court followed a 1975 Supreme Court case in which the justices said a vehicle's owner assumes the risks. Published: Tue, Sep 27, 2011