Citizens Impersonating Police, Police Impersonating Criminals in Bay City, Ludington

[XLFD]

 In late June, two stories originating from Bay City were very instructive as to the differentiation between common citizens and the police force and what is to be expected in our society.  The first deals with the seemingly undirected impersonation of a police officer by a minor, who gets caught and threatened with a year in jail and some stiff fines (for a minor). 

The second deals with three Bay City Police Officers who decide to use their authority in ways that were harmful to an individual apparently innocent of any crime.  They allegedly stole the man's property, falsely arrested the man, placed him in cuffs in the back of a squad car, made several verbal threats heard by others who caught most of the hi jinx on camera.  All because the man posted a picture on Facebook of that vehicle parked in a manner contrary to law.  After the incident happened on May 1, all three officers eventually resigned by the end of June.

In Bay City, a harmless boy police impersonator faces a year in jail, these officers stole, unlawfully imprisoned, and assaulted (with loaded verbal threats) a man, and will likely cost the community a bundle when the man rightly gets remunerated for his degradation by the city's insurance.  And they will not get criminally arraigned at all. 

A Bay County teenager is in the jail after police said he visited a downtown Bay City hotel and pretended to be a cop.

At a press conference held Monday, June 23, Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini said his officers arrested a 17-year-old man at about 11 a.m. today on a charge of false representation of a police officer. That charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.

The man at about 10:54 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, stopped by the Budget Inn, 1305 Washington Ave., telling staff that he was responding to a fight in one of the rooms. There was no such fight and police were not summoned to the scene, Cecchini said.

The man wore a makeshift uniform, featuring a badge on his chest and Michigan State Police shoulder patches, as depicted in a photo taken from surveillance camera footage. The man did not have a firearm, Cecchini said.

A legitimate police officer happened to drive by the hotel shortly after the impersonator left and an employee flagged him down. The officer took a report and, after the department posted a photo of the man on its Facebook page, a tipster called and identified the man, Cecchini said.

The teen confessed to arresting officers that he was indeed the man at the hotel, Cecchini said.

Cecchini characterized the teen as having an infatuation with law enforcement.

"You see this time to time," Cecchini said. "People need to be aware that this can happen."

The director said that if a citizen is unsure if an apparent officer is legitimate, they can politely ask to see their commission card or call 911 to ask if the officer is authentic or to speak with a supervisor.

Cecchini [below, showing how to identify a real officer] said this is the only incident he is aware of involving this teen pretending to be an officer. He added that while no one was hurt, it is a serious situation.

"You don't know what is going through his mind when he does this," he said.

The teen is to be arraigned in Bay County District Court at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24. His name is being withheld pending arraignment. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2014/06/police_arrest_...

MORE

"Three officers in this community basically gave their career away over a Facebook post," Gower said. 

Gower represents the 39-year old man who was at Steamer's Bar in Bay City on May 1 and who took a picture that shows a Bay City police SUV parked on the wrong side of the road near another bar. The picture was posted to Facebook, and that's when Gower said three officers, two on-duty and one off-duty, overstepped their bounds.

"A uniformed officer and an off-duty officer approached him and started making verbal threats, threats of bodily harm, threats that he's a marked man, threats of that nature," Gower said. 

Gower said the man, who doesn't want to be identified, ultimately ended up in cuffed and in the back of a police car, all while being recorded by bystanders. He was ultimately let go, but his $600 phone was gone.

"The phone was ultimately stolen from him, but that is caught on video, not being taken from him, but the off-duty officer actually has the phone in his hand, and there is video to support that contention," Gower said.

Gower said the man filed a citizen's complaint the next day against the officers. Those three officers, identified as Brian Ritchey, Don Aldrich and Keath Bartynski, were put on paid leave while an internal investigation began. On Tuesday, TV5 learned the three officers resigned.

"Anything short of termination would not be satisfactory to us, so when I heard that they resigned, I think that it certainly gave credence to my statements and the statements of my client that something certainly did happen," Gower said.

Calls to the Bay City Police Chief and the Bay County prosecutor were not returned Tuesday night.  

Bay City Police Chief Michael Cecchini [pictured above, showing how to identify a real officer] told TV5 last week the officers were placed on leave a few days after the incident on May 1. The officers had been on leave for about seven weeks.  He did not go into details but did say the officers were not responding to a call. 

http://www.wnem.com/story/22628038/bay-city-police-officers-resign-...

It will also be noted that these same things happen here in Ludington with different results.  Police Chief Mark Barnett said regarding his reserve police officers at the April 28, 2014 city council meeting':  "They do take an oath, but they are not sworn or entrusted with any police authority.  Their authority is derived from the uniformed police officer they work with.  Therefore, they have no legal right to make an arrest independent of another officer.  They are under supervision of, and work under the authority of the officer they are partnered with." 

But State law (MCL 750.217c) says that: "A person shall not impersonate, falsely represent himself or herself as, or falsely act as a public officer or public employee and prepare, issue, serve, execute, or otherwise act to further the operation of any legal process or unauthorized process that affects or purports to affect persons or property."  

   

The LPD Reserve Force is not authorized by any state or local statute, the city attorney has argued that they are not office-holders, nor is their any publicly-available rules and standards regarding these officers.  Yet they can act with full authority of a police officer when partnered with a LPD officer, according to Chief Barnett and in practice.  This puts them in conflict with the above law, and guilty of a misdemeanor any time they put on the uniform, strap on the gun and radio and do anything in the realm of actual police work.  The youth in Bay City actually had done nothing in line with actual police work, only represented himself falsely, and should have had any charges dropped.

As for police acting like criminals in Ludington, there is no better example than the one whose five year anniversary is coming up: the Joe McAdam incident, involving the assault on Joe on the streets of Ludington and in the hospital by a mixed force of city policemen and county deputies.  Followed by the malicious prosecution of Joe by those same officers for a non-existent assault on them.  Ultimately, followed by Joe fighting back in Federal Court for a sizable settlement, which should have taken more into account.

On Tuesday, July 8th I will go before the Mason County Board to deliver a presentation spotlighting this incident, showing the complete video, and discuss with the commissioners ways to avoid such events in the future, and how best to respond when it does. 

[XLFD]

Follow up:  A Bay County teenager police say impersonated one of their own in a downtown Bay City hotel has been charged with a misdemeanor.

Tyler D. Shorkey, 17, on Tuesday, July 8, voluntarily appeared for arraignment in Bay County District Court on a charge of false personation of a public officer. The charge is punishable by up to one year in jail.

Police met with and arrested Shorkey the morning of June 23. He confessed to the officers that he was indeed the man at the hotel, Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini has said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2014/07/bay_county_tee...

Any police reserve officer that has no official, publicly available endorsement of authority by any city, township, county, etc. should be treated the same, and the police chiefs that create these illegal forces should be properly disciplined.  It's the law:  "A person shall not impersonate, falsely represent himself or herself as, or falsely act as a public officer or public employee and prepare, issue, serve, execute, or otherwise act to further the operation of any legal process or unauthorized process that affects or purports to affect persons or property."

Prosecuting a kid for this offense when we have the Mayor of Ludington/Reserve Police Sergeant Ryan Cox (and about a dozen others) openly impersonating officers here in Ludington using real government-purchased badges, uniforms, guns, etc. is a travesty of justice.  "Equal Justice Under Law"-- such a great concept it was etched on the Supreme Court building, but which has been perverted by those who use unauthorized authority to create a second and third tier of law in America.

[Willy]

Very good points X. The problem with the teen is that noone knew his intentions except himself. He could have been a weirdo. When people impersonate an officer it creates doubt as to who actually is "legally" allowed to enforce the law. In the case of Ludington's reserves the fact that they are paired with a "legitimage officer" makes their situation a little different than that of the teenager, however you are right in that the LPD reserves need to be legitamize not only for legal reasons regarding possible law suits but so that the public will have confidence in the fact that those reserve officers are legally performing tasks assigned to them.

[XLFD]

There will be no disagreement about what the teen did being a bit creepy, and worthy of police involvement to dissuade him from doing such stuff in the future-- and to figure out what was going on inside his head.  But since he committed no actual 'police activity', nor was he likely to do so at a disturbance that did not exist, I think Community Mental Health is a better use of resources, rather than giving him a criminal record for emulation of his heroes.  Maybe 'former heroes', after he goes through this ordeal.

In Ludington, every time a reserved officer gets an assignment that will leave him unaccompanied by another officer for any period of time (such as if they issue parking tickets (which beach patrol officers do regularly), do traffic control at a scene or at a corner, etc.) and use the authority afforded by the uniform, badge, and Glock, they are effectively operating against the law.  If they are with other officers, it is still unlawful by this State and City for any or all police powers to be transferred by the association. 

You will note that when Chief Barnett and Attorney Wilson try to explain their positions, they never point to any sort of legal authority or law.  At best, Wilson will refer to precedents that are not applicable to the current situation.

[Willy]

I think Wilson is one of the big problems the City has because I'm sure they have taken legal directions from him to act on many of the problems and situations they have encountered. I would like the City to contract with several attorneys so that the advice they recieve is crossed checked for accuracy but I know that would be to expensive. But when we figure in the cost of all the litigation that has taken place due to the illegal activity perpetrated by public officials the multiple attorneys idea doesn't sound so bad and could possibly have saved the City's tax payers a lot of their hard earned money.

[AQUAMAN]

That's a very good point Willy, if we were dealing with city officials that want accuracy and honesty. Do you really think that's what current city officials and the city council want these days? If so, they sure have a strange way of showing it, quite the contrary is what I see. Wilson is not only a suck-up, but a true shyster in the most clever and devious sense of the word. His job centers on deceit and maneuvers that bend and usurp the laws to the furthest extremes, to accomplish the end goal, winning at any cost, and at any lost virtue. 

[XLFD]

Both of you are essentially correct in your assessment.  Richard Wilson (and his law firm) is a big problem for the citizens of Ludington, because he and his law firm partner George V. Saylor, have shown that they have little regard for the duties of their job as City Attorney to the people of Ludington (Saylor and Wilson reside, and are based, in Manistee County, currently in service of a Grand Rapids law firm). 

The problem with second opinions of legal opinions/decisions is that if two attorneys do differ, the difference may develop into a court action, and extra expense to everyone, more dollars for the differing lawyers.  One could hope that if attorneys continually make decisions that counter ethical considerations and standing laws, that the people who depend on those attorneys (like the Ludington City Council, John Shay) would wise up-- unless those people are using that lawyer to help cover up or obfuscate their own lack of ethics and lawbreaking.  That is what has been happening in Ludington.