Drunk driving trial with trooper begins and then ends, declared mistrial

[Dave]

The trial of MSP officer Sammy Seymour was over about as quickly as it began. No word yet as to whether or not they will try and do this over again.

LUDINGTON — The 79th District Court trial of the City of Ludington vs. Sammy Seymour began this morning. Seymour, a Michigan State Police trooper, was arrested on Jan. 17, 2015, by Ludington Police Dept. and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

A six person jury, consisting of three men and three women, was seated for the trial, which is expected to last a day, according to Mason County Assistant Prosecutor John D. Middlebrook. Several weeks ago, Judge Pete Wadel ruled that the jury is not allowed to consider Seymour’s occupation as a police officer when considering the case.

LPD Sgt. Steve Wietrzkowski testifies

Seymour was pulled over about 2 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2015 by Ludington Police Sgt. Stephen Wietrzkowski on Delia Street south of Loomis Street. Wietrzkowski testified that he observed the vehicle a few blocks away, parked “cockeyed” near the corner of Loomis and Harrison streets.

Wietrzkowski said when he pulled over the vehicle he recognized Seymour and smelled alcohol. Seymour had two passengers in the vehicle, including Seymour’s sister, Kimberly Septrion, who was eventually arrested for assaulting and obstructing a police officer. Wietrzkowski asked Seymour to exit the vehicle and asked him to take a field sobriety test. He said he found a can of beer, Busch Light, in the vehicle that contained “about enough beer to fill a Dixie cup.” He also said that Seymour appeared “glassy eyed.”

Seymour refused to take a breath test, therefore he was arrested requested to take a chemical blood test. Wietrzkowski testified that Seymour did fairly well with the field sobriety tests.

Defense attorney Mike Nichols stated to the jury that the prosecution must prove that Seymour was operating the vehicle with a blood alcohol level of .08 grams of alcohol for 210 liters of breath.

The defense is not denying that Seymour was operating the vehicle, which is one of the points that the city must prove.

Seymour, who lives in Mason County, is a state police trooper assigned to the MSP Cadillac post.

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2015/05/11/drunk-driving-trial-agai...

Here's a update...

By Rob Alway. Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — The drunk driving trial of Michigan State Police Trooper Sammy Seymour has ended as a mistrial due to a hung jury. After deliberating for about 90 minutes, the six jurors came out of the jury room and announced that they could not come to an agreement. At that time, 79th District Court Judge Pete Wadel instructed the jury to return and discuss the case some more. When the jury came back about 40 minutes later, Judge Wadel declared a mistrial.

Being a criminal trial the jury must unanimously decide the verdict.

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2015/05/12/drunk-driving-trial-with...

[AQUAMAN]

Uh ha.........hmm..........surprised? Thanks for the update Dave. Staggering to know why, so is Sammy, staggering I mean.

[XLFD]

If the Datamaster test has been ruled inadmissible, there really is no point in doing a new trial unless the prosecution is able to shop for a new judge who isn't as defendant-friendly in drunk driving cases as Judge Wadel.  This is just a small preliminary, however, there will soon be his sister's federal lawsuit to pay for due to Mason County Sheriff Deputy Fort's power trip that night.

This fairly routine traffic stop will wind up making all three police agencies look foolish.  The MSP for having a drunk driver as a trooper, the MCSO for having an egotistical sadist in their ranks, and the LPD for having the inability to make a slam dunk drunk driving conviction stand due to not conducting the process right.  Yet with all those costly blunders by our local public law enforcement officials, our Ludington officials assure us that we have the best police right here.  That's scary.

[AQUAMAN]

And it's only costing the taxpayers about $5 Million per year for this local mod squads. Methinks they need a new breathalyzer testing machine now.

[XLFD]

And schedule some annual retraining in its use, so wise attorneys and those who train in the tests like Trooper Seymour can't negate the findings. 

And of course, even with the lack of a good case the prosecution is going to retry the DWI of Sammy, they announced earlier today. 

[AQUAMAN]

Maybe if they retry him again, this time they should require that all jurors be resident's outside of Mason County. Duh!

[AQUAMAN]

Lots of either intentional or unintentional mistakes made by LPD on this case. Simple case, procedures commonly expected and trained for not implemented properly, says Judge Peter Wadel. Jury had no choice. Datamaster test is thrown out, inadmissable evidence. Other sobriety tests also not done correctly, per Judge. I don't see where there is any evidence left to convict on second time around. More wastes of taxpayer money to take this to trial again imho. LPD officer couldn't even get the auto headlights point across, wrong on that too. Confused headlights for tail lights, duh! Best thing for everyone is to just let this rest now, hoping Sammy also learned his lesson. No sane prosecutor should or would try this case again just based on the lack of evidence and wrongful procedures used. Chief Barnett should put this officer on unpaid leave imho, and get him retrained properly, else fire him for incompetence. But I'll bet he doesn't, just let it slide again, just like the excessive force guys.

[Willy]

Working as a police officer, trooper Seymour learned which attorneys do best in court. He chose well in this instance. This case isn't something to brag about, either by Seymour or the LPD. Not much can be said about the Prosecutor's office as well. This should have been a slam dunk for the prosecution but it turned out to be an embarrassment. Retrying the case would be a mistake.

[Jasper]

Yup....Sammy hired the best!  All those whining and complaining should realize instead of plea bargaining with the system need to realize that money talks and a "Court appointed Attorney," does not give a rat's behind. Court appointed attorney's do not care as they are compensated very little!  Again, Money Talks...The money spent on a real-time attorney will research case laws, unlike the court appointed attorney which could give two shinola's less. Is this a fair system?  Absolutely not, but it is a fact!  Sammy will pay dearly financially for his legal defense.

So, for all the whiner's don't plea out with a court appointed attorney, unless of course there is definite evidence you committed the crime-----not some screwed up cop's word that can't even write an accurate report!  HA!!

[XLFD]

I never heard anything bad about Annette Smedley when she was the court appointed attorney here, but I keep getting bad reports about David Glancy.  If you want someone to waive your rights to a pre-lim when the facts and evidence are sketchy, he's your man.  You're just a widget that he'll get paid for whether you get off or not, so you won't get quality service.  If you want someone to work for you rather than for the system, insist on anyone else, IMHO. 

Do your research on the web and see who will work best for you, and find the money for a defense if you are innocent or even if you believe the prosecution would have a hard time proving your guilt. 

[Jasper]

Not familiar with any cases Smedley was involved in other than Sean Phillip's, and we all know how that went---maybe if Sean had hired an attorney he would not be sitting in prison.

[XLFD]

I am not all that familiar with her overall performances myself, I base my opinion of Smedley primarily on two aspects of her tenure:  1) the lack of any credible criticisms of her public defender actions by those who filtered through our local courts (I hear tell of David Glancy critiques quite often lately).  2) Her performance at the Phillips' trial, particularly at the preliminary hearing.  It was obvious she did her research and was working for her client. 

Judge Cooper's circuit court was not an easy place to be a defense attorney, and I bet few paid attorneys could do much better with what was on her plate for the Phillip's trial.

[wildfire]

well if you want to be hung n go to jail/prison then David Glancy is your man, he never returns your calls, never does the work is suppose to you end up doing all the stuff, hes just their to try and look good, get someone else and not alot of them you see online are good either do reseach on them before you pick them like how long they been in the business , what's their back ground.