Mason county's justice system and law enforcement is out of control.  An article written by Patti Klevorn of the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) tells a story that illustrates this.  This article is reprinted in it's entirety below for analysis. 

A series of errors by legal professionals may have a 56 year old Amber Township man sitting behind bars for the rest of his life, because the system failed to protect his rights.  It starts off with a process server coming by 'his home' to serve him eviction papers.  The guy doesn't come to the door to accept the process, so the server calls for police assistance.

As a former apartment manager, I've had to go through the routine of serving eviction papers to deadbeat tenants, so I can commiserate with the frustration of the server.  However, the man had a legal right not to come to the door to receive the eviction.  The server should have let it go, and tried again.  When the MCSO arrived they should have explained to the process server (who could be a professional or just a normal person) that they cannot force the man to open the door and be served. 

According to the article, the deputies were talking with the man at his door when he made a reference to shooting.  From the circumstances, it would probably have been something like "Get off my property, or I will start shooting."  The article is unclear and taken from the deputies involved, which makes me think that it wasn't a hard threat. 

What was threatening was that the deputies then invaded the man's home, escalating the situation and likely violating the man's Fourth Amendment rights to be secure in his home.  I say likely, because mentioning 'shooting' in a non-specific way would usually not rise to an exigent circumstance to have law enforcement operatives invade a person's house absent of a warrant.  They received a felony arrest warrant shortly thereafter on the basis of the man's defense of his homestead.

As we sort through the verifiable facts, let's not forget how the Mason County Sheriff's Office escalated simple traffic stops, attacking innocent vehicle passengers, Kimberly Septrion, and Joseph McAdam and charging them with serious crimes when they were actually the victim of serious crimes conducted by the MCSO.  Thankfully, we have tapes of those encounters; it is yet unknown whether we will have records of this interaction that went bad, that would indicate whether there were any threats and whether it was legitimate for the deputies to do what they did.

Perhaps if we do, we can once again observe how poorly our county trains its deputies.  We will try to update this story as new information comes in.  There is a fair possibility that the process server worked for the MCSO, here is what they provide to landlords concerning this service.  If that was the case, they surely should know their bounds and not have to call for backup to serve process papers.

Ambulances from Grant Township Fire & Rescue and Life EMS block Amber Road at Countyline Road in Mason County's Grant Township Friday afternoon as they wait to hear if they are needed at the scene in which Mason County Sheriff's Office deputies say a man threatened to shoot them. 

GRANT TOWNSHIP — What started as service of an eviction notice ended in a 56-year-old man threatening to shoot Mason County sheriff’s deputies Friday afternoon. 

It could have ended much worse, Sheriff Kim Cole said. 

No shots were fired and no one was hurt or killed. 

“There is nothing to indicate the community is at risk,” Cole said. 

He does not have a violent criminal history, deputies determined, and they are learning more about him personally now through communication with people who are familiar with him. 

There is an arrest warrant for the man and the department is taking this time to re-evaluate the situation and let the man’s emotions settle. How and when he’ll be arrested is to be determined. 

“The arrest warrant is not going to go away,” Cole said. 

Two deputies were at the scene of the North Amber Road residence after they were called to assist a process server when the man refused to come to the door for the server to give an eviction court order.

The home is in foreclosure. 

Deputies went to the door of the home in the rural area off Countyline Road Friday. The man made a comment about shooting and went back into the house. The deputies went in after him. 

“He made it into a bedroom and again said something about shooting at them, and he could be heard racking a weapon,” Cole said. 

The deputies called in for assistance and together the Mason County Sheriff's Office, Manistee County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Michigan State Police troopers set up a perimeter around the house. 

The man was suicidal, according to information being shared with officers through Mason-Oceana 911.

Life EMS and Grant Township Fire & Rescue personnel responded and were available, staging at the Countyline and Amber roads intersection in case they were needed. 

In the meantime, an arrest warrant for felonious assault was secured, due to the man’s threat of shooting at the deputies, Cole said.

“The deputies perceived it as a very legitimate threat,” Cole said. 

Evaluating the situation, Cole said he decided against a SWAT team, believing it was the safest for everyone to leave the scene, let the man calm down and find out more information before proceeding any further. 

“The things you have to consider include the officers’ and this person’s mindset,” Cole said. “There was a high probability of this ending badly today. We’re going to sit back and re-evaluate.”

The man has an unrelated civil warrant for his arrest, as well, but there was no indication of a previous violent history Friday afternoon, Cole said.

The officers all left the scene about 4:30 p.m.

The man was in the home alone and there was no hostage situation, Cole said. 

http://www.shorelinemedia.net/ludington_daily_news/news/local/artic...

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Well, at least Cole did not send out the SWAT Team!!  Thumbs up for that!  Now, for the rest of the story, it is certainly questionable not only by the reporting of the news, but also the Deputy(Deputies) involved.  

The Citizen's of Mason County are still waiting a response from the incident on Hansen Road from Sheriff Cole, where the SWAT Team was called in, along with the MSP Helicopter. 

About that:  This incident that happened over two months ago is being totally covered up by Sheriff Cole.  I sent a request for "The police report and any amendments/follow-up reports/investigations concerning the incident that happened in the 500 block of Hansen Road on May 14, 2014 involving the alleged break-in of a house, the shooting of a dog and the associated multiple-hour manhunt." and was given the following .pdf as my reply.  As you can see, as of July 7th, Kim is choosing to block the release of any part of the records by using the 'active investigation records' exemption.  He cannot legally do this.   

Attachments:

So much for transparency...All Cole needed to do is get on the local news sites whether LDN, MCP, MOM, etc.. and say something.  The silence is beyond deafening.  The taxpayer's of Mason County deserve to know what is going on with this case.

The silence from Cole...leads to mistrust of the MCSO!  But, let one of his Deputies get stranded in a snowstorm and we as citizens hear all about this deputies "bravery".  It is splashed on FB, along with every news site!  And that impacted the citizenry of Mason County just how? This deputies poor choices  is beyond laughable, but yet we as citizen's heard all about it.  

But, something as serious as the above fore-mentioned silence from Cole!  Despicable to say the least!  Why just why Sheriff Cole??

http://woodtv.com/investigative-story/why-was-deputy-in-wreck-still...  Read all about it here at this link.

Posting a synopsis of this deputies driving record, and is still employed after causing bodily harm to an innocent victim due to his recklessness.

DEPUTY OLIVER'S DRIVING HISTORY 

  • August 1992: Two-car crash with no injuries. Investigated by MSP South Haven. No tickets.
  • August 1995: One-car crash with no injuries. Investigated by MSP South Haven. No tickets.
  • November 1995: Two-car crash with one injury in Kalamazoo County. Ticketed for speeding.
  • April 1996: Two-car crash with no injuries. Investigated by MSP South Haven. Ticketed for speeding.
  • Late 1990s: Rolled over Bangor police car during pursuit. Source said he was reprimanded.
  • May 2000: Reprimanded after damaging mirror of Mattawan police car while driving through gas station parking lot.
  • December 2002: Written warning for crashing into a car after failing to yield while turning left in Mattawan police car.
  • February 2004: Reprimanded for damaging Mattawan police car when crashing into a "fixed object."
  • November 2009: Hit a deer while in a Van Buren County Sheriff's Office patrol car.
  • August 2010: Rear-ended while driving Van Buren County Sheriff's Office patrol car.
  • October 2011: Car-deer crash in private vehicle.
  • April 2012: Ran off road and hit highway sign during emergency call in Van Buren Sheriff's Office patrol car.
  • October 2012: Car-deer crash in private vehicle.
  • June 2013: Rolled Van Buren County Sheriff's Office  patrol car during chase that reached 124 mph. Reprimanded.
  • August 2013: Reprimanded for driving 90 mph through three counties while headed to Lansing in Van Buren County Sheriff's Office patrol car.
  • March 28, 2015: Chase through Bloomingdale ended with crash that critically injured boy. No citations or criminal charges.

That deputy needs to learn how to drive before he gets behind the wheel. Better yet this is another one that should be fired.

Police unions (part of our idiotic system of public service unions) fight tooth and nail over any sort of discipline.  It takes a real egregious offense to get you kicked off the force-- like not covering up your fellow officer's egregious offenses!

Brave Deputy Mike Fort courageously assaulted and unlawfully imprisoned an innocent forty-something nurse just a month before heroically getting himself marooned on a street off Hamlin Lake.  Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was involved with this latest eviction escalation.  What would surprise me is that he didn't escalate it to the point of gunplay.

What should we expect from an agency that stymies public records requests over what the public spent an awful lot of money on, this Hansen Road manhunt?

Another reason why police need to be retrained on how people are dealt with under specific circumstances. This could have turned into another citizen killing by the police. The bone headed server and even bigger bone head police made this into a situation that could have had tragic results. The man is going to lose his home and is probably very distressed but none of the officials involved handled the situation with that in consideration. All I can say is the Cole had better sit his deputies down and have a talk with them, then retrain them. I suggest we replace the current Sheriff with someone who is not as secretive and who can handle the  questionable actions of those in his command.

Has there been any follow up on this?

Has the guy been served?

Is he still barricaded in his home?

Has he been arrested and jailed?

Is this like a Mason County Cliven Bundy incident?

Isn't the process server normally a member of the sheriff's reserve force or what ever its official name is?

Does not appear there has been any follow up.  Cole has been too busy explaining to the City of Scottville his budget.  (insert sarcasm here)!!!  LOL

No follow up from the Hansen Road incident either!  Sheriff Cole is too busy spending his inflated budget!  LOL!!

Yeah, and I do very far back in my memory recall ....Sheriff Cole counseling a woman who was an inmate at the time r/t having an abortion.  

No follow-up as far as press releases, but I do have a FOIA request on the incident that was sent out over the weekend, and it should be replied to by at least next Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to the expected reply by the MCSO that it's an active investigation and that they can reveal no records.  It will likely add another count onto my future FOIA lawsuit with the county sheriff's office, which Sheriff Cole can abort at any time by following the law when it comes to disclosure of records.

Cole was probably made aware of what was going down and wondered what his dip shit officers were doing. At that time things had escalated to verbal threats and now has no re-coarse but to find something to charge the guy with. He knew they shouldn't be there in the first place, that's why they left without him.

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