The Culture Clash Between Ludington City Leaders and Citizens

[XLFD]

At the February 9th, 2026 meeting of the Ludington City Council, a trio of councilors made some remarks at the end of the meeting, after the time of public comment, regarding the scandalous cover-up of the Mendez incident, where an off-duty LPD officer obviously engaged in impaired driving was stopped after committing multiple traffic infractions by another LPD officer, who, with the help of the on-duty sergeant, turned off all their cameras and took the drunk officer and his vehicle home without even a ticket issued or a blood alcohol test being performed.

             Sergeant Austin Morris and Captain Mike Haveman attend another Ludington City Council meeting; are they officially dating?

Had this been anyone without a connection to the LPD, the driver would have been tested, arrested when found well-above the legal limit to drive, taken to jail, have their vehicle impounded, and be featured in the MCP under arraignments with a mug shot showing his blitzed features.  That never happened here, in fact, it was kept secret from the public until the Ludington Torch made a FOIA request for records regarding this incident, 19 months after it happened.  Mendez would see multiple LPD awards at the end of 2024, mere months after he doubled the speed limit running away from his fellow officer before giving himself up (realizing he had nothing to fear, undoubtedly).  He would be promoted to sergeant less than a year after that.

The revelation of the incident was big news locally for a short while in January, but before that was released, we heard about another incident where a different LPD officer would arrive at a crash scene right around midnight the day before Christmas 2025 and let the very drunk young driver get a ride home because of his friendship with that driver.  Though there was extensive damage to a couple of roadside fixtures, that person (whose name we shall release shortly) got off with absolutely no sobriety tests and not even a ticket. 

We have been trying to get that report and the associated body cam of the responding officer, but Police Thief Christopher Jones is adamant in not releasing the video of what happened without the payment of $140 for the act of separating exempt material out of the footage.  The problem is that they have not made any claim as to why any part of the footage of this incident that took place on a public street would have any exemptions, and this is a requirement under FOIA.  According to the response they will do nothing to earn that $140, since they have claimed no exemptions and it is highly unlikely that the two friends didn't already know where the other lived and their phone number.

At the tail end of this reporter's first comment at the meeting, I laid out the case about why the FOIA denial due to unlawful fees was improper and stated quite plainly why I thought why Chris Jones, police thief, and his underling did not learn one bit from the Mendez incident:

 

XLFD:  (14:55 in) "... As for my FOIA appeal, FOIA law says a response must include an explanation of the basis for the determination that any portion of that public record is exempt from disclosure. 

The City failed to point out why body cam footage of Officer Forfinski letting one of his very drunk friends go home without a ticket after he crashed his vehicle into a utility pole had any exemptions.  He's an LPD officer, he probably turned his bodycam off anyway since there are no consequences for doing so under Thief Jones, so this is just another cover-up on his part.  The public understands that you are charging me four hours of time without any justification, just to erect a paywall on a non-exempt record." (END comment]

The City and the LPD have a very good rationale for hiding the body cam footage.  It would clearly show that the driver was showing all signs of being drunk including the telltale signs of slurred speech in the audio, unless they decided to over-redact the footage in order to hide their iniquity in giving this young man a free pass, unlike the rest of us would be given.  The incident report I was able to review after the meeting showed its own telltale signs of being drafted in order to deceive the reader (this will be reviewed on these pages at a later time).  

With the current philosophy, I was aware that they would accept the recommendation by their attorney to uphold the unlawful fee structure that has no basis in being applied in situations where no exemptions are claimed and none would reasonably exist.  After all, they received approval by the wife of a city officer, 51st Circuit Court Judge Susan Sniegowski, whose ruling on three FOIA responses for body cam footages by the city allow them to charge 3 minutes of labor for every minute of footage, even for footage not actually requested but dealing with the same incident. 

This is how three minutes of totally non-exempt footage would be only released after paying around $120, eight minutes of footage around $450, and $140 for an incident where the driver's father came and picked his son up shortly after Forfinski arrived.  Every councilor can only be considered evil for setting such rates and maintaining they apply when many notable people in the public are aware that Officer Trey Forfinski did an act that should have cost him his job. 

There was no officer that came forward this time and admitted they did something bad, that's an anomaly.  What happened here is a young officer didn't strive for equal justice under law, and one would think it was a forgivable offense had he done what Sergeant Babinec did in the Mendez incident.  That incident was immortalized by a popular YouTube site called "The Civil Rights Lawyer", who wondered like we did about why the police chief and the prosecutor didn't pursue anything meaningful as regards discipline other than demoting the sergeant who came forward and admitted the mistake made. 

Reasonable people looking at that sees a police department that punishes the whistleblower, rewards the one that erred, and does nothing to the one who originally violated policy by shutting off their audio and initiating the conspiracy to cover up the incident, never coming forward unlike the sergeant.  Like me, they see lawful obstruction, evidence tampering, and two of the county's biggest law enforcement officials forgiving such transgressions.  As indicted in the comments when you watch the video on YouTube.  I would look at some of the more popular and cogent comments among the thousands of critical comments thereat during my second comment, after they rejected my FOIA appeal:

XLFD:  (1:28:00 in) "This elected public body agreed tonight to erect a paywall in order to hold hostage the release of body cam footage showing Officer Forfinski letting a very drunk young driver go home after he crashed his vehicle not very far from the mayor's home.   You must be very proud, keeping the public in the dark regarding LPD impropriety once again, just like for the 2024 Mendez incident.  A viral video by the Civil Rights Lawyer Youtube site has been viewed by over 600,000 viewers and has had over 3300 comments from all over since released 5 days ago, covered that cover-up.  

Let me share some comments:  

"Deactivating body cams is tampering with evidence and obstruction. Fire them all."  This received1500 thumbs up.  

"All cops should be criminally charged, and the prosecutor should be jailed for covering it up."

"What these cops did should be mandatory felony charges for obstruction!!!!"

"Corruption from the top down, down up and sideways."

"More serving and protecting each other. Ruining honest people's lives daily."

"The big disgrace is we pay for this crap."

"The hypocrisy and double standard is over the top with this one!!!"

"Every single one of them up to and including the district attorney should be charged with numerous CRIMES."

Be the first of 3300+ people to go on this YouTube site and make a comment that shows approval of what your staff did here and think of the new cover-up you affirmed tonight. [END comment]

The clash of cultures mentioned in the title come into effect here.  For while one can deep dive into the 3357 comments, they may find that there is nobody defending the actions of the officers involved, the chief of police, or the prosecutor-- all want them to do their jobs and do them fairly to secure the ends of justice.  Even cops and lawyers who took the time to post comments see the culture of all officials involved as unethical and/or unlawful.  

While a subsequent look at the comments arranged chronologically shows that none of the officials present on Monday has taken up my challenge to go on this YouTube and comment since then, three did take some time at the end of the meeting to defend the indefensible actions that so many in the local public and the YouTube community found so offensive; one even celebrated the culture of our police department, all with nods of approval from their peers and the two additional officers attending, Captain Mike (My Caveman) Haveman and Sergeant Austin (Morpiss) Morris once again in full uniform and assuredly on the clock for the 90 minute meeting.  Councilor Kathy Winczewski started by offering understanding while at least admitting that mistakes were made:

Winczewski:  (1:32:10 in) "Our police department is wonderful, they do a great job, and just like any other department, whether you're a lawyer, a teacher, a nurse or a doctor, mistakes are made sometimes.  And those mistakes have repercussions, and our chief of police has held those policemen responsible for any bad decisions they made.  He's done what he needs to do to keep them honest; he's trained them, he's talked to them about mistakes they have made, just like we all do when we were young. 

Think about when you first started a job, how easy it was to make a mistake, and how wonderful it was when someone came and mentored you-- and really tried to teach you and not fire you on the spot and say "you made a mistake here and you need to do it differently from here on out".  And our chief of police has disciplined his policemen who have had problems and made bad decisions, and I appreciate that totally. 

We all make mistakes, it doesn't matter where we are at, and it's nice to have some grace and having those mistakes dealt with.  So I just wanted to make that straight because I think it's really hard to sit here, meeting after meeting, and have the police department put down, because I don't believe it.  I go on rides along with the policemen, I shoot with the policemen, I've done all kinds of things.  They are very responsible, respectful, and we just need to have faith in our police department, and especially our chief of police."  

Councilor Mike Shaw:  "I agree."

Mistakes are one thing, councilors, intentional violation of department policy by seasoned officers to the point that it puts you in violation of multiple laws is another.  All to unlawfully cover-up the multiple crimes of their peer driving through the community while very impaired, endangering lives.  This is the same woman who sees this reporter being arraigned for three crimes in what amounts to three separate baseless cases of trespassing on public property and cheers.  This is a decadent woman who will never have enough self-awareness to affirm her own hypocrisy and vile conduct that fortunately will end at year's end.

Why is she given the 'perk' of being able to go on ride-alongs and shoot-alongs with the LPD when there is no apparent public policy for the city for engaging in such risky endeavors which would assuredly not be approved by our risk management attorneys?  The answer is that this is part of the culture clash; she has actively pursued such activities in the past and only reveals this when called upon to defend the indefensible acts of the LPD in June 2024.  Another councilor would add support and introduce the word culture, that I have appropriated for this article:  

Councilor John Terzano:  "Just to add to that, Councilor Winczewski.  People seem to lose sight of the fact that this whole incident was self-reported, within hours of the incident.  That says something about the culture, that someone would come forward, recognize that they made a mistake, and come forward and report it.  The person didn't report it, it never would have happened, and it would have been buried, because there was nothing active.  But coming forward and admitting your mistake and understanding that consequences would result from that says something about the culture.

Secondly, in terms of what Chief Jones did, in terms of the discipline... it's just not blanket, he doesn't have blanket authority to do things.  There's a city personnel policy, and there's a union contract that governs these things.  And if you take a look at the union contract, you take a look at the city's personnel policies, the disciplines that were given out in those instances comport with that."

Terzano would praise a culture where an officer who has arrested many drunk drivers in his life was driving drunk and hasn't self-reported publicly to this day about what he did and why it was wrong then was given token discipline of a day off and an extended probationary period.  Where another officer turned off his body camera and masterminded a scheme to get his fellow officer off completely-- and who never self-reported his crime.  That jackass inappropriately named Noble received zero discipline.  The one who actually self-reported their mistake was the only one disciplined to any extent.  That itself shows that this department and its leadership is not following a good culture.  

And then Terzano says that personnel policies and the police union prevent the chief from effectively doing anything more than what he did.  With all due respect, the former sergeant admitted to the serious crimes of tampering with evidence and obstruction performed by her and Officer Noah Noble.  Mendez had video evidence showing him committing several criminal traffic offenses (reckless driving, fleeing and eluding to name the easiest to show).  Does anyone other than the Ludington City Council think that if this was a normal citizen that they would have gotten away with this?  Would any reasonable citizen think it was a crime to stand outside a door at city hall minding one's own business?

The voices of nearly 3400 YouTube commenters, not to include all of the local web pages that allow comments by the public, seems to indicate unanimously that the culture of the LPD is incredibly corrupt and the leadership of our county/city is severely tainted, but for some reason, all the people positioned behind a raised dais in the council chambers of city hall thinks the culture is just fine and dandy.  Defend the conduct of your officers over on YouTube, rather than among the comfort of your counterculture.

They are living in a bubble that will never allow them to meaningfully criticize one another, and if they ever forget that, the LPD chief, captain, and sergeant in attendance will scowl at them for not towing that thin blue line for them.  And our elected officials will sell out any virtue they have left, in order to allow them some political viability, in order to deny the video footage of a FOIA request that will show the LPD dropped the ball again in regard to justly enforcing the law equally for all.