Trooper Seymour's Secret Prosecution: One Hand Around a Throat, One Hand in Reserve

[XLFD]

The recent arrest and arraignment of Michigan State Trooper Sammy Seymour is maddening for a couple of reasons.  The first, noted after the Ludington Torch received the police report concerning the arrest, Seymour changes his story multiple times under questioning by police officers the night and day after the alleged domestic violence crime (after trying unsuccessfully to make the responding police go away by making it appear that nobody was home).  The second, more troubling aspect was that the court system, especially the prosecuting attorney's office, intentionally blocked the public from finding out that Trooper Seymour was arrested early on April 14th and arraigned on April 18th.

The latter irked the Mason County Press, who had Alan Neushwander at the courthouse on April 18th and had reported on 3 felony and 11 misdemeanor arraignments at the courtroom in his article.  Unbeknownst to the reporter or his editor, the arraignment of Trooper Seymour also happened that day, quietly and outside of the open courtroom.  Eleven people would have their names in the MCP that evening, listed next to their alleged crimes, but Seymour's was absent, just like it had not shown up in the police news the MCP reports throughout the week.  

Such omissions indicate that a host of police officers, court officers, and even Judge John Middlebrook were treating Seymour differently than those with lesser charges than domestic assault with strangulation involved.  To the MCP's credit, they would eventually catch up to the news three weeks later and report on it.  Tough the tone of the article would indicate some annoyance at being out of the loop and only finding out about it by accident, Alway would not explore the injustice of it any further.

Ludington's new power couple?  Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand (left) and MSP Trooper Sammy Seymour went to great pains to keep their new relationship out of the newspapers

The Ludington Torch will.  The first act of official corruption happened when LPD Chief Christopher Jones did not include among the other actions news of the 'special' domestic violence incident in their original release to the news agency they are cooperative with.   Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand (whose name is on the arrest warrant and undoubtedly the one arranging the arraignment) made some agreement to keep Seymour's arraignment out of court on April 18th. 

Hand, who is running to be the county prosecutor has a husband who is a retired police officer and likely consented to Seymour's defense tactic of keeping everything hush-hush.  Judge Middlebrook would have likely had to do the irregular act of not asking Seymour the usual questions in open court that he is mandated by law to do to make sure the accused know their rights and know about what they are being charged with; he did this as a special courtesy by agreeing to the arrangement made by Hand for this unusual defendant.

With these appearances of impropriety by those supposed to promote the virtue of equal justice under law, it will be hard to guarantee that Seymour will get a fair hearing and the justice he deserves, which should only be meted out in a courtroom and not in some social media environment where facts and hearsay cannot adequately be evaluated. 

We can, however, look at the police report and notice some self-contradictory statements reportedly made by Seymour and judge that such a person is not the type of honest and duty-minded person you want to see when you make a call to the state police for service.  As noted in the MCP article, this is not the first time Seymour has brought dishonor to the MSP by doing illegal acts when he's off duty, and they don't even mention the prior domestic assault episode that the county was able to suppress.  Here's what happened this time.

Around 11 PM somewhere from Ludington on the night of April 13th, 2024, dispatch received a hang-up call that they needed to investigate.  Such calls can be from an accidental dial of 911 or from a kid playing with the phone, but the operator heard a woman's voice saying:  "Get out of the house!", so this was related to the responding officers to let them know this probably wasn't an accident.  LPD Officers Versluis and Mendez arrived on scene shortly thereafter to the address indicated and knocked on the door a few minutes before a woman opened it and related that she and Seymour had got into a fight and that she was grabbed by the throat.  

After briefly interviewing the woman and finding Seymour, Versluis (with Sgt. Claveau of the MCSO) would interview him outside while Mendez would interview the woman inside.  According to Versluis supplement, Seymour would say that nothing got physical that night and that he didn't know why she would have called 911.  He denied putting his hands on her, or vice versa.  He would maintain that there was nothing other than a verbal argument that happened that night, even after they noticed that his lip was bloodied.  

She would tell Officer Mendez a very different story, and because of her own injuries and the marks around her neck indicating some throttling occurred, made his story of a strictly verbal argument a fairly obvious lie:

She would also relate a couple of other incidents where she was physically injured by Seymour during the time of their 5-year relationship.  Mendez would chat with a more-talkative Seymour the next day at jail, following the usual Miranda warnings that Seymour waived.  He would tell a much more detailed story of the prior night's events that indicated something physical did happen, and that he never touched her neck or throat.  It was her who reacted to being called a bad name, and his role was acting as a peacekeeper. 

It doesn't seem to fit the facts found in the report, more of a contrivance made after a night of getting sober, nor does it seem as reasonable a story as hers, nor does it verify his previous statement, nor does it explain why Michelle would call 911 on a state trooper after starting the physical assaults on him.  The incident report makes a good case against him.

If Sammy Seymour wasn't given professional courtesies, his assault on Michelle would be characterized as strangulation by the LPD and find its way on the MCP the next day, and his name would have been emblazoned on that same medium on April 18, making an even dozen of perps being arraigned.  This trooper has proved that he's ready for an early and dishonorable retirement from the state police force by reportedly lying to officers after assaulting and choking his long-term girlfriend, driving drunk (in a regular vehicle on Ludington streets), threatening fellow police officers, etc.  

[XLFD]

Michigan is not a state where officers can stop and ask for your name and/or ID if you're on foot or operating a device/vehicle that doesn't require licenses.  The next time they stop your skateboard and ask for your name without offering a reasonable suspicion of a crime, give them directions to the beach so that they can pound more sand.

If they grab you and push you around again, keep your composure, their (and your) actions should be caught on their cameras and such actions are assaults.  Contact me and I'll help you get body cam footage of your harassment and assault.  

Chief Jones and Captain Mike Haveman made such a big deal last year about their involvement with youths and their skateboards, helping create a special tournament down at the Skate Plaza off the beach, such acts as you relate shows their hearts may not really be into it, and they just want the good PR they don't get here.

[Daniel Jensen]

Very good deductive reasoning! Looking beyond the incident, towards the Prosecuting Attorney's office and the LDN. The LDN may have uncovered story, but why did it take so long? Someone on the inside like the Executive Publisher running blocker? There has been another incident that haven't gotten any traction yet, about the PA race. The deception of Lauren Kreinbrink's retirement announcement, the FOIA request, and the circulation of printed daily papers and digital copies for archive. More to come on this issue, it's already been put together, its a timing thing. Don't get me wrong, there are good people getting caught up in a corrupt system, we need to separate the wheat from the chaff.