Ariel Courtland, Baby Kate's Mother, Arrested for Assault, Battery

[XLFD]

Arrested on Thursday, arraigned on Friday, and it doesn't become news until late Monday, with no real details.   Welcome to Mason County, where this isn't big news.

Ariel Samantha Courtland, 24, Ludington, was arrested for assault and battery at 8:12 p.m. Thursday in the 900 block of South Pere Marquette Highway after deputies responded to a report of an assault.

Courtland was arraigned Friday on the charge in 79th District Court and released on a $2,500 personal recognizance bond.

A pre-trial conference is set for Dec. 7.

A 21-year-old Baldwin man was arrested for violating bond at the time of Courtland’s arrest. The man was found to have been consuming intoxicants, according to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office.

Courtland is the mother of Katherine “Baby Kate” Phillips, who has been missing since June 2011. Katherine’s biological father, Sean Phillips, is currently serving a 10- to 15-year prison sentence at the Carson City Correctional Facility for unlawful imprisonment in Kate’s disappearance.

He has also been bound over to 51st Circuit Court on a charge of open murder. That case has been the subject of multiple appeals, including a pending appeal by prosecutors that 79th District Court Judge Peter Wadel not be the sitting judge for the trial in circuit court.

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