The Genesis of Magistrate Fraction Jackson

[XLFD]

When trying to justify why 79th District Court Magistrate Glenn Jackson offered a habitual offender with a history of violent crimes charged with criminal sexual conduct in the second degree a $750 bond, one doesn't find a lot of support from law or history.  This justification is needed after the offender's bond was easily covered by a bondsman, freeing Isaiah Gardenhire who used the opportunity to go on a spree of mayhem, generating 12 new criminal counts in Mount Pleasant including open murder, first degree criminal sexual conduct, and first degree home invasion.

The bond seems to be a small fraction of what could and has been allowed by the magistrate for similar crimes over the years and the lack of any clear explanation by Jackson, who has vacillated between blaming new non-specified guidelines, vilifying state legislators, and claiming the presumption of innocence of the accused for his lenient decision concerning Gardenhire's bond.  The lack of legal and historical rationale for this act seems to contradict what has happened in the recent past with two other incidents that Glenn Jackson took part in.  Let's look at those.

2013:  The Dalton Willard Rape Case

In 2013, Assistant Prosecutor Glenn Jackson had one of his highest profile cases when he prosecuted Dalton Willard.  Willard allegedly flagged down a 9 year old boy riding a golf cart on Hoague Road, enticed him into a building, blocked his escape and raped him. 

In that case, the magistrate at the time, Patty Baker set a $5 million bond, effectively keeping Willard from getting out of jail before the trial.  One could say that this sex crime was a one-time occurrence acted on by a stranger who took advantage of an unattended minor's trust. 

In Gardenhire's case of CSC 2nd degree charged this year, it appears that the CSC may have happened over a period of time by a person who was entrusted to take care of the victim.  Willard's bond in 2013 was over 666 times the amount offered for bonding out Gardenhire, even though there is no indication in the records that Dalton Willard had any previous criminal history.  Being that Gardenhire was offered the 10% option, he actually paid 1/6667 of what Willard would have had to pay to get out in 2013-- that's not even adjusted for inflation.

2019:  The Richard Kuehler Case

At around 3 AM on April 28, Richard Kuehler, a 55 year old homeless man, entered the emergency room admitting area for an unspecified medical issue and felt that he wasn't getting immediate attention by the staff.  Suffering from some physical injury and probably working through mental injury that often occurs to those who become homeless, he made a mistake of saying that he had a bomb. 

According to LPD Chief Matt Barnett:  “He told admitting staff he had a bomb in an apparent attempt at expediting medical services.  It was very quickly determined it was false.  There was no evacuation from the building. There was no danger."

Despite the immediate determination that there was no imminent threat from the ramblings of a tired and injured homeless man seeking medical help from a staff apparently unwilling to help him, newly minted Magistrate Glenn Jackson eagerly accepted his old boss' recommendation to charge Richard Kuehler with a felony "false report or threat of terrorism" that could have landed him in prison for 20 years.  He assigned a $50,000 bond to Kuehler at 10%.  

A homeless person generally does not have access to $5000, nor will most bail bondsmen help in this situation.  Kuehler called jail his home for 58 days for his bomb comment, eventually taking a plea deal for an inapplicable "disorderly person" charge with his time in jail credited for his 58 day sentence and put back out on the streets of Ludington. 

Magistrate Jackson saw at the time that hospital staff and even police responders realized there was no danger, just a false threat without any sort of backing or mechanism.  Did Jackson consider that Kuehler would likely have been the only one in line at 3 AM on a Sunday morning in Ludington in April and wonder why he was being ignored by staff?  Probably not, that's why he assigned a $50,000 bond to someone without a violent criminal history.  About seven times what he would charge Isaiah Gardenhire a mere two years later for an alleged violent crime committed by a definitely violent habitual offender. 

The genesis (Glennesis?) of Magistrate Jackson over the years is stark, as we can see in these two cases.  In 2013, the 79th District Court magistrate set a $5 million bond for a first time offender who raped a boy, in 2021, Magistrate Glenn Jackson chose a bond 1/6667 of that amount for a violent habitual offender man who sexually assaulted a girl over a period of time.  In 2019, Jackson set a $50,000 bond for a homeless man issuing an empty threat nobody took seriously, two years later Isaiah Gardenhire issued plenty of threats all around during the course of his arraignment on CSC 2nd degree, Magistrate Jackson chose to give him a bond 1/7th of what he gave the harmless homeless man.  

Isaiah Gardenhire has offered no explanation, no justification, and no rationale as to why he carried out his crime spree that led to 12 criminal charges and a new $3 million bond.  Fraction Jackson, who was instrumental in helping Gardenhire reach his full potential of villainy, also offers zero explanation, zero justification, and zero rationale, for his bonehead determination.  Both appear to be flipping off the court system in their own way, yet only one is being held accountable for now.

[Willy]

The Magistrate definitely screwed up the Gardenshire situation and I hope there will be some serious consequences for letting Gardenshire loose but I don't think there is much comparison to the other cases in your article. Both cases were serious and were dealt with in a proper manner as I see it. Going into a hospital and claiming to have a bomb should not be taken lightly and I imagine he was treated harshly not only to punish him but to send a message to others not to threaten people with devises that can kill even if the accused had no bomb. Who knows what was in his head. I would like to know how the hospital personal found out the man had no bomb. Was someone stupid enough to search him before calling the police. If he would have been armed that alone would have caused a disaster. As far as the little boy rapist, he's lucky the boys father did not find him. If I was that father the police would have only found pieces of him after I would have finished with him. That sick individual needed to be locked up until he turns to dust. He should fit right in to prison life being the deviant that he is and I can almost assure that this was not his first time molesting children. Another piece of trash off the street.

[XLFD]

The Dalton Willard case's large $3 million bond is what one expects for somebody who assaults an innocent, the comparison to Gardenhire's low figure shows that it was a big mistake to have it so low.  

The Kuehler 'bomb' threat from what I recall of it beyond the news article was more of a sarcastic bit of frustration along the lines of the guy being ignored, probably because he appeared homeless, and saying something along the lines of 'what do I need to do to get some attention here, have a bomb strapped on me?'  If you ever hang around homeless in the big cities, they say much worse, but you don't generally believe them because it's a bit removed from reality, just like thinking that Gardenhire may have thought he was in a Zoom basic math course when he was actually flipping and double-flipping off the judge.  

When presented with the facts, where the elements of making a felony bomb threat were clearly not satisfied by the facts and videos, he was given a sizable bond by Fraction Jackson; in the present case, the prosecutor felt a strong case of CSC could be made on Gardenhire, Jackson accepted the premise, but gave a ridiculously small bond, 1/7 of what a sarcastic comment from a harmless homeless man precipitated.  

[Hangmaster]

What people don't know is he showed up at the original victims home after getting bonded out.  They were not home at the time, but have video of him trying to gain access to the victims home before heading to Mt. Pleasant! Otherwise there may have been more fatalities.

[XLFD]

I think that part of the story has been looked at in some media outlets, though they did not show the video footage of him at that address.  If you can share the footage or show some stills, it would be much appreciated by those trying to learn more, and potentially the Isabella County prosecutors trying to establish motives and intents.