Ancient Seven-Ski Inn Owner Took Down by Trespassing Troopers

An upstanding, venerable business owner wonders what Michigan State Police (MSP) were doing on a couple of lots he owned.  The 83 year old man gets taken down with force for allegedly not listening to commands, gets knocked unconscious and suffers broken bones, a broken nose, and road rash from the encounter. 

Here's the kicker:  the MSP are trying to charge this man with assaultive behavior, there is no internal investigation into the troopers' behavior, and this old beaten-up codger is hopeful that footage from his cameras will reveal his version of events which has him innocent of wrongdoing.  The Traverse City Record Eagle reports:

A Ticket, A Takedown

83-year-old man injured in scuffle with troopers

TRAVERSE CITY — Larry Dale Sevenski took calls from his Petoskey hospital room as he considered what his next days will entail.

Will he return to his Elmira home, or have to turn himself in to Antrim County's jail?

Sevenski, 83, could face a criminal charge after a March 17 altercation with a Michigan State Police trooper that left him hospitalized with a broken arm.

The incident began when troopers stopped Sevenski at the corner of Thumm Road and U.S. 131 in Antrim County, MSP Lt. Mark Harris said. He climbed out of his car and "aggressively" walked toward troopers' patrol car. He didn't listen when troopers told him to return to his car.

"At that point the subject became more assaultive in his behavior, and as a result was subdued and taken to the ground," Harris said. "And unfortunately that's where the injuries occurred to Mr. Sevenski."

The 83-year-old was left with a bloody nose, pain in his right arm, and a ticket for failing to signal, Harris said. Paramedics treated him at the scene and took him to McLaren Northern Michigan hospital in Petoskey.

Sevenski said he went unconscious during the incident and was left with an arm broken in two places. He balked at Harris' description of the late-night stop.

He said he drove from his tavern on March 17 because he wanted to talk to the troopers he heard were gathered at the lot he owns nearby.

"I wasn't assaultive," Sevenski said. "I'm almost 84 years old. Why would I try to take on an officer half my age? ... I know better than that."

Harris contended there are more variables to the story than Sevenski's age.

Troopers requested Antrim County Prosecutor James Rossiter authorize a resisting and obstructing charge against Sevenski — they dictated so on the ticket they wrote him on March 17, in which they indicated "driver will also be charged with R&O police officer as part of this incident."

Harris declined to describe Sevenski's behavior until Rossiter decides whether to charge him. Rossiter, through Antrim County legal secretary Debra Ho'on, said he was not available for comment.

There is no investigation into troopers' behavior during the stop.

"There is no evidence at this point of any wrongdoing," Harris said. "The troopers appeared to have acted within our policies, within the law."

Sevenski said trail cameras near his parking lot may shed more light on the incident.

"It might not be excessive to them but it sure was to me, or else I wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital."

This, if proven to have the MSP in the role of bad actors, and many other similar "Real Stories of the Michigan Highway Patrol" in the news of recent, should make you consider whether it is in our Michigander's best interests to have a police agency that polices itself (and does so badly) that has zero accountability and little knowledge (and often littler regard) for the local areas they patrol.  We elect county sheriffs, we have city and township council hold control over their police, but nobody oversees the MSP other than itself.

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"It has been conclusively determined that the camera malfunctioned during the first 22 minutes of this traffic stop," a MSP release states.

Only the 17 seconds at the conclusion of the traffic stop showing paramedics treating Larry Dale Sevenski is available...

The MSP camera malfunction is not unique — troopers identified similar "technical malfunction" in other patrol car cameras.

"The failure appears to be random and intermittent and it's not known at this time how widespread this issue is or how long the problem has been occurring," the release states.

http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/msp-camera-malfunctione...

Maybe I can help.  The problem has been occurring since the MSP figured out that it was more cost-effective to have intermittent and random camera malfunctions in incidents like this where their troopers err, since then it has been widespread in traffic stops like these.

It also hasn't been mentioned whether or not the officers were wearing body cams or had access to personal audio recording devices. I would like to know this information to see if the technological malfunction went beyond the dash cams.

I also heard  that a felony charge was sought by the Antrim county prosecutor in order to jeopardize  Grandpa Sevenski liquor license. A felony conviction being grounds for losing your license. Using this as a bargaining chip, the prosecutor hopes that Gramps would plead guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge in order to maintain his liquor license. 

So far Sevenski hasn't backed down.

Nothing to see here. Move along now.

Another update with nothing new to add other than there is a widespread malfunction with the cameras and the officers were not using body cams. 

So say the Michigan State Police. 

Scouts Honor.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/04/forcible_a...

One of the trooper's testified today, despite the technical difficulties of his equipment, he was never asked about that.  Trooper Brock Artfitch artfully kept to his story about being scared about Sevenski advancing on him.  Some of his testimony is here, but the picture above has the condensed version. 

MANO a' MANO   Trooper fears for his life.   

Trooper grabbed Gramps Sevenski first and attempted to turn him. Sevenski grabbed back, cocked his fist with his bad arm and...Death Stare? ...looked him in his eyes.

GLM  (Geezer's Lives Matter)  

http://www.petoskeynews.com/gaylord/featured-ght/top-gallery/troope...

I like this coverage: 

"Sevenski's supporters migrated from the courtroom to the sunny courthouse lawn after the bindover. They discussed their past run-ins with authorities, deliberated the trooper's testimony and distributed pamphlets advertising a fundraiser to benefit Sevenski. Reporters from around the state milled through the crowd.

It all points to a growing base of northern Michiganders encouraging Sevenski — a long-time Antrim County resident and business owner — said Lois Curtis, a friend and customer.

"Have you seen the fireworks starting?" she asked. "It's going to get bigger.""

It reminds me of a domestic issue, where you see one party beaten up, near-powerless with broken bones and scarring, and the other party, much more powerful in size, strength and stature claiming that they felt threatened by the other, so beat them up, their brother backing up the story.  The difference here is that we know the powerful one already caused the injuries of the powerless party, but because of our conditioning, many of us are willing to accept that the one dealing the damage is the one that was the victim. 

Or are we that conditioned? 

United Announced will no longer use Police to Remove Passengers

United Airlines will no longer use Police to Remove Passengers.

Instead will be using Michigan State Police for Security Purposes.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2017/04/12/united-airline-will-no-longe...

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Yup, it's a continuing scenario of malfunctions of police cameras on victims when they do wrong on any case nowadays. And it never gets investigated nor questioned by the courts, they also are in collusion imho when they don't pursue this kind of coverup.

Deirdre

Everyone is an equal threat?  

Is that the mindset of law enforcement?

Maybe the troopers should remain in their squad cars until an armored vehicle backup is available.

Perhaps Officer Cornholio (Are you threatening me?) needs more training instead of this once size fits all mentality.

The trooper needs to take ownership to some pizz poor judgement. Maybe road patrol is more  than he can bear.

And it is a simple case. In case you were too busy spouting off to notice,in the photos Sevenski was wearing court assisted headphones during the proceedings. Now unless you are an even bigger idiot than you appear I doubt if he was listening to a Tiger's broadcast with them.

So one size don't fit all.  And trooper Cornholio best get some TP for his unclean hands.

Great reply, IHaveANotion. I can't recall how many times I have encountered combative and or incoherent seniors during the course of my life, but I haven't felt the recourse to do what these troopers admit to doing, and then thinking it was the right thing to do. 


And the story the authorities tell is far from believable.  Larry Sevenski is a mentally stable businessman, he wasn't drunk, he deals with troopers and police on a regular basis in his line of work, and I find it a stretch for him to have been posing the menacing threat that the troopers said he did.  When these troopers then try to charge the person they just assaulted with assault, that's when their credibility goes over the top.
It then goes into the realm of outer space talk when both troopers audio and video feeds malfunction on their dash cams and microphones-- at least until the encounter is over.  Sevenski's story is at least in the realm of reality, too bad his cameras in the area didn't catch the action. 

Deirdre needs to understand there is a big difference between a directive and a lawful directive of a police officer.  Just because you wear a badge, you don't gain the power to automatically take away other people's rights or assault them indiscriminately, particularly if they have done nothing criminal in the first place.  But welcome to the Ludington Torch, Deirdre, I hope you had a super Easter.

That is so true X.

It seems that every other week you face off against  a cabal of brain dead seniors. Seniors who gang up  to leer, hurl invectives, chortal and bounce up and down with glee at the thought that they might somehow be embarrassing you. Indeed if there wasn't a barrier physically separating  you from them, unrestrained, they would assault and pummel you with their FOIA denials. It is fortunate indeed that they are physically unable to scale this barrier.  

And I admire that unfettered in spite of themselves, you try to assist and teach this mob of combative and incoherent seniors.  While I personally don't believe it is possible to educate them {indeed it might be easier  to teach barnyard animals Newton's Laws or Einstein's Theory of Relativity} I applaud your efforts for trying.

Keep up the good fight X

Someday you might be able to influence the junior members of this herd assisting them into becoming actual productive useful member of society.

We can always hope. But for the mean spirited elders, they are beyond redemption.

Deirdre, do you have some kind of evidence to support the statements you made about Larry Sevenski? I didn't see you post any link or video. Per our Constitution, ALL are assumed Innocent Until PROVEN GUILTY! Ever hear of that? Your analysis is based on convoluted thinking and support for ALL PD's, whether they abuse their authority or not. It's a weak try, but I simply don't buy it, and neither does the majority of the public so far. Unless Sevenski is some kind of superman, which pictures say he isn't, chances are he couldn't overpower a 16 year old boy, let alone, a fully trained physically fit man with all kinds of arsenals on his belt to defend himself, like tear gas, baton, mace, taser, and a revolver, plus psychological training in how to defuse any given situation. Sevenski had no weapons at all per the police report either, and obviously, quite elderly. Officers need to respect elders, not try to kill them.

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