The Oceana County Press ran a story about an Off-duty state trooper arrested for drunk driving.  This Michigan State Police (MSP) trooper seems to have driven his Chevy Cruze early Sunday morning (October 6th) around 1 AM off the road and hit several trees after failing to negotiate a corner.  Responding emergency units, including Oceana County deputies, noticed that he appeared drunk, the trooper consented to a blood test, and was arrested and lodged.

       Michigan State Police, Hart Post:  One of these guys put everybody's lives in danger by driving drunk enough to crash while turning

The press were told by Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast that the driver is scheduled to be arraigned in Oceana County’s 78th District Court Oct. 14. Following arraignment, his name will be released. 

Trooper X was arrested on October 6th for drunk driving and will be arraigned on October 14th.  Eight days between arrest and arraignment without any extenuating circumstances is basically unheard of in Michigan.  Michigan court rules recognizes that the accused have a right to a speedy arraignment:  

Numerous legal sites serving Michigan say arraignments are almost always within 48 hours of the arrest.  If you are arrested without a warrant and evidence was obtained after your arrest, an arraignment must occur within 48 hours to establish probable cause for the arrest.  The arraigning process is also used to set bond for the accused; does anybody believe that Trooper X will be held in jail without bond for those eight days?  

Normal people that aren't law enforcement officers get caught committing OWI and they are arraigned immediately.  I did a quick Google search and found five people charged with OWI by the MSP, Trooper X's employer, and noticed an interesting thing:

MSP arrested a Marquette Man for OWI in February, he was arraigned the next day.

MSP arrested a Mesick man for OWI in February, he was arraigned the next day.

MSP arrested a Indiana man for OWI, in June, he was arraigned the next day (a Saturday).

MSP arrested a Texas mom for OWI in July, she was arraigned the next day.

MSP arrested a Merritt woman for OWI in October, she was arraigned the next day.

They were all arraigned the very next day, even when the next day was not a weekday.  When local agencies make arrests for OWI, they can sometimes even make it go quicker, such as:

In May, some local cops arrested a Pontiac woman for OWI and she was arraigned the same day.  In September, our sheriff's office arrested a Ludington woman for OWI and she was arraigned later that same day.  This woman is married to a former 12 year mayor and mother of the president of the local CVB and chamber of commerce, and yet she was arraigned and her name was released almost immediately, not given a week and change of anonymity and lenity.

The Oceana County Sheriff's Office has shown that they at least will hold Trooper X to account for his actions, which easily could have resulted in deaths and serious injuries of innocent people rather than just damage to several trees near an overpass.  

Oceana County's 78th District Court on the other hand, have shown through their 'special handling' of this case that they cannot truly be a fair arbiter of the alleged unlawful conduct of Trooper X when they extend this courtesy that they would not give to normal drunk driver suspects.  They will arraign the rest of us cats lickety-split, but put a law dog in front of them, and court rules fly out the window.

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Wow, actually 30 officers are at Hart Post now? That sounds a bit hefty in numbers for our area, way over necessary employees to me anyhow.

Pretty unusual case for a MSP man in these parts of Michigan, sad. I hope he gets the treatment and help needed to correct his actions for the future too.

They may be giving him the 8 days to sober up. One thing really stands out in the photo of the group of officers you posted. It appears that the MSP hasn't gotten the "diversity" message  yet. Unless of course the photo is from the 1950"s,

I consider myself somebody who judges others on the contents of their character, but I couldn't help noticing the same lack of diversity when I saw that picture too.  

A reader has pointed out another recent case of an OWI involving a local law officer from Shelby, he was caught in Muskegon after a brief foot chase, so he was arraigned in their court system.  He was arrested for OWI on August 29th, and arraigned finally on September 4th.  That is six days between, again an amount of time that I haven't found extended to those unconnected with enforcing law and order.

The Trooper's name was finally released eleven days later:  Conner Ray Crutchfield.  He gave an interview with TV 9 & 10 where he uttered some prophetic words.  Crutchfield's bond was set at $3500, which is odd since the OCP reports he has been still working desk duty for the MSP since the arrest.  How can he do that from jail?  

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