Appeals Court Unanimously Reverses Unjust Lance Eichler Conviction

[XLFD]

One of the weirdest court cases I've ever followed was what I would consider the non-case against Lance Eichler in 2024, where he was convicted of two felonies of aggravated stalking and using a computer to commit that crime for... contacting his probation officer.  In this LT article, we pointed out the utter ridiculousness of these charges and similar charges the supposed victim, Probation Officer Megan Myers, faced when she reportedly engaged in repeatedly real harassing behavior against an MDOC-contracted woman.  Defense Attorney Ravi Gurumurthy defended Eichler stridently in that losing cause in the trial court, vowing to get better results upon appeal.  I summarized the court drama thusly:

"After listening to the testimonies of the probation officer, her supervisor, and the defendant, one thing became clear.  However many text messages were sent to the probation officer, they all concerned notifications or questions about valid concerns of the terms of the probation.  Nothing of a personal nature was ever sent, the only photo was a face selfie of the probationer showing that he changed his appearance by dying the gray out of his hair; he was under threat of being violated if he didn't report that he altered his appearance. 

He was found guilty of aggravated stalking and using a computer to commit that crime by Judge Sniegowski for effectively sending too many text messages to his probation officer regarding matters concerning his terms of probation. If I repeat this too often, it's because I still can't believe it...

The victim here is obviously not Megan Myers, she is the perpetrator of making the local justice system a mockery of justice.  A laughingstock that not enough people are courageous enough to find the humor in, being that they worry that the system will rear its ugly countenance against them and assign them to prison for a decade or more on frivolous charges like we see here."

This case has finally been decided on appeal by the Michigan Court of Appeals and they have reversed both convictions, finding that Prosecutor Beth Hand and Judge Susan Sniegowski were overzealous in their prosecution/persecution of Lance Eichler. The opinion and order remands the case back to the trial court where they must enter judgments of acquittal on both counts with a finding that the evidence in this case was insufficient to support his convictions. 

Most of the first six pages of the opinion give the facts of the case and much of the legal background that the court will use to make their decision, we put forth the following summary of the court's reasoning, using their own words, but reducing some of surplusage and legalese to make it easier to understand:   

"Myers is a probation agent who was supervising defendant, and we must determine whether there was sufficient evidence of conduct by defendant that would cause a reasonable person in Myers’s position—similarly situated to her, and considering the circumstances or situation—to suffer “emotional distress” as that term is defined..."

Defendant’s texts largely pertained to his employment, housing, a probation monitoring fee, suspected criminal activity that he witnessed, and someone posting information about him on social media. Such content, even when deemed by Myers to be irrelevant or containing information it was unnecessary for defendant to immediately report, would not cause a reasonable person in Myers’s position to suffer “significant mental suffering or distress” of the kind or at a level required by [statute]... We agree with the trial court that none of defendant’s messages were threatening. Additionally, as previously stated, defendant’s text messages were all sent to Myers’s work-issued cell phone, he did not physically approach or follow her, and he did not contact her on a personal device or over social media."

Nor do we think that the sheer number, frequency, and length of defendant’s messages would cause a reasonable person in Myers’s position “significant mental suffering or distress” under [statute]...  all of the texts defendant sent to Myers were related to her supervision of defendant and lasted only a few days... We  would not expect a reasonable person in Myers’s position—a properly trained probation agent—to experience emotional distress (as statutorily defined) solely because they received a high volume of probation related texts on their work-issued cell phone from a probationer."

The prosecution’s position does not entirely account for the fact that in some occupations, particularly related to law enforcement, it is reasonably expected that trained employees will be equipped with the “thicker skin or greater patience” required to handle some challenging situations without experiencing the “significant mental suffering or distress” that a lay person might otherwise experience when confronted with a similar situation.

This is not to say that a reasonable person in Myers’s situation would not have found defendant’s behavior to be annoying, challenging, and perhaps even stressful, the standard under [statute], but... that standard was not met here, so defendant’s conviction for aggravated stalking must be reversed."

The Ludington Torch contacted Attorney Gurumurthy (pictured above) for comment and to congratulate him on his persistence in getting the unjust judgment of the trial court overturned at the court of appeals.  He relayed that he was very happy with this big win and that his prevailing client will likely be out of the Central Michigan Correctional Facility by October 25th.  He noted that the appeal court's frequent use of the alleged stalking victim's name (we counted 46 times) was a signal by the court to Megan Myers that they are not pleased with her behavior as a public official.

The current disposition of this case shows that three judges unanimously threw out a conviction that should have never happened if not for an injustice gang composed of an MDOC probation officer, a county prosecutor, and circuit court judge conspiring together to take a man's liberty for abiding by the terms of his probation.  This is a big win for justice in Mason County, and let's hope that we can continue to reign in the power of those that abuse our justice system for their own selfish glory.