Arraign-Drops Keep Falling on My Head

[XLFD]

Arraign-drops are falling on my head

And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothing seems to fit
Arraign-drops are falling on my head, they keep falling...

Ever since Mason County Prosecutor Beth Hand was appointed to her position to fill the vacancy left by Lauren Kreinbrink in the late spring of 2024, I mysteriously have become public enemy number one after an 18-year career of trying to stem corruption and advocating for transparency for our local public officials, after four decades of having a clean record.  This interesting coincidence actually coincides with this reporter's efforts at bringing awareness to Beth Hand's shady past and ethical shortcomings in the here and now as she violates many prosecutorial standards of conduct. 

Last summer, I received an arraignment summons for two crimes that reportedly happened in March 2024, about 6 months before the summons was received.  Last month, following an afternoon in the local district court, Judge John Middlebrook threw out the trespassing charge in his Opinion and Order.  You might not think that a police officer could ban a taxpayer from a public park for a month (or any other period) without any violation of law being committed, and you would be right.  The second charge, driving while license suspended or revoked, never had any merit, yet I still needed to waste about $20 getting proof from the Secretary of State to prove it.

Before that trespass charge was settled, another arraignment started.  In late August, this reporter found out that being harassed and threatened by a police captain for standing quietly outside city hall was a crime when I was arraigned three weeks after the fact for the charge of disturbing the peace/disrupting a lawful meeting.  Discovery materials received rather late (a recurring theme with this prosecutor) shows that there really isn't any basis behind this, with videos showing only that LPD Captain Mike Haveman (ironically the same police-corps-reject that authorized the letter of trespass for Cartier Park) was an aggressive city agent who wanted to arrest someone who had not committed any crime, nor was there reasonable cause to suspect that a crime would be committed.  This may be thrown out by the district court on November 26th, as a motion hearing has been called by my attorney to dismiss the ridiculous and frivolous charge.

Thus, I was first arraigned for trespassing for the act of walking in Cartier Park around noon on March 15, 2024 when the park was open to everyone, three days after the deer cull kerfuffle.  I was secondly arraigned for disrupting a meeting while standing quietly outside doing nothing at city hall at around 5:30 PM on August 6th, 2025, totally outside of view and hearing of the illegal closed meeting going on inside.  

This Friday, I received a new summons for arraignment for the craziest reason yet.  On March 12, 2024, I was trapped in Cartier Park, almost becoming a victim of city contractors (albeit without a written contract) illegally shooting guns in Cartier Park during broad daylight, a time that we were told repeatedly would not be the time when an ill-advised deer cull was to take place.   

Shots rang out 41 minutes before dusk in my general vicinity.  I was almost killed due to the negligence of the City of Ludington, who failed to close off all entrances to the park and make sure the area was clear before they started shooting, hours before we were told they would be shooting.  After moving to what I considered a safe area, I called a friend who alerted an LPD officer, Noah Noble, of my predicament.  Noble would come in, take me out of the danger zone, and with Captain Haveman, draft the aforementioned letter of trespass.

Prosecutor Beth Hand, when it was clear that her original trespassing charge would fail in front of the October hearing with Judge Middlebrook, hinted that she may try to get alternative charges against me.  It seemed a rather vindictive threat at the time, but it materialized in this summons, seen below in relevant part:

That first sentence of the count is definitely a long and confusing ride, but it seems to effectively say that my original presence in the park was a matter of trespassing, despite the fact that Cartier Park was public property and I entered the premises at a time when it was indisputably open to all.  The fact that I called for assistance in getting out of harm's way indicates that I had no desire to get back in, as witnessed by my departure from the area once I received the illegal penalty of the trespass letter.  My near-death experience due to the city's negligence is claimed to be interference or a disruption by an organization which was never granted exclusive use of the park.  

Beth Hand tries to hide her retaliatory strike by having her new assistant prosecutor, Mark E. Webb, acting on her behalf, but nobody should be fooled about who is behind this baseless prosecution.  Webb himself has his own question marks, for some unknown reason he crossed county lines back in July 2022 becoming an assistant prosecutor in Isabella County after serving Clare County in that capacity; he was 63 years old at the time:

And for about three years he served Isabella County, before being unceremoniously dismissed, as witnessed by the current roster on the Isabella County Prosecutor website, with a job opening that has yet to be filled, making one believe that this was not a planned retirement by Webb:

Isabella County is over twice as big in population than Mason County, so it begs the question of why a person would take a negative step in career advancement to resume an assistant prosecutor job under Beth Hand, especially with the reputation she is quickly gaining.  Maybe the 66-year-old retired at his old job and selflessly made a sacrifice during his retirement to help an area where assistant prosecutors just don't last long.  It seems like a giant sacrifice for one who has to commute all of the way from Mount Pleasant.

Perhaps the reason assistant prosecutors don't last here is that they quickly learn from their experiences that the sitting prosecutor unscrupulously pursues a unique brand of 'justice' where one person can be charged with crimes for walking in a park, standing outside city hall, and finding themselves being shot at inside a park that specifically prohibits the discharging of guns on its premises. 

If this was an isolated act of assigning criminal activity to someone who reported the truth about her corruption and who was not engaged in criminal actions during either time, we could write it off as retaliation and targeting of a political enemy.  But other innocents, many who are being unfairly prosecuted and persecuted by Beth Hand, are finding this out for themselves.  Those innocents who choose to fight specious charges are having some success, but often with that success, they become new targets.  Many of their stories have come to light during the last couple of years on these pages.

As for me, I will proudly wear a target on my shirt if I can bring awareness to the people of the truth about Beth Hand and those complicit with her mockery of justice in Mason County.  And I will proudly walk down the sidewalk and speak at public meetings even if those simple acts may cause me to suffer my fourth round of unwarranted arraignments, because:

...Arraign-drops keep falling on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red
Crying's not for me
'Cause I'm not gonna stop arraignment by complaining
Because I'm free
Nothing's worrying me.

Apologies to Burt Bacharach, Hal Roach and BJ Thomas.

[stump]

It seems to me that you have formed your own Judicial Watch on exposing the corruption in our City Hall, police department and beyond. My advice , put on a hard hat

[XLFD]

Either that or I should bulk up like Tom Fitton.

[Freedom Seeker]

Very clever song on arraignment, X. But isn't this charge ridiculous? Statute of limitations? Can hand just double-charge you on the same "infraction" (which was dismissed) because she didn't get the ruling she wanted? Ludicrous, imo.

[XLFD]

I looked up the statute of limitations on trespassing when I received this latest summons and found it to be 3 years for civil counts, six years for criminal counts.  In similar manner, this charge of trespassing is distinct from the original charge based on city workers seeing me in the park on March 15th, three days after the LOT was issued.

This frivolous charge has me trespassed even before the LOT was ever made.  It's guaranteed to lose, but in their mind, they can't lose by doing this over and over again, wasting everyone's time.  Arraignments always make the news, dismissals rarely do.

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for explaining. Long statute of limitation on trespass.

[AnxiousGuy]

Wonder if they are trying to get the earlier charge to stick and then revisit the judges decision?

[XLFD]

That's a good question to ask, but Judge Middlebrook published his opinion and order on October 13 and Michigan Court Rules allow for filing an appeal of that decision in the circuit court within 21 days.  That deadline expired last Monday with no appeal being filed by the prosecutor, according to current court records online.  

In re-reading the order posted in the article above, the judge summarily stated the trespass order given to me without any due process was an illegal taking of my rights.  I presume this is why the Hand didn't come back with another trespassing charge involving then City Manager Mitch Foster seeing me at the park the next day after the cull was over, effectively daring him to enforce the unlawful measure, as the Middlebrook opinion would shoot that down too.

This was a "Plan B" move, a legal exercise that doesn't appear to have much chance of success, indeed much less of a chance than the original charge.  What it does show most powerfully is that there is a pattern of behavior behind these poisonous prosecutions and a coordination of city and county officials in doing so.