FLASHBACK TO LUDINGTON CITY HALL MARCH 4TH, 2013:  After the public comments were finished at the city council meeting, and a public hearing for applying for money from the DNR for the West End Project was completed, five police officers (three from LPD, two from the county sheriff) marched to the front of the room and were awarded citations for bravery in their handling of a shootout at Lowell Fetter's Delia Street residence back in June 2012. 

You may recall the incident as the one where LPD Officer David Maltbie was shot by Fetters, as was the shooter who eventually was tried for his actions that day.  The other four men were part of the team that took Fetters into custody after a brief shootout.  

The nature of the awards ceremony was not related in the agenda or council packet for the meeting, though it was mentioned the chief would present bravery citations.  Just two meetings later, citizens would discover LPD Officer Aaron Sailor (2nd from left) was the main defendant in a lawsuit regarding police brutality by him on an innocent Ludington woman, where the City would settle because it was clear Sailor entered a woman's house uninvited, would not display a warrant when asked, and then pushed an innocent bystander down to the ground, injuring her.  

Shortly thereafter, I reviewed Sailor's previous record and found two other heinous police brutality lawsuits lodged successfully against him when he was working down in Pontiac.  Unbeknownst to me, but well known to city leaders at the time of his 'bravery' award, he was also part of another police brutality lawsuit against local kid Travis Malone for an incident that happened in 2011.  

You may not be surprised that subsequent research on the Fetters shooting incident had him as one of the original responding officers, and even the report points at him as being the main escalator of the events that happened that day.  If a 'good' officer had been there in his place, Maltbie would have never been contacted for back-up or shot that day, Fetters would have likely been able to live the rest of his life as a free man.   

Had I known on March 4, 2013 what I knew a couple of months later, I would have surely devoted some time to exposing his past four brutal episodes of 'bravery' at this March 2013 meeting, but I didn't, and there wasn't even a second public comment to do so back then.  

Commissioner Mike Gelin

I offered the former episode to display the relevance of what the incident-to-be-described has with Ludington and effectively illustrate why my sympathies lie with the brave (or craven, to some) city commissioner at the center of it.  What happened was caught on video and the local media offered up a fairly supplemental view of the reactions and consequences:

I believe that the commissioner did nothing wrong the day when he was arrested, and the prosecutor seemed to believe the same after having seen the video record.  That leads to the conclusion that either the arrest was maliciously false or just acted on with poor judgment.  Good officers do make mistakes, but bad cops make up or trump up charges that don't apply, arrest innocent people, and think they're doing good.  Gelin has stated he will be publicly offering up further proofs shortly. 

Mike Gelin has stated that he lodged a complaint with the sheriff's office of Broward County four years ago that was ignored.  He went on to become a city commissioner, and obviously was perturbed that the man who falsely arrested him was getting an award from the City of Tamarac that Gelin represented.  He objected by inserting his heartfelt opinions and beliefs at an awards ceremony, much to the chagrin of the mayor and other city and county officials, and probably to the delight of others with real or imagined grievances with Deputy Joshua Gallardo and other law officers:

"It's good to see you again. You probably don't remember me. But you're the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago.  You lied on the police report. I believe you are a rogue police officer, you're a bad police officer and you don't deserve to be here."

Courageous or Outrageous?

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Outrageously Courageous of Gelin if I read this correctly!  There's a lot to digest here.  What is more concerning, with three excessive force lawsuits, where is our own outrageous Aaron Sailor today?  

After reading the Travis Malone excessive force incident, it's outrageous that we have such officers here in Ludington, and even more outrageous that we have a chief and a mayor )then) and a City Council that allowed that to go on in this relatively peaceful little town. We do not need rogue, detroit-style trained police for a 17-year old that may have smelled of alcohol, or a business owner tased, or even a bike rider who may have not put his feet on the ground at a stop sign.

One of the positives we have in Ludington is that for one reason or another, the 'bad eggs' on the LPD force have been scrambled out over the last decade, and the trend has been to replace them with better officers (albeit 'greener').  This is one of the bonuses of holding a police force accountable, especially when telltale signs of corruption have crept in, even before an unlawfully-placed stop sign proved the undoing of an honest local fireman's career.

The Commissioner  should have handled this situation in a different way.  Calling the officer down after the ceremony was over was not the time or place to air a grievance. I'm sure he knew before the meeting who was going to be the monthly recipient of the award so why did he not object to the award before it was given? He may have had a legitimate complaint but he used poor judgement in the way he addressed it.

Short of launching a lawsuit, I believe Commissioner Gelin had tried multiple attempts at accountability.  At the county level, there is really nothing you can do if the sheriff overlooks your complaint of false arrest, and you do not have the resources to stop him/her at the ballot box.

In very short order, as a direct result of this controversy, Commissioner Gelin met with the sheriff of Broward County and both were fairly tight-lipped about outcomes of the summit.  This is still a developing story and there will probably be some beefy updates this next week on whether the commissioner gets redressed by the rest of the council (for they have a code of conduct too) or whether he does finally get some accountability and contrition after possibly releasing more of the records.

For sure commissioners, councilors, mayors and police chief are not perfect and have a hard decision in every instance. But this review is disturbing to see the excessive force that has gone on in Ludington under this administration. When this chief retires, I hope we get someone with common sense in review and dealing with how officers treat this city's citizens and visitors and that the council and mayor are more inclined to not let officers aggravate situations and take corrective action when necessary.

That common sense should not include letting their friends off for crimes others go to jail for, and covering up friends and higher up elites but be unbiased and just.

My understanding is that deputy Sailor came here from Pontiac, the same place the Chief is from so the Chief hired Sailor knowing all about his transgressions. I may be wrong but I think Sailor has sailed away and is cracking heads in another town.

Thanks to Brian, who alerted me to Aaron Sailor's departure about a year ago, nobody has to be anxious in Ludington, at least for that reason. 

My guess on how Sailor made it from Pontiac to Ludington is that Chief Barnett, who spent many years in Pontiac rising to sergeant, still had plenty of connections in Pontiac around the time they hired Sailor.  During a time when they were down manpower, he probably asked those connections and probably was told that they are looking for a place to put this officer named Aaron Sailor who seems to be a real go-getter (as in go-getting the force into federal lawsuits).  Maybe they thought a smaller laid-back town would cure his ills.  It didn't seem to, and I never completely verified why Sailor moved on. 

Thanks Willy for that update. I feel safer now going out into our streets.

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