One may wonder why Tim Kozal is looking to find a police chief job in Muskegon when he's already got that position in our little slice of paradise named Ludington.  Maybe he has had his fill of controversies already while in Ludington with his mostly young and inexperienced group of officers not bothering to follow the rules and protocols of police work.  

Kozal promoted Officer Mike Fort to sergeant just one month before the city council voted to settle a lawsuit against Fort for feeling up a victim of domestic violence.  Kozal has fully supported School Resource Officer Austin Morris following an incident where Morris repeatedly lied on a warrant affidavit, leading to an unlawful search of a boy's home after he mentioned to a friend that he might be getting an airsoft gun for Christmas, that search would lead to an arrest of the boy's father, because they found hunting guns in his oldest (adult) son's bedroom.  In a bout of karma, Morris would later get a jar of urine thrown in his face by a mentally confused individual.

Three times the Ludington Torch reviewed body cam footage of arrests in 2021, and each time the arresting officers did not follow the LPD's own rules or the Fourth Amendment leading to the arrests of several people innocent of any crime and often the piling on of unwarranted charges of obstruction and resisting.   Review downtown domesticDevon 1.0, and Devon 2.0

The common factor in each of those incidents was Officer Michael Gilmurray, Ludington's alpha-male with a badge whose communications skills leave a lot to be desired.  Three times Gilmurray rushed and handcuffed surprised suspects before alerting them to why he was arresting them.  This incident shows it happening again in two different encounters and I was lucky enough to get a front row seat while it transpired both times.  Don't be concerned whether I still have wrist-scars, I was fortunate enough not to be on the receiving end of the unlawful arrest, it was a couple of kids instead.  I did order the body cam video and the incidental police report, however, just to gauge the veracity of my eyes and ears.  

Summarizing the incident, two groups of kids met unexpectedly near the old Foster School.  One of the kids pulled out a steak knife and threatened a boy in the other group, one of the boy's friends interposed herself and before anything major could happen somebody contacted 9-1-1 and police units responded quickly, and the group with the knife-wielder dispersed from the area.  

This assault incident would involve a lot of law enforcement units.  On LPD, Captain Michael Haveman, Gilmurray, Officer Versluis, Officer Hecko, and Officer Postma were all present and had their body cams active.  Three deputies from the sheriff's department were there for backup.  For purposes of this article we will look at both Haveman's and Gilmurray's video, as the other are mostly redundant with theirs.  

Both videos start at the end of another incident which is exempted.  Haveman responds to this call and almost immediately gets info that the knife in question was put in the trash at the Foster playground by a 15-year-old named Nolan and at the 8:15 mark of his video reaches into the trash and pulls out the knife.  He then sees and proceeds to follow somebody who he thinks may be Nolan walking north on the western side of Foster School.  

Haveman calls out to the boy, who tells the captain that he has done nothing wrong and that his name is not Nolan (he later says at least three times that his name is Riley, but the report claims he wouldn't identify himself, probably due to the fact that he resisted giving out information after being forcefully arrested).  This is the time I show up on my bicycle; I see 'Riley' turning left on Filer to pass the north side of the school on the opposite side of the street.  Haveman calls for backup with Hecko and Gilmurray appearing before 'Riley' can walk a block.  

'Riley' continues walking since Haveman does not suggest he has done anything wrong or that he's conducting an investigation into an assault or any other crime.  'Riley' actually claims someone pulled a knife on him.  Nevertheless, Gilmurray arrives 11:30 into Haveman's video and quickly demands total submission by the suspect pulling out his taser and activating it to emphasize his command.  'Riley' submits completely as can be seen in the following video at 12:30 into his video:

Gilmurray introduces himself by saying:  "Pull up right there." "I'm telling you hold up right there now." (brandishes taser) "Hold up right there." (raises taser) "Did you hear me, turn around." "Turn around, get on your knees." "Get on your knees right now." "Get on your knees right now."  I saw this happen in real time and wondered how much they already had on this kid.  They had nothing.

When they slip the cuffs on him, 'Riley' asks the obvious question of why he was being arrested.  Gilmurray claims he is only being detained as he and the others place the handcuffed youth in the back of Hecko's vehicle.  Never does he get an explanation of what he is being detained for-- if you've read the incident report, you'll notice 'Riley' was not Nolan and he was innocent of any claimed assault.  Although they will ask him questions relevant to their assault investigation, 'Riley' is never read any Miranda Rights in the 32 minutes that he is effectively arrested, and never told why he was arrested with significant force. 

Frankly, Gilmurray, Haveman, and other police units make the same mistakes made in the downtown domestic incident, this includes Gilmurray shutting off his body cam's audio intentionally in the middle of this incident twice (from 27:35 to 35:05 and from 41:08 to 44:56) when it wasn't warranted for privacy's sake.  Officer Versluis would exacerbate the situation by seizing 'Riley's' cell phone without a good reason, preventing him from using it to contact his dad or record the encounter himself, just in case all of the body cams mysteriously fail.  

Gilmurray wasn't through though.  When other units found the real Nolan, the trio that unlawfully arrested 'Riley', moved the block and a half south to meet up with them just west of the school playground.  I discretely followed and set up in the playground.  Nolan was being questioned by multiple officers and was patted down for weapons, as Terry Stops allow.  Gilmurray approaches the group and cautions them that there is still a knife unaccounted for, at which point Haveman shows him the knife (21:20 of Gilmurray's) he has recovered.  Simple fingerprint forensics could establish clear proof that the knife was Nolans'.

Gilmurray starts to trash talk with what was a fairly mellow suspect and eventually, without claiming any reason for the detainment and arrest, bullies some handcuffs on the suspect.  Once again, after the arrest and placement of Nolan in the back of the patrol wagon, he is asked plenty of questions about what happened without being read his Miranda Rights or being able to timely contact his parents as Gilmurray seizes his cell phone immediately. 

Nolan is only fifteen.  He may have issues; he may have been guilty of what he was being accused of, but being accosted and demeaned by scofflaw police who don't respect his rights won't help him respect the rights of others.

The inability of officers to follow police protocols in the LPD appears to be an endemic issue as each officer involved in this case is permissive of Officer Gilmurray's errors.  Chief Kozal has allowed those errors to take root in the LPD's normal procedures, failing to correct them.  If he does not get the Muskegon position, he needs to shore up his position here and do the right things.

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