Two Rogues, Two Innocents, and the Hand That Tries to Bind Them

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A cornerstone of our American ethos is that it is better for the justice system to prioritize protecting the innocent from wrongful punishment than to ensure every guilty person is convicted.  The English jurist William Blackstone stressed that when he said:  "The law holds that it is better that 10 guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.”  Founding Father Benjamin Franklin stressed that even further by a factor of ten:  "That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved". 

The justice system in Mason County is in crisis mode with the county prosecutor making it widely known to our local police agencies that she will suspend any type of prosecutorial discretion and take up any warrant request they send her.  While many of our law enforcement officers have not abused this privilege by encumbering the county courthouse with a lot of trumped-up criminal charges due to this injudicious policy, there have been some that have relished in it.  Let's introduce a couple that come first to mind, Ludington PD Officers Michael Gilmurray and Austin Mendez, pictured below.

Their reputation is such that a public defender, Attorney Horia Neagos, an otherwise mild-mannered but emotive mouthpiece for his clients, called them out this last Wednesday for their practice of bringing ambitious criminal warrant requests to the prosecutor against people who shouldn't be in court facing felony charges.  The uncharacteristic outburst by Neagos in front of an otherwise stoic 79th District Court Judge John Middlebrook, a visibly exasperated prosecutor, and a partisan crowd of court observers who would likely have stood and cheered if it were not for the fact that such actions were forbidden in the courtroom, was a great part of the preliminary examinations that occurred on the afternoon of October 22, 2025. 

Yet it was not nearly as great as the justice that was doled out to two defendants, two individuals who should have never had these preliminary examinations in the first place in order to see if their case would be passed over to the circuit court for prosecution.  Both had their felony charges dismissed, albeit one still had a lesser charge of driving without insurance remaining in the district court. 

The judge would eventually decide that these two had suffered enough at the hands of the police and prosecutor after being charged with a couple inappropriate felonies each.  Meet Jarrell Bryant, 39, and Semaj Palmer, 20, whose names have been forever sullied by the two officers working together by having their names in the local paper and mugs displayed on other local media.

We might be able to agree that Officer Gilmurray doesn't have a racist bone in his body (by saying that he has 206 of them) but it seems that he has a knack and tendency for overcharging black people with inapplicable crimes, and for treating them with little or no dignity.  With Officer Mendez, the judge decided he had done that twice over the course of the afternoon through his dismissals.  Here's a summary of what happened in each.

Bryant was defended by Attorney Neagos, facing three serious charges:  domestic violence, DV (third offense), and interfering with an electronic communication device.  The latter two being felonies.  The court would hear testimony from the woman he was in a dating relationship with, and Officer Mendez, who along with Gilmurray were the responding officers, with Mendez interviewing the "victim".  

On the stand, the victim offered her account of events, and while it apparently did not conflict with her statements made that night, the prosecutor went out of her way to try and make it more provocative and in accordance with the elements of the charges being made against Bryant.  We found out the basis for the charges was that Bryant took the victim's cell phone out of her hand after a heated argument, probably in order to see whether she had called 911 for what was at the time just a verbal argument without threats.

The ironic part of the prosecutor's argument was that she maintained that reaching for the phone and temporarily looking at it was an assaultive action by Bryant and interfering with her phone's operation, and yet, in another case, worse actions were ignored, and the perpetrator was treated as the victim.  Former Hamlin Township Clerk Catherine Lewis had not only reached for the phone of Muzette O'Connell recording her actions, but she also knocked it on the town hall's floor and broke it completely, as related in the incident report.  

Prosecutor Beth Hand would continue to try to cross off elements of the crimes while examining Officer Mendez, and this would lead to the aforementioned reaction by Neagos, indicating that these two particular officers were exceptional in bringing baseless charges to this prosecutor, and in a manner that was artful, indicated that the court was burdened precisely by a prosecutor that just cannot say no to the police. 

Neagos would more than once, later apologize to the court for this refreshing bit of truthful candor, and while I think the judge may have been in silent agreement with him at some level, the prosecutor just failed to make a good case.  If DV was claimed on the phone call, if the call was interrupted, and if the woman had actually told Mendez that something bad had occurred, why wasn't that offered up for consideration by Beth Hand?  The call and body cam videos were properly preserved.  The obvious answer was that there was not a case to be made using that evidence and Hand should have never made Mr. Bryant suffer damage from the magnified charges and waste an hour of the court's time.  

The second preliminary hearing observed was of Semaj Palmer represented by Attorney Karri Dibble for two felonies of R&O along with the misdemeanor of failure to maintain insurance.  Once again, Mendez would be put on the witness stand for charges submitted by Gilmurray.  Mendez would testify that he went out of his way to read Palmer's license plate and waited for Palmer outside the gas station at the SE corner of Jackson and Ludington Avenue after he had stopped there.  

Palmer's car was legally parked in a space at the business, and he was approached by Officers Mendez and Gilmurray telling him of the insurance infraction, according to the testimony.  Palmer offered proof of insurance that was found to be outdated and during the course of the interaction, Mendez admitted that Palmer was sitting in the front seat of his cruiser in figuring out the situation.  But when it was determined that there was no active insurance for the vehicle, that the vehicle would be impounded. 

No reason was given for the impoundment, other than that the car was uninsured, and the officers wouldn't let it be driven off in that condition.  The laws on impoundment do not allow for this misuse of that tool except under certain circumstances, none of which were developed here.  Even though this happened on Saturday, August 23rd, Palmer could call multiple insurance agencies that have the capacity to insure vehicles on the weekend.  He could get that insurance in minutes presuming he had the ability to electronically pay for it, then drive off, or have his passenger drive off if they went to the absurd level of arresting him for having no insurance.

They didn't give him that option, they only gave him the option to identify a towing company that would do the unlawful impoundment.  The two officers refused to let him get back in the car to get anything out, and if that wasn't the point that he figured out that this stop was not being conducted lawfully, his arrest for trying to get around them and into his own car was.  

One has to presume that Prosecutor Hand knew that the R&O charges were not supported by either officer's body cams or dash cams as they were never introduced as evidence, Mendez' testimony only seemed to affirm that they had targeted Palmer, illegally stole his car, and illegally prevented Palmer from accessing his own property before the theft.  Attorney Dibble would have assuredly have loved to show those videos, but her job today was to show that there was nothing in them to warrant a circuit court appearance.  Hand did that for her by not showing them. 

Mendez had to review his report in order to answer the defendant's question of who opened Palmer's door in order to get him out of the car, Gilmurray presumably did the same for his passenger according to the hearsay of the police report.  This was a traffic stop that showed what terrible police officers these two are.  They are trained and know policy, but they decide to go their own way to get more scalps and win awards from their chief for doing so: 

 

These officers are not home-grown and have failed to get an idea of what our Ludington community is all about for those not wearing a police uniform.  This may be why a significant number of their arrests appear to come as a consequence of creating opportunities for otherwise lawful citizens to suffer in a skewed justice system that appears to have at least one champion:  Judge John Middlebrook. 

The problem that remains, however, is from another late arrival to the county, Beth Hand (aka Beth Wiegand).  Hand's career began with decades of service as an assistant prosecutor to the string of Democrat prosecutors serving Oakland County, beginning with getting prosecutorial favors from an older male judge and ending with serious Brady violations being leveled at her by a judge.  

After all of that, she tells us that she is a Republican, ignores and/or denies all of her ethical lapses over the years, and is creating havoc in her first year as elected county prosecutor for Mason County by not exercising proper prosecutorial discretion and making innocent people suffer, without any deference to the words of Benjamin Franklin or William Blackstone.  A lot of people are waking up and seeing this at the courthouse and beyond, bringing dishonor to our county.