The Darkness at the Heart of the Ludington Police Department

[XLFD]

The year 2026 started with Ludington Police Department (LPD) Chief Chris Jones receiving a FOIA request from the Ludington Torch for records associated with a Christmas Eve 2025 incident where a motorist slammed into telephone poles on the opposite side of North Lakeshore Avenue.  The bystander who came upon the scene and who alerted 911 to the accident noticed that the driver was showing every sign of being very drunk. 

The responding police officer didn't see that at all, ordering no field or breath tests.  Instead on his report he invented excuses for the poor driving of his friend who crashed his vehicle.  The low-speed-traffic street had no ice on it; there were no deer tracks (fresh or otherwise) nearby.  The report would invent ice, fabricate an imaginary deer bugbear.  The exculpatory-by-design police report was made available by the LPD, they would assign a remarkable and unlawful price for the body worn camera (BWC) footage. 

After appealing the cost as allowed by FOIA, an unsympathetic city council rubber-stamped their approval of the usurious cost.  The next meeting we would pay that cost and told we would get the footage in a short while.  Fifteen days after that payment, we were told that the records were destroyed over a week before the council unanimously ruled non-existing records would cost me $131.26 to redact exempt information out of (no exemptions were ever claimed, BTW).  Additional records supplied showed that Chief Jones had personally reduced the retention schedule from one year to one month for just this record the same weekday afternoon I broke the original story.  Our loyal readers recognize this story, described in more detail here.

This indiscretion by Police Thief Jones will soon be going to court, city attorneys embarrassingly trying to have us settle by offering us $500 after unlawfully destroying public records asked for through a FOIA request, so one might think that city leaders would encourage their lawbreaking police department to follow their procedures for giving public records to the people.  City leaders, however, amount to a lame duck mayor who once asked for $2500 for one police report back when he was police thief and a city manager who divulged a city extortion scheme against Dr. Andrew Riemer live and proudly at a public meeting (which led to a lawsuit that the city is losing badly thus far). 

With this total lack of accountability, is it any wonder that I recently received a two-year old police report about a case that has been stalled in the courts for that same amount of time that looked as if someone had spilled their inkwell on it:

For those not used to asking for and receiving police reports, it is common to see redactions at the start of a report covering up addresses, phone numbers, and similar information of a personal nature in regard to the suspects, victims, and witnesses.  What you don't generally see are many, if any, redactions after that-- the responsive 98 page police report that I was given the aforementioned $2500 fee for editing out information had one (unlawful) exemption after the first three pages listing the persons of interest. 

We are no wiser about what happened in this incident where Amy Churchill is being charged with two felonies for resisting and opposing LPD Sergeant Michael Gilmurray and Officer Austin Mendez, Mendez the original drunk driving person given a drive home by his peers after being caught violating multiple traffic crimes.  What he wasn't given was any sobriety tests or citations.  

You may recognize Ms. Churchill's name from a recent jury court decision where she was found guilty of parental kidnapping.  Her court-appointed attorney needed to show that Churchill's violation of the court-order dealing with parenting time, keeping the child for three extra days around Christmas 2023, was intended to prevent the child from immediate harm of any kind by the other parent.  That was not proven by a preponderance of the evidence in the trial. 

We mention this because the underlying issues leading to that trial led to this double R&O offense nine months later.  Amy Churchill filed original papers in Manistee's circuit court back in 2020 with Stephen Churchill, the father, over custodial issues.  In the summer of 2024, Judge David Thompson) issued a bench warrant on Ms. Churchill three days after she failed to appear at a court date.  This information was noticed by Sergeant Gilmurray, who decided to proactively pursue and enforce the bench warrant, as noted in the police report I received.

The whole incident is blocked out, the only other thing is a couple of supplements after the incident that are partially covered, indicating no details other than the charges they will be seeking.  The reason why everything about the alleged R&O behavior is redacted is shown by an accompanying response addendum:

Privacy is indicated as the sole exemption, the verbatim and meaningless parts about "interfere with law enforcement proceedings" and "deprive a person..." left unexplained and legally unenforceable under FOIA precedent originally coming from the seminal police report FOIA MI Supreme Court case in the Evening News v. City of Troy decision.  Under the FOIA, the privacy exemption has many limitations, which is why law-abiding police agencies do not blacken out the complete narrative of an incident.  It can be used if and only if public disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.  If the information is not of a "personal nature," the inquiry ends.  Bradley v. Saranac Cmty. Sch., 455 Mich. 285, 565 N.W.2d 650 (1997).  More relevant information in support can be found here.

The three stages of this incident as written by Officer Austin "DWI" Mendez was arrival, entry into residence, and contact with Churchill.  Using those prompts, one can presume that there was no invasion of Churchill's privacy during the first two stages, as she was not made contact with yet.  It also makes one wonder that the two LPD officers (a team noted for their diligence in arresting locals for the lamest of reasons) entered the residence before making contact with the target of their bench warrant.

Why would two officers invade someone's home, the ultimate invasion of privacy, simply to execute a bench warrant.  Dallo Law firm tells us (along with other authorities) why this is an odd thing to have happen in Michigan as police aren't supposed to actively seek out those with bench warrants:

But this is Ludington, and these two officers allegedly directed from Manistee County to hold (arrest) Amy Churchill went to her residence to fulfill that directive.  In the process of arresting her for missing a court date, not a crime, they tack on two felony charges of resisting and opposing, for whatever happened that day.  Maybe Ms. Churchil was aware of her rights under the law and saw the home invasion of her house as a violation of same.  Simply arguing or tensing up when being assaulted and handcuffed is treated as resisting and opposing by officers such as this, so what did she do? 

It's totally erased on the police report, one could pay hundreds of dollars to get the BWC footage, and assuredly this LPD would wipe it all out too using unlawful exemptions-- if they haven't destroyed it after receiving your money for it 

The problem is that Police Thief Chris Jones thinks the documentation of any part of the encounter is all too violative of the personal privacy of Amy Churchill's, yet feels that the violation of her house's threshold and the incarceration of the mother seeking better custody arrangements in Manistee is not a violation of her personal privacy, her basic civil rights, and his oath of office. 

He wants to keep the unlawful actions of his officers away from review by the public just as he did with now-Sergeant Austin Mendez's DWI that happened three months before this apparently unlawful arrest in 2024 and Officer Trey Forfinski's conveniently erased BWC footage that would show he lied repeatedly throughout his police report.  These are not only unlawful and unethical acts, but they are also evil acts.

The Ludington Police Department is a rogue organization and unfortunately our elected political leaders of the city will only act as his apologists because they believe that they will receive the same favorable treatment the LPD gives to their peers and friends when they run afoul of the law.  And without the fear of legal discipline for breaking the law, those city leaders will not have any other sort of respect for the law-- at least as it applies to them and their family.

[Daniel Jensen]

LUKE 8:17
FOR NOTHING IS SECRET, THAT SHALL NOT BE MADE MANIFEST.
NEITHER ANYTHING HID, THAT SHALL NOT BE KNOWN AND COME ABROAD.

PSALM 75:7
BUT GOD IS THE JUDGE: HE PUTTETH DOWN ONE, AND SETTETH UP ANOTHER.

[XLFD]

In most theological teachings, Satan (or its equivalent) is often described as exploiting what believers "do not know" to cause fear, doubt, exploitation and bondage. God is truth, truth brings freedom, while ignorance hides evil and makes people vulnerable to deception.  Many city officials are tools of the devil, and we must always pray for their salvation or for their replacement with someone who has faithfully sworn a fealty to truth and their oath of office.