Kent County man's charges tossed after terrorist threat law ruled unconstitutional

Yahoo

21-02-2025

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man police say threatened to kill people at a Rockford restaurant where he once worked is no longer facing a 20-year felony after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled a state law covering such threats is unconstitutional.
A judge in Grand Rapids on Friday dismissed two felony counts against Jacob Tyler Vanderkooy and reduced his $200,000 bond now that the two most serious of his charges have been nixed.
This comes one week after the Court of Appeals, in a case out of Wayne County, upended a 2002 state statute that made it a crime to make a terrorist threat or false report of terrorism. The three-judge panel called the law 'facially unconstitutional.' Its Feb. 13 opinion was published, meaning it is binding on lower courts.
Based on that decision, Vanderkooy's lawyer asked Kent County Circuit Court Judge George Quist to dismiss the May 2024 charge of making a false report or threat of terrorism.
'This is a published opinion by the Michigan Court of Appeals. I am bound to follow it,' Quist said from the bench.
Quist also dismissed a companion charge of using a computer to commit a crime.
'I'm not sure what the Michigan Supreme Court is going to do; that is not before the court right now,' he said.
Quist dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled should the Michigan Supreme Court reverse the lower court's opinion.
The appeals court ruling was based on a 2023 case out of metro Detroit in which a 23-year-old man was accused of making threats via social media to a Trenton Public Schools student and a school. In the message, Michael Joseph Kvasnicka threatened to 'come to your school and shoot it up and blow it up like Columbine,' court records show.
With the appeals court sending the case back to be dismissed, prosecutors statewide are bracing for a flurry of legal action asking that other pending cases be tossed.
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said the ruling affects five cases in Kent County.
'Hopefully the Legislature will be able to amend it and change it or the Supreme Court takes a look at it and overturns the Court of Appeals,' Becker said. 'In the meantime, we're sort of stuck with the decision and how to deal with it.'
Three of the pending Kent County cases involve juvenile defendants. Also pending is the case of a man who garnered national headlines in September when he drove around a security checkpoint outside a rally for President Donald Trump in Walker and allegedly claimed to have explosives. , 65, was charged with four felony counts, including false report or threat of terrorism, and remains in jail awaiting trial.
Becker said he anticipates a defense motion will be filed to have Nauta's charge dismissed.
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The 2002 statute made it a crime to make a terrorist threat or false report of terrorism. It carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $20,000.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is asking the Michigan Supreme Court to weigh in, saying the appeals court ruling is 'egregiously mistaken.'
'Our position is that the statute is not unconstitutional, it requires a true threat of terrorism,' Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said in a statement. 'We clearly had that in the facts of our case.'
Vanderkooy, accused in the Rockford threats, isn't completely off the hook. He still faces two felony charges: possession of methamphetamine, a 10-year felony; and aggravated stalking, which carries a five-year term.
With the two most serious charges dismissed, the judge agreed to reduce Vanderkooy's $200,000 bond to $50,000 – 10%.
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