Ionia judge dismisses remaining charges against former officers charged in prison beating
LANSING — A judge has dismissed all remaining charges against four former Michigan corrections officers charged in the 2024 beating of an inmate at Ionia's Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility, at the request of the county prosecutor.
Judge Raymond Voet of 64-A District Court in Ionia dismissed misdemeanor aggravated assault charges against the four men June 5, records show.
Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler requested the dismissals after Voet on May 23 dismissed felony charges of misconduct in office against Ray Thomas Rubley, 33; Andrew Ray Carr, 39; Al-Ani Mustafa, 44, and Jordan Thomas Csernyik, 23, following a daylong preliminary hearing.
Butler told the Free Press in March that the beating left inmate John Paul Callaghan, 27, with a broken back, a broken hand, and broken facial bones.
The officers reacted immediately after Callaghan assaulted Csernyik by striking him with a tray of food, the prosecution and defense agreed. Court records show Callaghan was sentenced to another 18 months to five years in prison in December, on top of the time he was already serving, after pleading guilty to assaulting Csernyik that same day.
At the preliminary hearing, Butler argued that the former officers completely ignored their training in their response to Callaghan's actions, but Voet ruled that would not amount to the corrupt intent required for convictions.
Butler said in a June 10 email to the Free Press that Voet indicated that if the same evidence was presented at an assault trial as was presented at the preliminary hearing on the felony charges, that Voet would grant a directed verdict of not guilty.
Butler said that because he did intend to present the same evidence, he decided to ask that the charges be dismissed.
Jeffrey Foldie, a Bay City attorney representing Carr and Csernyik, said in a June 10 email that the union representing the officers has filed grievances objecting to their recent firings and will continue to pursue those.
Foldie said in March that the beating, which included punches, knee strikes, and deployment of a Taser, lasted less than 30 seconds. Callaghan was preventing handcuffs from being applied and the officers responded according to their training, he said.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ionia judge dismisses assault charges against former prison officers
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Detroit high school student detained by ICE pleads for deportation halt until graduation
A Detroit high school student facing deportation after being arrested by Border Patrol in May while on a field trip is now pleading with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release him so he can graduate. He has gained the support of some advocates and U.S. House Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, who said Tuesday, June 10, the student "should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma." Maykol Bogoya Duarte, 18, of Detroit, was stopped by a Rockwood police officer on May 20 while on his way to a Downriver park, accused of tailgating the officer. The police officer, who was driving in an unmarked car, then called Border Patrol because of a "language barrier," according to a Rockwood police report obtained Monday, June 9, by the Free Press. Duarte, an immigrant from Colombia, was later transported five hours north to an ICE detention center at the Chippewa County Correctional Facility in Sault Ste. Marie and is now in a Louisiana detention center. He has no criminal record, his attorney said, but had lost his appeal to stay in the U.S. Duarte was notified Sunday, June 8, "that he was going to be moved and his deportation was imminent," his attorney, Ruby Robinson, told the Free Press Monday. On Tuesday, Duarte was being held at Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana, the ICE locator website for detainees showed. "Louisiana is usually the staging area for removals outside the U.S.," Robinson said, fearing he could be removed soon along with other Colombian nationals. Duarte has only a few more credits to graduate and could voluntarily leave the U.S. after he gets his high school diploma, Robinson and advocates said. Robinson said he filed on Monday an application with the Detroit ICE office "to stay his removal so that he can graduate from high school. He has three and a half credits left, and we think he'll be able to finish that before the end of the year." A spokesman for ICE did not return a message Tuesday, June 10. Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which Border Patrol is a part of, previously told the Free Press that Duarte, who has lived in the U.S. for about a year and a half, had a previous order to leave the country, describing him as an "illegal alien with a final deportation order." More: Border Patrol arrested a Detroit student on a field trip. He now faces deportation. Duarte had arrived in the U.S. from Colombia along with his mother, crossing the border and applying for asylum. They lost their appeal to stay in the U.S. One challenge is that Duarte does not have a Colombian passport, which he would need to be sent back to Colombia, Robinson said. In a similar case in Massachusetts, ICE released last week a high school student in a suburb of Boston who was arrested May 31 on his way to volleyball practice. The arrest of the immigrant, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, drew protests and condemnation from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, who said she was "disturbed and outraged." A petition calling for Duarte's release and Michigan elected officials to speak out against his detention has garnered more than 1,300 signatures as of Tuesday evening. The petition was started by 482 Forward, a Detroit nonprofit group advocating for students. "Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer, Senator (Elissa) Slotkin, Senator (Gary) Peters, Representative (Shri) Thanedar, Representative (Rashida) Tlaib, and Detroit Public Schools — We are asking you to publicly condemn the detention of one of your students, to support his request to be released in order to finish his high school education, and to put preventative policies in place to better support immigrant students and families," the petition reads. Whitmer and Michigan's two Senators have not released any statement about Duarte. In contrast to Democratic governors in other states such as Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts, Whitmer has not spoken about immigration issues this year or released statements criticizing President Donald Trump on immigration enforcement. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has previously said the city will continue to cooperate with ICE. Thanedar, whose district includes southwest Detroit, where Duarte's school is located, said in a post on X on Monday, June 9: "ICE should not be detaining high schoolers! Maykol Bogoya-Duarte just needs 3 credits to graduate, but was put in detention by ICE. He should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma." Tlaib hasn't commented specifically on Duarte, but reiterated on Monday in a post on X her previous call to abolish ICE. Chrystal Wilson, a spokesperson for Detroit Public Schools Community District, did not return messages seeking comment on Duarte and what the district's policies are in protecting immigrant students. The school that Duarte attended in southwest Detroit has a sizable Latino immigrant population. The Rockwood police report confirms some details of Duarte's arrest previously described by two school officials. The Free Press was the first media outlet to report on Duarte's arrest in a May 28 report. The officer said at 11:20 a.m. on May 20 that he was traveling in an unmarked car on Huron River Drive in Rockwood when "I noticed a vehicle directly behind me traveling so closely to my vehicle." Duarte was on his way to Lake Erie Metropark, where a group of high school students had gathered for a field trip. Three or four other students were in the car with Duarte, who was driving a 2008 Chevy SUV. "The vehicle then opened up the distance with me, and again closed to an unsafe distance," the Rockwood officer alleged in this report. "I pulled to the shoulder near Truman Road and allowed the vehicle to pass. I took up a position behind the vehicle ... and activated the emergency lights on my vehicle." The officer said "the driver ... told me, in broken English that he did not have a driver's license. He was able to relay to me that none of the other four occupants had a license." "Due to the language barrier, I request the United States Border Patrol to assist in determining proper identity of the driver and other occupants," the officer wrote. "Once agents from USBP arrived, the investigation was turned over to them." Robinson said the case illustrates why local police should use interpreters to interact with people who may not know English well instead of calling Border Patrol or ICE. He worries this will hurt attempts to fight crime because victims and witnesses may be reluctant to come forward to police. "This sheds a light on the importance of language access and the consequences of ... relying on federal immigration authorities to do that work," Robinson said. "We're concerned that for anybody who contacts the police or are interacting with police — whether somebody suspected of committing a crime or whether it's a victim coming forward — if local law enforcement is going to rely on federal officials to do interpreting, that's going to have a chilling effect on people trusting law enforcement." Robinson said Duarte would leave the U.S. once graduating, describing him as a young child who recently turned 18 and just made an error. "He made an unfortunate mistake, and it turns out to be the worst mistake he ever made in his life," Robinson said. "And so he acknowledges that." Duarte is "a good-natured kid" who was learning English, Robinson said. "He was improving his studies in school. He seems to be very well-liked by his teachers and his fellow classmates and other students." Reuters contributed to this report. Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@ X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit high school student detained by ICE asks for deportation halt
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Protesters clash with police as ICE raids surge across Phoenix metro area
Protesters and media gather in a Peoria neighborhood on June 10, 2025, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a house near 69th Avenue and West North Lane. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Tensions erupted between immigrant rights advocates and Peoria police officers on Tuesday, amid a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity across the Valley. Federal officials with Homeland Security Investigations, a division within ICE, descended on a Peoria neighborhood Tuesday morning. A neighbor told the Arizona Mirror they witnessed multiple agents use flash bangs and a battering ram to enter the house. Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for HSI, said the case involved narcotics and human smuggling, and that one person was arrested on federal charges and another was turned over to immigration officials. Peoria Police Department vehicles blocked off both ends of the street and officers kept watch as protestors, drawn by social media alerts, lined the sidewalks nearby. A confrontation between Peoria PD and opponents led to one person being subdued with a Taser and arrested. Chantil Martinez, who has lived in nearby Glendale her whole life, said she sympathizes with local police officers who likely had no choice in their assignments. But she was quick to say that, while she has some level of trust in local police officers, that same trust doesn't extend to federal officials. The raids carried out by ICE agents, she said, are comparable to discriminatory arrests carried out in Nazi Germany. 'It's almost like knocking on the doors back in the day and saying: 'Are you a Jew?' It's not OK,' she said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Another protester, Erika, told the Arizona Mirror that she heard about the presence of federal agents on her way back from a doctor's appointment via a Tiktok livestream, and drove to the area to offer her support. Her three children, ranging in ages from 1 to 16 years old, stood next to her on the sidewalk in the blistering, triple-digit heat. Erika, who was unwilling to give her last name because she feared retaliation, said she's been monitoring the Los Angeles ICE raids and she worries about the same happening in Arizona. 'We all have family members, or people we know, who would be affected,' she said. A spokesperson with the Peoria Police Department said the department only managed traffic control in the area while federal officials conducted a drug-related investigation, and that 'false narratives' about it being related to immigration enforcement led to the protest. Immigrant advocacy organizations in Phoenix have been on red alert in the wake of ICE's workplace raids in Los Angeles, which have seen more than 40 people detained, and the subsequent protests. The Trump administration has increasingly sought to ramp up deportations, with Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller pushing for 3,000 arrests a day. While enforcement actions in Phoenix have recently centered around migrants attending hearings at the city's immigration court, pro-immigrant groups were alarmed by information that ICE raids are expected to be conducted across the Phoenix metro area this week. That information appeared to bear out: Over just the past few days, ICE agents have been spotted in multiple locations across the Valley. And hours before the arrests in Peoria, three men in a truck carrying construction materials were detained at a gas station at 27th Avenue and Indian School Road, according to the Phoenix New Times. Roughly 50 protesters, including members from pro-immigrant groups, gathered to oppose the HSI operation in Peoria and were particularly critical of Peoria PD's presence. As the Trump administration's hostility towards undocumented people has reached new heights, scrutiny about the relationship between federal immigration officials and local law enforcement departments has increased. One protester yelled 'You're a traitor, you betrayed your community,' at a Peoria police officer, while another shouted, 'This isn't what our taxes are for!' into a bullhorn. Erika noted that she was upset about Peoria PD's collaboration, saying it gave her doubts about calling them for help in the future. 'It makes me have less trust in them now,' she said. 'It makes you question where to turn when you need help.' In a statement issued shortly after the protest ended, the Phoenix Police Department sought to distance itself from ICE's increased activity in the Valley while at the same time encouraging peaceful demonstrations. Donna Rossi, a spokeswoman for the department, said Phoenix PD is not involved in the federal government's recent enforcement actions. Rossi also acknowledged that the actions of federal immigration authorities can 'evoke fear or other strong emotions,' but urged protesters to express those emotions in peaceful ways. 'The Department fully recognizes and respects the constitutional rights of all to peaceably assemble and exercise free speech,' Rossi said in a written statement. 'We encourage all community members to express their views in a peaceful and lawful manner, and we remain committed to supporting safe and respectful demonstrations.' The Phoenix City Council is currently considering an initiative proposed by immigrant rights advocates for the Phoenix Police Department to stop working with ICE. According to reporting from the Arizona Republic, the majority of arrests in the metro area that end in deportations are conducted by Phoenix police. At one point during the protest, a scuffle broke out between police officers and the crowd. Three officers surrounded a protester, who ended up on the ground after officers deployed a Taser. The scene was chaotic, with some in the crowd converging on the officers as the detained protester was escorted to a police vehicle while other activists urged them to hang back. At least half of the group stayed apart from the altercation. In a video posted to social media, a water bottle can be seen flying past the police officers who surrounded the protester on the ground. At least one immigrant advocate, Clarissa Vela, the co-founder of the People First Project, was struck by a rock in her leg. 'This is what they want — they want us to be criminals,' Vela shouted through a bullhorn as she tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the crowd to calm down. According to a statement issued by the Peoria Police Department, an officer was intentionally blocked by two protesters and assaulted by another, who was then subdued and arrested. In a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter, Gov. Katie Hobbs criticized the alleged assault and said her office has directed the Arizona Department of Public Safety to ensure local law enforcement agencies have the support they need. 'I have directed @Arizona_DPS to reach out to local law enforcement to ensure needs are met and we maintain order in the community. The State of Arizona is prepared to assist the City of Peoria and any other local law enforcement entities with necessary resources to keep our communities safe,' she wrote. 'Violence is completely unacceptable, and I urge any protesters to remain peaceful.' Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, too, denounced the incident. 'An attack on a police officer is never appropriate,' she said in a written statement. 'These men and women risk their own lives and safety to do the job we've asked them to do.' As law enforcement on the ground clashed with the crowd, a Department of Homeland Security Blackhawk helicopter circled above. The helicopter is primarily used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection where it has been flown for a variety of missions, including conducting security for the Super Bowl. The helicopter later landed at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway airport, the operational headquarters for ICE Air and where deportation flights are taking place. The helicopter also circled the Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale as well as the Peoria Sports Complex prior to making its way to the area near 69th Avenue and West North Lane. ***UPDATED: This story has been updated with additional information. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Cops beat, tase man having diabetic emergency when he can't respond, NC suit says
Three officers are accused of beating, tasing and arresting a man who couldn't speak or respond to their commands because he was in diabetic shock, according to a North Carolina lawsuit. Now, the man is suing the officers with the Spruce Pine Police Department, the police chief and the town itself, saying the officers violated his civil rights by using excessive force and failed to provide aid during a medical emergency, according to the federal lawsuit filed June 5. The man says he was a law enforcement officer himself and worked as a K-9 officer for the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. McClatchy News reached out to the defendants named in the filing for comment June 10 but did not immediately receive a response. Arrest during a medical emergency The man, who had been living with diabetes since he was 9 years old, was driving home from seeing his now-wife on Feb. 16, 2024, when he noticed his blood sugar levels dropping, according to the lawsuit. He stopped at a Walmart to get some food, then he wandered around the store before returning to the parking lot, where he sat in his car for over 30 minutes in diabetic shock, the lawsuit says. A Walmart employee came over to the car and asked if he had a pickup order, but he struggled to communicate, so the worker left and alerted a supervisor, who came out and noted the driver was 'twitching' and 'unable to speak,' according to the filing. They asked him to move his car out of the pickup area, but he couldn't, the lawsuit says. The employees called the police for a welfare check, and two Spruce Pine officers arrived and tried to speak with him as well, according to the filing. He couldn't communicate or show his identification as requested, then a third officer arrived and told him to get out of the car because he was under arrest for trespassing, according to the filing. The lawsuit says the officers should have recognized the man was having a medical emergency and provided assistance, but instead, the filing accuses them of opening the car door and pulling him out. In a 'three-on-one assault,' the officers 'threw him to the ground' and told him to put his hands behind his back, which he couldn't do, according to the filing. One of the officers is accused of hitting him at least 11 times while the man was on the ground, then a second officer used his Taser twice to 'drive stun' him, which is a technique sometimes used to make an arrestee comply, according to the lawsuit. The officers handcuffed him and searched his vehicle, but found no evidence of drugs, alcohol or weapons, the filing says. One officer eventually gave him food and a soda, helping him recover from the episode, then he was released from custody and went to a hospital, according to the lawsuit. 'It is well-settled law, policy, custom and tradition that police officers do not brutally beat and humiliate someone in medical distress,' the filing says. Legal fallout The man said the incident left him with lasting trauma and nightmares, as well as damage to his reputation, until the charges were dropped eight months later. According to the lawsuit, the man's employer, the Department of Adult Correction, conducted an internal affairs investigation as a result of his arrest. He said the incident also landed him in a law enforcement database that prevented him from being hired for a position at another sheriff's office. He is suing the officers on accusations of excessive force, failure to render medical aid, gross negligence, false arrest, malicious prosecution, battery and libel. The lawsuit also accuses the police chief and the town of Spruce Pine of failing to have adequate policy and training on use of force, Taser use and rendering medical aid. The District Attorney for the 35th Prosecutorial District declined to press charges against the officers following an investigation, WLOS reported. 'While, with the benefit of hindsight, the failure to involve medical personnel to evaluate (the man's) condition on scene given his apparent symptoms is cause for concern, that omission does not rise to the level of a violation of the criminal law,' District Attorney Seth Banks said, according to WKYK. The man is seeking punitive damages. Spruce Pine is a 50-mile drive northeast from Asheville.
