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Shown above are screenshots of an altercation between School Resource Officer Doug Weesner and a former West Iron student. The teen is being charged with felony assault of an officer. (The video these images were taken from was recorded by a student and published with permission from both minors’ parents/guardians.)
IRON RIVER — A former West Iron high school student is facing a felony charge of assaulting an officer, following a Sept. 6 incident that took place between the student and Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Weesner in the cafeteria at West Iron school.
A verbal argument between two students escalated into a physical altercation between one of those students and Weesner, who has served as West Iron’s school resource officer since 2018. At least three videos of the incident exist, two of which have been viewed by the Reporter: a student-recorded video with audio, and a school surveillance video without audio. Neither are fully conclusive.
Weesner stands amid a crowd of students flowing down an aisle between two lunch tables. Things happen quickly and it’s not immediately clear how or when first contact is made. In the videos, it appears that Weesner grabs Michelle* as she moves around him in a crowd of students. She falls backward, hitting a lunch table before landing on the ground with Weesner’s hand at her throat. (*Editor’s Note: Michelle is a pseudonym the Reporter has opted to use to protect the minor’s identity.)
Photographs taken of Michelle following the incident show multiple red scrapes on her back, as well as bruising on the upper underside of her right arm, and bruising along her left shoulder and collarbone area. Hospital records show that she was diagnosed with a concussion and neck strain two days later, though a CT scan revealed “no evidence of serious internal injury.” Records show that Weesner came away with a couple of minor scratches on his hand.
There are two potential cases in play following the incident: one in which Weesner is the victim, and the other with Michelle, a 15-year-old sophomore at the time of the incident, as the victim.
Weesner filed a report through the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, his employer, on Sept. 7. Prosecuting Attorney Chad DeRouin signed off on a felony charge against Michelle for assault and battery of an officer on Sept. 14, and Michelle’s trial is slated to begin in early February.
For Michelle’s case, things are murkier and moving a bit more slowly. There were two law enforcement agencies looking into her claims, both the Iron River Police Department and the Michigan State Police, yet months later there’s been little movement on her case. And there are potential conflict of interest issues at play both within law enforcement and the prosecuting attorney’s office.
MSP’s Wakefield post has taken up the case due to what they say is a conflict of interest with local law enforcement. Sgt. Glenn Gauthier of MSP would eventually make contact with the family in late September for an interview. His report was submitted in early November, but it’s not clear it was ever reviewed by DeRouin. A month later, on Dec. 5, DeRouin told the Reporter he had requested a special prosecutor for the case against Weesner, given that the incident involved a local law officer. DeRouin said his request, which was ultimately denied by the attorney general’s office, was based on a Sept. 20 report he received from the Iron River Police Department.
DeRouin did not respond to further inquiries regarding if he had even received a report from MSP, and the Iron River Police Department said it had no communication with MSP on Michelle’s case.
Michelle’s guardians, grandfather Anthony Trotta and his partner Sara Benaway, say they first contacted the Iron River Police Department the morning after the incident. But after a week of more than a few fruitless trips to the station and unreturned phone calls, the couple says they delivered a written statement to Iron River and shifted their focus to pursue MSP in hopes that agency would issue a report.
When MSP eventually took up the case, Gauthier explained in a recorded interview with Benaway and Michelle that, “I’m not on anybody’s team. They brought me in from another post area (MSP Iron Mountain typically covers Iron County) to look at this incident because there’s a conflict of interest to have someone local do it.”
Despite the alleged conflict of interest, the Iron River Police Department did issue a report of its own after receiving Trotta and Benaway’s written statement on Sept. 14. That report, filed Sept. 20 with DeRouin’s office, concluded no wrongdoing on the part of Weesner. Based on the report compiled by Chief Curt Harrington, it appears no witnesses were interviewed and the investigation was based almost solely on video footage — one submitted by Michelle’s family (which the Reporter obtained a copy of) and the other provided to the department by Mike Berutti, WIC principal (the Reporter was allowed a viewing session of one of two surveillance videos captured by the school; it is unknown if it is the same video given to Harrington).
While Harrington’s report does not reflect any follow-up with the alleged victim, her guardians or witnesses, it appears he did promptly follow up with the alleged assailant.
According to records supplied by Iron County, on Sept. 7 — the morning after the incident — at 8:09 a.m., Weesner emailed his boss Sheriff Ryan Boehmke saying: “I just got a call from Chief Harrington and it appears that [redacted] want to press charges, saying that I pushed her down.”
Four hours after that email was sent, the Sheriff’s Office filed an incident report for assault and battery against Michelle. The report, completed by Weesner, alleges that Michelle pushed him before tripping herself, falling backwards and taking him to the ground with her. (Weesner declined to be interviewed for this article due to the pending case(s).)
A Use of Force incident report wouldn’t be filed by the Sheriff’s Office for yet another few days, this one alleging that Michelle escalated the situation by continuing to push past the officer and that Weesner fell to the ground as he “attempted to break subject’s fall.”
DeRouin was convinced, and on Sept. 14 — the same day Trotta and Benaway hand-delivered their written statement to Iron River — he signed off on one count of felony assault on a police officer, with a maximum sentence of two years confinement and $2,000 in fines.
Benaway said she and Trotta were shocked to hear Michelle was accused of wrongdoing.
“It was unbelievable,” Benaway said, adding that she felt it was an attempt to paint Michelle as “a bad kid, then what she says has no validity.”
“I kind of just suspected it must have been something to do with me pressing charges on him,” Michelle said of when she received the letter. “... I was just kind of in shock.”
At an Oct. 25 preliminary hearing on the matter, DeRouin advocated for Michelle to remain on house arrest for the following three and a half months, pending the start of her trial in early February.
Rob Dalpra, juvenile probation officer for Iron County, described Michelle to the court as “one of the best probationers I’ve ever worked with,” adding: “I’ve always advocated for [Michelle]. She’s just made a big turn-around in her life and from what I understand about the incident, I just don’t think [home detention] through February is necessary.”
DeRouin wasn’t convinced, saying that the defendant had been on probation for retail theft. He emphasized the surrounding circumstances that Michelle had assaulted a law officer in front of other students, resulting in a three-day suspension.
WIC Superintendent Kevin Schmutzler said that Michelle was most certainly not suspended and that, “She has zero discipline referrals from this year.” In the Sheriff’s Office incident report, Weesner himself erroneously wrote that the school issued Michelle a three-day suspension.
In fact, Michelle was sent back to class following the incident, after being treated in the nurse’s office for her injuries. Trotta and Benaway say they were not informed anything happened until Michelle called them during a class break an hour later.
Judge Donald Powell ultimately decided to lift Michelle’s house arrest.
Trotta and Benaway don’t deny that Michelle has struggled in the past. Michelle’s mother, also a former West Iron student, suffers with addiction. She lost custody of her children when Michelle was six, and Trotta was named guardian. Michelle’s father died when she was nine. When Michelle’s grandmother got sick with cancer, Michelle was put under the supervision of other relatives for about a year and a half. Trotta and Michelle agree that the situation, “wasn’t the best,” as she describes it. They say Michelle was often left alone to care for her three younger siblings. She struggled in school and was caught shoplifting.
“It caused me to act out a lot,” Michelle admits. “And when people would talk about my parents, because I don’t have the best parents in the world, I would kind of lash out. I didn’t know how to control my anger issues. But I went to therapy, and I kind of got a job, started working on my grades, and kind of turned my life around. It’s hard, but it’s possible.”
Trotta and Benaway say they’ve seen marked improvement in Michelle since she’s been back with them. On top of her clean disciplinary record, they say Michelle’s grades have improved, she holds down a job, and she has completed the requirements of her probation for the shoplifting incident.
Weesner’s account paints Michelle in a more aggressive light, and indeed there is some shouting between the girls audible in one of the videos — though no threats are made. In the report, he says he intervened to prevent Michelle from attacking another student, writing that Michelle “tried to push me out of the way” to “get at” another student. He then “put my hands on her shoulders and took two steps forward,” and that Michelle “tripped falling backwards.”
Harrington sees it a bit differently, writing in his report that Weesner raised Michelle’s arms, yet Michelle was then able to grab his wrists and pull him backward, causing the two to fall.
In the one video, Weesner issues no verbal direction to Michelle, who can be seen in the other video (which has no audio) moving her right hand across her body to the left before raising it slightly as she squeezes past Weesner in the crowd. In the video with audio, Weesner is heard yelling, “Hey,” a moment before Michelle goes down, possibly hitting a lunch table on her way to the floor. Only after Michelle is on the ground does he start issuing commands saying, “Stop, stop, stay; you came at me” while repeatedly pushing her back down by the left side of her neck.
Neither report mentions that it is very clear when Michelle hits the floor, Weesner’s hand is at her throat. In his interview with Benaway and Michelle, Gauthier does acknowledge, “[Weesner] does grab her by the throat and collarbone area and pushes her down.”
In the state of Michigan and throughout the country, school resource officer programs are on the rise. According to the CATO Institute, as of the 2019-2020 school year, over half of schools nationwide employ school resource officers. WIC’s SRO program was launched in 2018, and Weesner has held the SRO position since the program’s inception.
Overall, the data on SRO effectiveness one way or the other is spotty. When it comes to serious offenses like drugs, weapons or violent interactions, studies are split with some showing a decrease in such offenses while others show no change. Almost all of the studies agree though: Schools with SROs see higher rates of exclusionary discipline, meaning measures like suspension and expulsion that remove students from school, as well transfers out of district and police referrals.
When bringing a law enforcement officer into a school as part of such a program, the Michigan Department of Education stresses that, “It is critical that the matter of disciplining students be left to the school staff and administration, and that a Memorandum of Understanding clearly spell out roles and responsibilities” of an SRO. According to the MOU between WIC and the Sheriff’s Office, the “primary responsibility” of the WIC SRO is “preventing juvenile delinquency.”
Resource officers are able to apply the same use of force tactics within a school as they do on the street, unless otherwise stipulated in the MOU — which it is not in the one between WIC and the Iron County Sheriff’s Office. This means the same code of conduct that applies to teachers isn’t necessarily the same code of conduct that governs a school resource officer.
Schmutzler, the superintendent, said Weesner did attend staff training through Handle With Care, a professional development program for trauma-sensitive strategies in schools. The program advocates implementing trauma-sensitive practices “before there is a big problem or a meltdown,” and “to enhance physical and emotional safety for everyone.”
Trotta and Benaway say she contacted the school a week prior to the incident regarding a particularly vicious rumor and concerns that Michelle was being bullied — an issue that is ultimately what led to Michelle’s disagreement with the fellow student.
Benaway says she was referred to Weesner, who assured her he would address the matter. Michelle says she tried to talk to Weesner before the verbal altercation ensued to tell him she was being harassed (something Gauthier notes should be captured on school surveillance) but says she was told to sit down and not worry about it. Video shows the student in question, along with a large number of at least 15 other students, approach Michelle before the verbal altercation ensues. Moments later, Weesner and Michelle are on the ground.
Schmutzler said he asked Harrington if Weesner should be put on leave, because it was Schmutzler’s understanding that IRPD was handling the pending investigation.
“In any kind of situation that is being looked into further … it’s just a pretty common practice,” Schmutzler said when asked what prompted him to contact Harrington about a potential leave for Weesner. “They’re the lead investigators on this, so if there was a need, they’re the ones that give me that direction.”
The police chief responded to Schmutzler’s Sept. 20 email inquiry asking if temporary leave for Weesner was necessary one minute after it was sent. “Absolutely not!” Harrington’s email read.
Use of force tactics seem to have been at the heart of Gauthier’s MSP investigation as well. At no point during the almost two-hour interview does he ask Michelle about what actually happened to her — no questions about where she was touched, how she fell or her injuries. Instead, much of the interview is spent discussing the rumor and Michelle’s issues with her former classmate, and whether or not Michelle made any physical contact at all with Weesner before he put hands on her.
“If someone bumps into you … how is that perceived by the officer, right?” Gauthier asks. “...There’s no disputing he grabs your arm and pushes you back, but can you say with 100% certainty that he didn’t know if you were going to do something to him?”
Gauthier ends the interview with no less than 10 names of potential witnesses, including a few staffers at the school, and a promise to reach out to them. While an MSP spokesperson says that report was ultimately filed with DeRouin, the county prosecutor, in early November, its fate remains unclear. (Sgt. Gauthier declined to be interviewed for this story, and the Reporter’s records request to MSP under the Freedom of Information Act is still pending.)
With the missing MSP report in play, Michelle prepares to stand trial for assault in February. Trotta pulled her from WIC immediately after the incident, and she is being homeschooled for the time being, though hopes to transfer to Forest Park eventually. At the time of publication, the status of Michelle’s case against Weesner remains uncertain.