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News
By Allison Joy
CRYSTAL FALLS — A local teen was found not guilty on a felony charge of assaulting an officer after an all-day jury trial on Feb. 6. The charge carries a maximum sentence of two years confinement and $2,000 in fines.
Michelle*, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was on trial after the former school resource officer for West Iron County School District, Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Weesner, alleged she assaulted him on Sept. 6 in the school lunchroom. (Editor’s Note: Michelle is a pseudonym the Reporter is using to protect the minor’s identity.)
The prosecutor’s office offered Michelle two plea deals prior to the trial, both of which were rejected by the defense.
Of the six male jurors, three disclosed having family in law enforcement and one disclosed he was a former school board member.
Three videos of the incident were shown to the jury, two school surveillance videos introduced by Prosecuting Attorney Chad DeRouin, and one student-recorded video introduced by the defendant’s attorney Jesse Ammerman. None of the videos shown to jurors included audio.
DeRouin called only one witness, Weesner, to the stand. He said he attempted to insert himself between Michelle and another classmate she had argued with in the lunchroom.
“[Michelle], at that time, launched forward, grabbed my arm and pushed me backwards,” Weesner testified. “At that time, I raised my hand, took a couple steps forward. She caught her heel, fell over and pulled me down with her.”
The prosecution needed to prove three elements to support the charge: first, that the defendant was aware Weesner was an officer; second, that Weesner had issued a lawful command or act to the defendant; and third, that the defendant had intentionally resisted or obstructed the officer.
The defendant’s act had to be, “a forceful, violent or offensive touching of a person,” DeRouin explained to the jury during his opening statement. “The touching must have been intended by the defendant — that is not accidental — and it must have been against the deputy’s will, meaning that he did not consent to the contact. And it does not matter whether that contact caused injury; injury is not an element of this crime.”
Documents supplied by the defense of Michelle’s injuries were deemed inadmissible in court.
“The defendant came at Deputy Weesner from the front … took her right hand, grabbed Deputy Weesner by the wrist and pushed him backwards,” DeRouin continued during his opening statement. “At that point, the deputy raised his arms up, took a step forward, and the deputy and the defendant ended up falling over at that point.”
Ammerman argued that Michelle received no commands from Weesner, and that she had simply gotten caught up next to him in a throng of other students as she maneuvered around him.
“We’re asking you to take a fair and impartial look at what happened, what didn’t happen, what’s alleged, and what [the prosecution] can actually prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ammerman said during his opening statement. “You’ll see that this happened in no time at all. [Michelle] was resolving an argument with a schoolmate, and the next thing you know she was on the ground and an officer had his hands around her neck.”
During her testimony, Michelle said Weesner’s hand was at her throat before the two fell.
“He kind of swayed over as I was still trying to walk, right in front of me, and kind of pushed me back a little bit,” she told the court. “And then we started walking backwards and he grabbed me I’d say on my ribs, and then his hand went for my shoulder and my neck part area.”
She said the deputy then stepped on her foot, causing the two to fall to the ground with Weesner over Michelle.
Under cross-examination, DeRouin pressed Michelle about an alleged suspension she was issued following the incident. She denied being suspended, saying she was sent back to class that day and ultimately “left school willingly”. (School officials say she was not suspended and had no disciplinary referrals at all for the school year. Weesner alleged in his incident report that the defendant was issued a suspension following the altercation.)
In addition to Michelle, the defense called two additional witnesses: a classmate of Michelle’s who recorded the third video; and Konnor Bjorkman, who works in the school counseling office at WIC and was monitoring the lunchroom on the day of the incident.
Bjorkman testified that she did not see Michelle put hands on Weesner until after falling to the ground, that she witnessed the deputy’s feet “fumbling” and it appeared he “lost his balance.”
In Michelle’s attempt to move around Weesner in the crowd, Bjorkman testified that, “I would assume yes, some part of her body probably touched Doug [Weesner]’s body, but not in an intentional way.”
DeRouin was adamant with both witnesses and the jury that Weesner had executed a lawful act by physically stepping in front of Michelle, and stated repeatedly that the video evidence showed her pushing Weesner out of her way. Yet, defense witnesses did not budge under DeRouin’s cross-examination.
“You said you at no point did you see the defendant push Deputy Weesner?” DeRouin asked Michelle’s classmate who took the stand.
“No, I didn’t,” she said.
“You just watched the video, correct? … You didn’t see [Michelle] push Deputy Weesner in that video?”
“Mm-mmm,” the witness responded, shaking her head no.
“If there’s video evidence that shows [Michelle] grabbing and pushing Deputy Weesner, do you have any reason to believe that’s not true?” DeRouin pressed Bjorkman under cross-examination.
“You’re saying ‘grabbing or pushing’, and I did not see grabbing or pushing,” Bjorkman responded.
DeRouin revisited one of the two surveillance videos during his closing argument.
“Here we have the defendant reaching out, grabbing the officer’s wrist and pushing him back, which is not accidental.”
“None of [the defense witness] testimony lines up with the video evidence that we have, and I would ask that you seriously consider that when deliberating today,” DeRouin continued. “There’s different perspectives and people see things differently, but we have video evidence in this case. We have evidence that the defendant … pushed him.”
The jury was provided with copies of all three videos to review, and deliberated for just over 90 minutes before returning its verdict of not guilty.
“It’s the jury, they made their selection,” said Weesner, who appeared visibly surprised when Judge Donald Powell read the verdict, after exiting the courtroom. “So, they made their choice.”
DeRouin declined to comment on the verdict.
“I’m very satisfied and thankful for the jury and the work that they did on the case, and I’m really happy for [Michelle],” Ammerman said outside the courtroom.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest,” Michelle said.
Michelle’s grandfather and guardian Anthony Trotta pulled her out of West Iron the day after the incident with Weesner. Medical records show she was diagnosed with a concussion a day after that. Images taken after the incident show red scrapes on Michelle’s back as well as bruising on her right arm, and on the neck and shoulder area of her left side.
“They should have never did this to her,” Trotta said about the charges, after the jury reached its verdict. “That it even went this far is incredibly stupid.”
Weesner was replaced as West Iron’s school resource officer on Jan. 10, and Michelle returned to school shortly after.
“She felt comfortable with the rest of the school staff as long as [Weesner] wasn’t present,” Trotta said, explaining his decision to re-enroll his granddaughter at West Iron. “...She asked to go back.”
Following the verdict, Trotta said he intends to move forward with a civil case, though said he has struggled to find an attorney due to what he describes as conflict of interest issues — endemic in rural areas where legal resources are often lacking.
Trotta sees his granddaughter as a victim of excessive use of force at the hands of Weesner. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he was attempting to reach the Iron River Police Department to pursue charges against Weesner when he learned it was Michelle charged with assault. County records revealed Weesner had sent an email the morning after the incident, regarding a phone call he said he received from Police Chief Curt Harrington about Michelle’s family seeking to file a report. Four hours later Weesner filed a report of his own.
When Trotta was unable to discuss the matter with IRPD, he delivered a written statement along with a copy of the student-recorded video to the station.
It was the Michigan State Police who ended up taking a statement from Michelle and interviewing witnesses for its own report, pointing to a conflict of interest posed by a local investigation. What happened to that report is unclear. According to MSP, it was filed with the prosecutor’s office in early November, yet the only report the prosecutor’s office claims to have is one filed by IRPD — which concluded no wrong-doing on Weesner’s part.