04242006 - Officer Brent Craft - Jackson PD

Former cop gets probation, avoids jail
By Scott Hagen
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-17/115142440675760.xml&coll=3

A former Jackson police officer got scolded Monday but will avoid jail as long as he completes a rehabilitation program.

District Judge Darryl Mazur told Brent Craft he held a position of authority in law enforcement and should have acted appropriately.

Craft, 32, resigned from the Jackson force April 26, two days after he was arrested on drunken-driving and domestic assault charges.

"One assumes you knew more and knew better," Mazur said.

Craft pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was placed on probation for 15 months.

Prosecutors dropped the drunken-driving charge as part of a plea agreement. The domestic assault charge is dropped if Craft completes the batterer-intervention program.

On Monday, attorney Sean Carroll told Mazur the arrest had "life-changing effects" on the eight-year police veteran.

Craft apologized to Mazur personally and to the court, saying it was a "one-time mistake."

State troopers found him and his wife parked on a Liberty Township road. Troopers determined there had been a traffic crash that evening and that Craft, who was off duty, had been drinking and was driving. He also was charged for a fight with his wife.

Craft will spend time in the batterer-intervention program, designed to reduce the recurrence of domestic attacks.

He also was ordered not to drink alcohol during probation and must pay $865 in fees.








Local Officer Arrested/Resigns
WLNS, MI - 4 hours ago
April 24, 2006 12:57 PM PDT
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=4809711&nav=0RbQ

A Jackson police officer is arrested for misbehavior.

A call for help lands a Jackson police officer in jail. Michigan State Police responded to a domestic dispute which included an off-duty officer. Officer Brent Craft is charged with domestic assault and with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Those charges left Craft with out a job. For eight years, Officer Brent Craft protected Jackson residents. During those years, he performed his duties well.

Chief Ervin Portis, Jackson Police Department: "Officer Craft has been a very good police officer for us."

But two bad decisions this weekend- damaged Crafts' reputation, landed him in jail and ended his career with the Jackson Police Department.

Chief Ervin Portis: "Circumstances in his personal life spiraled out of control."

Those circumstances all unfolded here on Gillet Road. State troopers arrested Craft for domestic assault and for driving while intoxicated, Irving Portis was visibly hurt by Craft's actions.

Chief Ervin Portis: "I was mad and disappointed."

Craft resigned. He left his badge behind and a few parting words for his former employer.

Chief Ervin Portis: "He came in this morning, apologetic to me, to the men and women of our department and to the citizens here he served. He apologized for the embarrassment he caused."

A court hearing for Craft has not been set. The eight-year officer's registration is effective immediately.











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Man gets 10 to 15 years after struggle with police
Jackson Citizen Patriot (MI)
Friday, August 6, 2004
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2014/01/officer-timothy-hibbard-jackson-pd.html

A Jackson man who struggled with three city police officers during his arrest will spend 10 to 15 years in prison. 

"This is an assaultive individual who wants to put the blame on everyone else," Assistant Prosecutor Allison Bates said of Gerald Landrum. 

A jury last month acquitted Landrum of the most serious offense of attempting to murder an officer, but convicted him of four counts: assault with intent to do great bodily harm against Officer Timothy Hibbard ; resisting and obstructing police causing injury, and two counts of resisting and obstructing officers Ryan LePeak and Brent Craft. 

Landrum, 31, was on parole for assault with intent to do great bodily harm when Hibbard attempted to arrest him in the 900 block of Williams Street on April 17. Police said Landrum was drunk and out past his 11 p.m. curfew. 

Hibbard said Landrum tried to choke him and grab his handgun in the struggle. All three police and Landrum scuffled on the ground before Landrum was subdued with pepper spray and some punches to the head. Landrum blamed the fight on Hibbard, who was not in court Thursday. 

" Timothy Hibbard tried to stretch the truth," Landrum said. "The entire sum of his injuries was a sore throat and bruised shoulder. It was not me causing injuries." 

"Grotesque," Bates said of Landrum's explanation. "He is the one who chose to fight." 


Landrum's criminal background includes second-degree criminal sexual conduct, possession of cocaine, open intoxicants, marijuana possession, loitering, attempted resisting and obstructing and assault. 

[MI POLICE OFFICER INVOLVED PERPETRATED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW ENFORCEMENT MURDER SUICIDE]

04222006 - Officer Phillip Bal - Suspended - Iron Mountain PD

Also See:

1995 - Officer Phillip Bal - CSC allegation - Iron Mountain PD

04012004 - Officer Phillip Bal - Home invasion and CSC - Iron Mountain PD

04012005 - Officer Phillip Bal - CSC - Iron Mountain PD

04212006 - Officer Phillip Bal - CSC - Iron Mountain PD

04222006 - Officer Phillip Bal - Suspended - Iron Mountain PD

07112006 - Officer Phillip Bal - Terminated - Iron Mountain PD

07182007 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Sentenced [April 01, 2004 CSC/Home Invasion Charges] - Iron Mountain PD

08152007 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Appeal Filed - COA 280009 - Iron Mountain PD

09172007 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Appeal Filed - COA 280601 - Iron Mountain PD

10182007 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - COA Appeal 280009 - Dismissed - Iron Mountain PD

11082007 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - LE license revoked - Iron Mountain PD

08282008 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Charges dismissed [Aurora WI. April 2005 charges] - Iron Mountain PD

09232008 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Appeal COA 280601 - OPINION - Conviction Affirmed - Iron Mountain PD

05242020 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Released From Prison - Iron Mountain PD

05242020 - Former Officer Phillip Bal - Registered Sex Offender - Iron Mountain PD

Former officer bound to Circuit Court
Iron Mountain Daily News
http://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/stories/image_generator.asp?path=D:%5Coweb.net%
July 17, 2006
Article from 10-7 Forum
http://www.10-7.com/forum/viewtopic.phpt=24687&highlight=&sid=b9413b2a894295af48d7a2a7cfe53554

IRON MOUNTAIN — A former Iron Mountain police officer was bound over to Circuit Court to face criminal sexual conduct charges following a preliminary hearing Monday.

After hearing from both the prosecution and the defense, District Court Judge Michael Kusz ruled he was satisfied their was sufficient evidence to send the charge of criminal sexual assault — fourth degree against former Iron Mountain police officer Phillip Bal to Circuit Court. Preliminary examinations do not determine guilt.

A preliminary examination in District Court is an evidentiary hearing for felonies where the prosecutor must present evidence amounting to at least probable cause that a crime occurred and that the defendant may have been involved.

If the prosecutor meets his burden of proof, the case is bound over to Circuit Court for arraignment.

Special Prosecutor Joe Sartorelli of Crystal Falls told The Daily News the criminal sexual conduct-fourth degree charge against Bal is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a $500 fine.

Bal is also facing two misdemeanor charges including assault and battery and being a disorderly person — intoxicated in public.

Only one person was called to the witness stand, the alleged victim, a Florence County woman.

She told the court that on Friday, April 21, around 11 p.m., she saw Phillip Bal at Off the Wally’s Bar on Fifth Street on Iron Mountain’s northside.

The plaintiff said she knew Bal from when she was having domestic violence problems with her ex-husband.

Seeing Bal at the bar, she went up to him and thanked him for all his help during her domestic violence ordeal, and asked if she could buy him a beer.

Bal said he already had a beer, but she could buy him one later.

Later that night, Bal sat next to her and put an empty beer bottle on the bar. She then bought Bal a beer.

“We started to chat,” she said, “and within a few minutes he started telling me how difficult his marriage was, and how tough things were going for him at home. He then leaned over and kissed me. I slapped his hand and said, ‘You’re married.’” She then left the bar to go play some video games. arraignment.

“I was just about to put money into one of the games, when I heard somebody call my name,” she testified.

“I turned around and Bal was in my face. Bal asked me if I wanted to go home and have some fun with him. I said, ‘No.’ I told him, ‘You have a wife and kids at home. You’re a police officer. Don’t do this.’”

Bal asked her where she lived, and she said she was staying with a girlfriend who was with her at the bar.

Bal asked her girlfriend where she lived, but she wouldn’t tell him.

She then went back and sat at the bar. She was talking with one of her friends when she heard someone call her name. She said that when she turned around, Bal grabbed her face and kissed her.

“I said, ‘You can’t do this,’ but he did it again,” she said.

When asked by Prosecutor Sartorelli what she did next, she said she tried to ignore Bal and he went to the end of the bar. Some 15 minutes later, she told her friend she was going to use the restroom. Her friend asked if she wanted her to with her, but she said, “No.”

She testified that she was about to go into the women’s room, when someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a storage area. The door slammed and when she turned around it was Bal, she said.

She said Bal grabbed her by the neck with his left hand and threw her against the wall.

“He kept trying to kiss me,” she said. “He pinned my left arm up against the wall and started rubbing the left side of my body including my left breast. He also thrust his pelvis against me repeatedly simulating sex.”

A friend walked in and asked what was going on, the alleged victim testified. Bal told her the two were just talking and slammed the door in her face, she told the court.

She said she felt very helpless and frightened.

“He kept telling me how pretty I was and kept trying to kiss me,” she said. “I finally bit his lip hoping to get him to stop. I told him he was drunk and that I was sober and that I wasn’t going to forget this.”

Sartorelli asked if biting Bal’s lip made him stop.

“For a short time,” she responded.

“Around that same time,” the plaintiff said, “an employee of Off the Wally’s came into the room and that made him stop,” the plaintiff said.

The plaintiff told the court she doesn’t remember how she got out of the room. Bal left the bar shortly thereafter.

On Saturday, April 22, around 3 p.m., the plaintiff received a phone call from Iron Mountain Police Chief Pete Flaminio. Flaminio asked the plaintiff to tell him what had happened at Off the Wally’s. The plaintiff told the chief what had happened.

During cross-examination, the plaintiff relayed many of the same details to defense attorney Frank Stupak of Escanaba.

The plaintiff told Stupak that she and two friends had arrived at Off the Wally’s bar around 9:45 p.m. that evening. She said she had been going there with friends once a week for approximately three months. The plaintiff told Stupak the alleged incident with Bal happened between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.

When asked how many drinks she had consumed prior to the alleged incident with Phillip Bal, the plaintiff said she had consumed two drinks.

Stupak asked the plaintiff what kind of crowd was in the bar that night and how many of them she knew.

“I would say there were approximately 35 people there,” the plaintiff said. “I knew about 15 of them, including the owner and the bartender.”

Stupak asked the plaintiff why she didn’t scream for help?

“The jukebox was so loud,” the plaintiff said, “nobody would have heard me.”

Stupak then asked the plaintiff if she recalled what she was wearing and what Bal was wearing?

“I was wearing jeans and a tank top with a short sleeve wrap. Bal was wearing jeans with a blue polo shirt and a white t-shirt underneath,” the plaintiff replied.

Stupak asked the plaintiff if police ever examined her clothing?

“No they didn’t,” said the plaintiff.

Bal’s Circuit Court arraignment is set for Monday, Aug. 7 at 9 a.m.

                       











Iron Mtn officer arraigned on sex misconduct, assault charges
WOOD-TV, MI
Jul 3, 2006
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5108150&nav=menu44_2

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. An Iron Mountain police officer will appear in court again later this month after being arraigned last week on assault and sexual misconduct charges.

Officer Phillip Bal didn't say a word as a Dickinson County judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. If convicted, the 32-year-old officer could face two years in prison.

The charges stem from events on April 21st at a bar in Iron Mountain. The criminal sexual conduct charge involves a 23-year-old Wisconsin woman. The alleged assaults involved an Iron Mountain man and woman. Bal was off duty at the time.

He has been suspended without pay. His next court appearance comes July 17th.