John Morin stories

John Morin is a former Lansing resident who now lives in Holt.

Picking up the pieces

With the charges dropped, I was ready to go from defense to offense with our lives.  The profit motive for the police to raid my house was evident in their attempt to keep my property, even though all charges had been dropped.  To them, that point did not matter.  I met with Eddie at Michigan Mart where I was allowed to borrow their moving van.  From there we met with an LPD officer in the parking lot at the south precinct, where we transferred the property from one vehicle to the other.  We were dressed for the chilly weather, Eddie stood between the vehicles checking off property from a list.  My six hundred dollar bond was also returned to me.  Two thousand dollars that had been in my safe when I was raided belonged to Marc Colon Jr.  It felt good returning his money back to him, it was a promise I had made to him.  Also that when I won the court cases we would put the grow operation back together.   

     Spending hours each night after work, and long weekends we put back up everything the police had taken down.  I had run gas for heat, water to a sink, cable tv, house phone, internet prior to the raid, and eventually my security system ended up in my garage also.   A few items here and there had slight damage or needed repair, but within a few weeks the rooms were ready once again.  Having a card also, I helped at times in the rooms.  I had lost thousands of dollars from utility bill costs, and all of the costs associated with growing a  twig to a full size plant, only to have LPD take and destroy them.  It takes months of hard work and constant attention, and if you can overcome the numerous insects and diseases, you might have something worth smoking.  I was ready to mark off number three on my list of five.         

     I took time off from work as Mr. Funches returned to the court room to decide his fate.  I believe it was a pretrial where he requested a new court appointed lawyer, he was not happy with his current counsel.  He also argued that the deal he had made with the police be upheld, that he would do no time as it was not his fault the case fell through against Sheri and I.  In fact that was why he was back in court, because they failed to convict us.  The prosecutor reminded the court of that fact and furthermore, he may have had a deal with the police, but he had no deal with her.  He finally relented and the case was scheduled for sentencing based on an agreed plea deal.  He was released back on bond, when I left I mentioned to the prosecutor that I was the other half of the case.  Earlier I had been spotted by the Judge and he inquired who I was, my response was that I was just an observer.  Simial Funches never really knew who I was, I had never talked with him, we had only seen one another from a distance.  At his sentencing he had brought his codefendant girlfriend Nicole Williams along with a group of elderly people.  The Judge was sympathetic to his plight, he considered Mr. Funches as being not that bad of a person, especially with the nice letters that he had been given prior to court.  But the Judge reminded him that his hands were tied since he was there for sentencing due to a plea agreement.  He was given four years for the gun charges and left court waving and smiling at his supporters in the court.  After court I asked a couple of his supporters who they were.  Turns out he had started going to a new church only a few months earlier and was able fit in with the membership.  It was only the night before that Funches had gone to members asking them to write letters to the court, and come to court also.  This was how he had operated earlier, getting into a church and using it to operate his criminal enterprise.  It wasn't until July 2020 that I checked Divine Youth Ministries on line and discovered he had filed it as a Michigan Domestic Non-Profit Corporation in 2015.  I submitted a review of the corporation founder Simial Funches regarding his true nature, the corporation was dissolved that same day.  I still have the Divine Youth Ministries business card he had given to Sheri the first day she met them.  The fourth line was checked off my list, only one more to go, and that was to deal with the City of Lansing for there involvement.

     I had not forgotten about my camera or of the fact I had been lied to about Sheri having drugs in her system.  Eddie told me that he was getting numerous calls congratulating him on the case win.  I was still doing work on his properties and he kept putting off our final tally for his services and my side work for him.  He also kept talking about foregoing his fees on upcoming lawsuits against the city.  I felt that I was led to sign for him to handle the case against the city.  I felt I was owed for my losses from damages to home, property, lawyer fees, bonds, I was out tens of thousands from their actions.  Eddie felt he had a strong case for an out of court settlement of twenty five thousand for each one of us.  I felt that that was a fair amount to cover my losses, I wasn't trying to benefit from my losses. 

     But there were other factors to consider also.  After the cases were over, Marc thought maybe we could open a medical marijuana dispensary.  First though we sat down with Eddie.  Years earlier Marc had gotten convicted of a marijuana charge, and after I paid Eddie five hundred dollars lawyer fee, he was able to submit a request and have his record expunged.  After that we began looking for a location.  It was when we stopped by Michigan Mart that Said mentioned that they had a few commercial properties we could look at.  We agreed to renting the commercial building located at 4700 Pleasant Grove Road.  Previously it had been used as a marijuana dispensary known as the Grass Station, but it had been robbed on a few occasions and had closed down.  I paid fifteen hundred security deposit and fifteen hundred each month in rent.  The business name was COMO, a combination of both Marc's and my last names.  I gave Simon and Said close to two thousand for security glass, and then spent thousands more making COMO into a thriving business. 

     I had also signed a contract to purchase a vending machine business, which included a van, and about twenty machines located throughout the surrounding area.  I was very busy, my hope was that Sheri could do the vending and have more life away from home.  Marc focused on running the dispensary, I had my full time job and many other responsibilities that pulled me from my biggest responsibility, caring for Sheri and making sure she got any help she needed.  That was also the other part of what I held the city responsible for,  enabling a predator to manipulate Sheri.  All of these good directions I had helped others to reach would now come back to haunt me.  It was while I was helping another person build a grow op with a friend of Marc's, Ron Hazel that things began to go wrong. 

     So wrong that I would once again have to go to jail for a crime I did not do, and once again lose nearly all of my property, and this time not get all of it back.