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John Morin stories
John Morin is a former Lansing resident who now lives in Holt.
The case falls apart
When the police raid your home, they use psychological tactics and then use the resources available that the City of Lansing has. The psychological was for example when they made the comments "today is your lucky day, we're here to save your life", and, " how much drug money did you use to fix up your house", and, "let us in to look around, promise we won't damage anything". They wanted to search for anything they could arrest me for also, along with trashing my house and taking anything they wanted. Then the police brought us into the house, forced Sheri to sit in a chair that was saturated with pop, to humiliate her and show me I had no control, but that was why I spoke up to let them know that I realized what they had done. They pulled me off to the side trying to get me to implicate Sheri in drug sales, which I claimed that did not happen. I opened safes. I'm a soft spoken person, so I was respectful and let them do their job. The officer at the computer that threatened to attack me for telling Sheri everything would be alright. I wondered how often in the past these officers used threats to gain compliance of defendants. Offered my keys when they tried to batter down my garage door, and after failure and taking the keys, destroyed the doors when done.
Then the prosecutor's office charged us for everything they could to be able to jack up the bonds, increase any lawyer fees, make it easier to force a defendant to agree to plea bargaining. When out of jail, we were left with a trashed house with damages and destroyed property. I had to pay for a motel stay, find lawyers, and then I have the City Code Enforcement Section finding violations that I have thirty days to repair or face further fines. On our final inspection date, since the cost seemed to go up every few hours, at the end of the day I called for the final tally to have a check for Sheri to drop off in the morning. Once again the cost went up a few dollars more the next morning, and if we did not have it when they arrived, we would fail the inspection. And then the police called my job hoping to cause me further harm, within a few days of our release.
Of course the newspapers ran with the police narrative every time we went to court. It was their way of exposing us to everyone in the city as being dangerous and of bad character. My lawyer asked each time who the people were in the court room as spectators. They went from some family members to friends, if we had to go into any actual hearing with witnesses, we would have easily filled the courtroom. Those were people who have known Sheri and I for years and knew our character was not as they claimed. Each one of our court dates resulted in the prosecutor, lawyers and judge hanging out in the judges chambers in district court, other than a few minutes in front of the judge where he made rulings. Circuit was in and out. They had taken thousands of dollars of my property and I was given twenty days to file a claim and post a six hundred dollar bond against the property or forfeit it. And if I lose my claim, then I become liable for the court costs. And of course, that means more lawyer fees. When we won our criminal cases, LPD appealed the return of my property and it took a letter from Prosecutor Dunnings ordering them to return the property.
During one of our court hearings, a City inspector was due to come over, so I sent someone to the house to let them in. I did not know Sheri had set the ADT alarm and our friend sat on the porch until the police arrived when it went off. I paid for the alarm because of the out of control crime and lack of police response. The response from the City was a letter from the LPD that stated I owed twenty five dollars registration fee for an alarm permit. The City of Lansing, always digging through my wallet.
In early September, I received a letter from the Ingham County Sheriff's Office with an attached ticket for careless driving. Reading it and seeing the date and time, it was not me, I was at work. So to save the two detectives that were involved any further wasted time, I called Detective Buckland early morning September eighth and spoke with him for about ten minutes. He at first claimed that they both identified me as the driver from my driver's license on record. When he realized that it was not me, he asked who it may have been. I told him Sheri drives the car, but maybe it wasn't her because I had asked if the driver had long blond hair, and he told me no. I wasn't there so I refused to speculate. But twice Detective Buckland stated that he had something special for Sheri, to which I asked both times, "Are you threatening Sheri?" His response was to backtrack and say no. I could tell he was upset though and did not trust his responses. He agreed to pull the ticket, but I still checked every day with the court clerk in Lansing. On the last possible day it could show up and lose my chance to appeal it, the phones were down. It was late afternoon before I got through, and sure enough the ticket was there. I was required to be there in person to appeal it: I couldn't do it over the phone. I often wondered if Detective Buckland tried to slip it by, forcing me to pay for a ticket I would never be given the chance to appeal. To that I would ask that both of the detectives get there eyes examined since they mistook me for another person. How often have these detectives made claims in court identifying defendants? Maybe its an issue that needs to be examined. A few weeks later I received a letter stating that the charge was dropped as I was not the driver.
When we returned for district court, a preliminary examination was scheduled, once again in front of Judge Clarke. I had done quite a bit of work for Eddie over the months, and he always said we would settle up on balances of money and the work I had done when the court cases were finished up. I had been paying lawyer fees steadily. Getting receipts from Eddie never happened, but he was keeping track. The week before the hearing, Eddie called the prosecutor's office and asked if they had watched their video evidence. After the prosecutor reviewed it, Eddie received a call: All charges were to be dismissed. The video was recorded on a cell phone carried by Simial Funches, the LPD's "confidential informant". It showed Funches pushing a packet of crack cocaine across the table to Sheri as a cop waited outside in a car with the undercover federal agent who was to pose as the hit man. I can only imagine the in-fighting over that decision between the police and the prosecutor's office. Police officers were not getting promotions, and more importantly, the deal Simial Funches had was about to blow up in his face. I let Eddie take all the credit. In fact, I went home and picked up Sheri telling her we had to go to the lawyer's office, just so Eddie could tell her. The first goal was met; we still had to go to court one last time for the charges to be formally dropped, though. Charges dismissed for Lansing woman in murder for hire case - Lansing State Journal, 12/8/15 Eddie and I decided to make the occasion even better than the charges just being dropped. He told me that Judge Clarke was willing to perform a marriage ceremony afterwards. We went and got our marriage certificate and I bought rings. Everything was set. When we arrived to court, the courtroom was fairly full. We both were in front with our lawyers, the prosecutor at his table. Everyone said their part and the charges were dismissed and instead of going on to a marriage ceremony, the Judge brings up that Sheri has had a positive drug result for crack cocaine. What went through my mind was the times I told others that I needed to spend time at home to help Sheri, yet their demands came first every time. That when the lawyers told me that the drug was not crack, rather one that was not serious, a Xanax bar. Prior to court, Issa had spoken to me about his payment, which I was paying in full that day. Since we did not have a preliminary hearing, I could deduct one thousand dollars from his fee. The Judge was in limbo on what to do, since the charges had all been dropped, but since she still had a positive drug test, he decided to charge a fine of two hundred fifty dollars, which I paid. There was no wedding.
It took awhile to get all of my property back, but when I did, I put the grow operation back together, and for the hell of it, I put a second deadbolt lock on my garage door. That was goal number two. It further provided proof that we were not guilty. But I had set five goals to accomplish, and so much more than that, that others would take advantage of. The truth had set us free, but there is still a price that I would have to pay. The Lansing City Police had taken their shot, now it would be others. I have given up on churches in America anymore. Having grown up going to a Catholic Church and parochial school, we had a few pedophiles running loose in our school. And then Simial Funches is connected to a black church, and all he is is another predator. No more on the churches. To me, the character in your heart is all that matters. I don't need a church to live a good life or to associate with good people. I was concerned about the positive drug test and realized that the City of Lansing was trying to distance themselves from the case as much as possible. Why? I guess with the record, you be the judge.
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