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John Kelsey's Criminal Record
December 15, 2016; updated January 14,
2020
I know of only two sources for someone's
criminal record in Michigan. One is the Department of Corrections'
Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS),
home page here. It contains information about prisoners, parolees
and probationers who are currently under supervision, or who have been
discharged but are still within three years of their supervision
discharge date. On this site, I could link to Kelsey's record;
it is here.
The second source is ICHAT, the Michigan State
Police's Internet Criminal History Access Tool,
home page here. It provides information on all felonies and serious
misdemeanors that are punishable by over 93 days of confinement. A fee
of $10 is charged for each search, and you need both name and birth date, which
for John Kelsey is 6/16/1980. I could not link to his ICHAT record here, so I
used Snagit to put together a picture of it (below). I've highlighted
his felony convictions:
Note that the last entry above is
incorrect. On count 2, he was not found guilty of operating with license
suspended causing death. He was found guilty only of operating
with a suspended license, as the first mention of count 2 says.
I've done a summary of the Kelsey record
below. It seems to show that he has been convicted of non-assaultive
offences only: possession of marijuana, resisting/obstructing an
officer, fleeing an officer, driving while intoxicated, driving with a
suspended license. His three previous felonies occurred nearly 14 years
before before Grant Whitaker died pursuing him.
|
Arrest Date |
Age |
Charge |
Misdemeanor/Felony |
|
7/20/1997 |
17 yrs 1 mo 4 days |
Possession of marijuana |
Misdemeanor |
|
5/13/1998 |
17 yrs 10 mos 27 days |
Resisting/obstructing officer |
Misdemeanor |
|
3/1/2000 |
19 yrs 9 mos 0 days |
Fleeing police officer
Controlled substance (marijuana)
Operating while intoxicated
Operating while license suspended
Open container |
Felony
Felony
Misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
Misdemeanor |
|
4/9/2004 |
23 yrs 9 mos 23 days |
Controlled substance (marijuana)
delivery |
Felony |
|
3/27/2010 |
29 yrs 9 mos 11 days |
Operating while license suspended |
Misdemeanor |
|
12/6/2010 |
30 yrs 5 mos 20 days |
Operating while license suspended |
Misdemeanor |
|
12/13/2014 |
34 yrs 5 mos 27 days |
Fleeing resulting in death
Operating while license suspended
Habitual offender |
Felony
Misdemeanor
Felony |
At
the July 22, 2015 sentencing hearing,
Assistant Prosecutor Jonathon Roth described Kelsey's "criminal body of
work" as follows (transcript,
page 41):
In 1977, he was convicted of possession of marijuana. And in the
underlying facts, as noted in the PSI, this was from a vehicle
pursuit from police trying to avoid being caught with the
marijuana.
In 1998, he was convicted of resisting or obstructing a police
officer. Again, in this he fought with police. He attempted to
damage the patrol car. He spit in the patrol car and ultimately
screamed at officers “Fuck you, you are a bunch of pigs.”
In 2000, he was convicted of fleeing and eluding fourth degree,
possession of marijuana, drunk drive, driving while license
suspended, open intox; eerily similar facts to our current case but
without the fatal consequence.
He fled from police at more than 100 miles per hour to avoid being
caught with marijuana and more alcohol in the car, and he was sent
to prison for that. No reformation, though.
In 2003, he was convicted of possession of between 5 and 50 pounds
of marijuana in Texas. I can only imagine why a Michigan resident
has between 5 and 50 pounds of marijuana in Texas.
In 2004, convicted of delivery or manufacture of marijuana.
2007, drunk driving again, again involving a traffic accident.
2010, possession of a dangerous weapon.
And four times since 2010 he’s been convicted of driving while
license suspended.
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