E.L. police will not charge most rioters with felonies
Police will not seek felony charges against the majority of individuals arrested in connection with the April 5-6 Cedar Fest riot, East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley said Thursday.
Daley said suspects still could be charged with felonies if they committed a more serious riot offense than ignoring orders to disperse or throwing bottles, but very few suspects will receive such charges.
Lisa McCormick, a child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence chief for the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office, said so far, no suspects from Cedar Fest have received felony charges.
Daley said the decision to prosecute cases as misdemeanors was made partially to keep the cases in the city’s 54-B District Court. Felony cases would have to be referred to the Ingham County Circuit Court in Mason. By keeping the cases in the city’s court system, the fees and penalties associated with them are retained by East Lansing.
Assistant City Attorney Tom Yeadon said money was not a factor in the decision to keep the cases within the city’s court system.
Daley said police also wanted to spare college-aged suspects from having serious offenses on their records as they graduate and apply for jobs.
If convicted of a felony riot charge, suspects could be banned from the state’s publicly funded universities for up to two years and receive a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
A city ordinance allowing riot charges to be classified as misdemeanors lessens the maximum sentence to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, and reduces the maximum time a person can be banned from public universities to one year.
“Even though a lot of the conduct could probably be classified as a felony, it’s being run through our office because … it does give them a break on the amount of time they can be expelled,” Yeadon said.
Lee June, the university’s vice president for Student Affairs and Services, said police’s decision to charge students with misdemeanors will not affect the length of suspensions the university is issuing to some students.
As of Friday, eight students had been suspended from MSU for their actions at Cedar Fest. Some suspensions are unrelated to charges made by police because the university’s judicial system isn’t related to city or county courts.
“They’re dealing in the criminal courts and here, we’re talking about violations of university ordinance,” June said.
He said university officials haven’t finished reviewing all the Cedar Fest-related cases they have received, so more suspensions could be made.
McCormick helped prosecute cases stemming from the March 1999 riots, when 113 people were convicted of crimes and many were charged with felonies. She said the decision not to pursue felony charges from Cedar Fest makes sense because fewer serious offenses were committed.
“In 1999, there was definitely a much larger scale of riot that occurred, so there were different cases that went through,” McCormick said.
Published on Sunday, April 13, 2008
Comments
pissed
04/14/08 @ 12:54am
stupid pigs, trying to ruin these kids lives. may as well have given them the felony, having a charge of inciting a riot will just as badly stick on a background search.
SoCal Spartan
04/14/08 @ 1:07am
Hang em up high and let them dry! There actions are criminal and should be tried and convicted accordingly. Had these people been non college students people would be singing this song, I don’t believe since they’ve got possible futures they should be given an easy way out.
They are stupid for there actions and should pay the price!
HANG THEM UP HIGH, AND LET THEM DRY!!!
duh
04/14/08 @ 2:37am
Why is it the pigs fault? If they were just standing around chillin I doubt they would have been arrested. Hence why only a select few were arrested. Obviously they were doing something to get themselves singled out in the group of 4000+.
jj
04/14/08 @ 5:59am
charge them to the full extent of the law. They are a blemish on the face of the MSU community, and ELPD should be the ones to pop it.
DUH
04/14/08 @ 10:42am
The fix was in on this one…E Lans wants the cedar properties to
be torn down and developers to come in. They let this happen, wanted it to happen, so developers wouldnt have any zoning and finance problems. The drunken idiot dum dum rioters were worse than the three stooges..walked into this one. Good thing you can riot, wreck others property, and walk free. If i had property on Cedar street, id be careful selling it cheap. Id also buy a shotgun and if rioters climbed on my house, id blast away. Anything goes today. City lets em skate for big development bucks should be the headlines. Pathetic.
bingo
04/14/08 @ 10:56am
BINGO!
“Felony cases would have to be referred to the Ingham County Circuit Court in Mason. By keeping the cases in the city’s court system, the fees and penalties associated with them are retained by East Lansing.”
bingo (agreed)
04/14/08 @ 2:05pm
Assistant City Attorney Tom Yeadon said money was not a factor in the decision to keep the cases within the city’s court system.
yeah right!
Juan
04/14/08 @ 2:08pm
What is so difficult for people to accept? The conduct at issue was not legal and was definitely not mature. It was not subject to some sort of legally recognized excuse (think: justifiable rioting, self-defense rioting, etc.). What then is wrong with meting out the appropriate charges and, upon a conviction, punishment?
These students are not children. They are adults. And they should be expected to abide by the same rules and laws that the rest of us are stuck with. End of discussion.
NorCal Spartan
04/14/08 @ 2:30pm
So Cal Spartan sounds like a total asshole. Eat shit SoCal Spartan.
MSU Student
04/14/08 @ 3:01pm
The reason they are not being convicted of felonies is because they would lose all the money tied to these kids if they were to attach felonies on their record. This would send them to ingham county court and they would lose all court/lawyer fees etc.. Cops are just saying this so that they can receive support from the community its just the community is too dumb to notice this. (SoCal Spartan)
Steve
04/14/08 @ 4:05pm
We need the fees in East Lansing to recuperate some of the extensive costs from that night.
Remember that guy from Ohio that received lashings in Singapore for vandalizing cars? This sounds like a perfect opportunity to send these idiots to Singapore.
OK, Question
04/14/08 @ 5:33pm
What kind of person travels to Singapore and vandalize cars?
SoCal Spartan
04/14/08 @ 8:09pm
How many people are from EL? I am, and this is a disgrace to MSU and what does it do? It messes EL up and what the heck, my family moved here and it was a good city. There were SO MANY MORE OPTIONS to the city and it’s been destroyed by students like this.
Again, HANG THEM UP HIGH AND LET THEM DRY! Their decimation to my home town can decimate them!
Go GREEN!
Steve
04/14/08 @ 8:37pm
This guy travels to Singapore and then vandalizes cars:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E1DC163CF935A15755C0A962958260