Benjamin Bolser News Today

News File Photo Lora Greene ATLANTA — Alpena attorney Lora Greene will preside over the Montmorency County probate court, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced today. Filling a vacancy left by retiring Judge Benjamin Bolser, Greene will fill a partial term as probate judge for the county, until Jan. 1, 2023. To serve the remainder of Bolser’s term, through 2024, Greene would have to run for reelection in November 2022. Greene, an Atlanta resident, owns a private practice in Alpena and serves as p...

ALPENA — Decisions are easy when you know you’re doing the right thing, said Benjamin Bolser, retiring next week after eight years on the bench in Alpena an

jriddle@thealpenanews.com ALPENA — An Alpena man wants to take back his guilty plea in an assault case after his victim claimed the assault never happened. Damien Michael Smith, now 26, was sentenced in 2015 to two years in prison after he admitted to threatening a man with a gun in an Alpena apartment building. The man Smith said he accosted, Christopher Medlin, told Judge Benjamin Bolser in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court Court on Monday that he lied when he told police about the incident. Me...

jriddle@thealpenanews.com News Photo by Julie Riddle Defendant Christopher Olsen waits behind plexiglass in the jury box of Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court courtroom on Monday. Olsen was sentenced to 430 days time served and 5 years’ probation for possession of thousands of images of child pornography. ALPENA — Christopher Olsen, of Alpena, was sentenced Monday to time served and 5 years probation for possession of child pornography. Arrested in January 2020, while he was employed as custodia...

jriddle@thealpenanews.com News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena County Assistant Prosecutor Megan McKeon addresses a jury during closing arguments at a trial in Alpena’s 88th District Court on Thursday. Judge Benjamin Bolser, pictured, presided over the trial. ALPENA — Jury summons have hit mailboxes in Alpena County as courts resume jury trials in Northeast Michigan. Felony trials at Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court scheduled for this week didn’t materialize, but a six-member jury heard a domes...