jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Alpena defense attorney Denise Burke, who represents many people with mental illnesses, discusses the role of police and the courts in getting needed treatment for people in crisis.
ALPENA David Hainsworth was off his medications and manic the day he talked to several children as he walked past their Alpena home in December 2019.
The man offered them a ride to school, the children told their bus driver, according to the police reports, court records, and interviews with people involved in Hainsworth’s case from which this story is drawn.
Hainsworth who lives just down the street from the children didn’t touch them, make threatening gestures, or own a car.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News File Photo
Investigators review the scene of a barn fire on Long Lake Road where police found the bodies of two people in the debris in this August 2020 News archive photo. Police later confirmed the bodies were brothers Jim and Mike Polluch.
ALPENA For the first time since 2010, police in Alpena County opened multiple murder investigations this year.
In a community where such crime is exceedingly rare there were none in Northeast Michigan in four of the last 10 years, including last year this year’s acts of violence follow a national trend of unexpected violence as the world faced increased stress on many fronts.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Victim Advocate Julie Jackson of the Alpena County Prosecutor’s Office weighs in on a proposed change to Michigan law that would allow prison inmates to earn time off of their sentences by good behavior.
ALPENA Earlier this month, an Alpena man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for leading a group of youths in robbing an Alpena home at gunpoint.
As of now, Justin Golder, 32, will serve every day of those 12 years behind bars.
A bill currently before the state Legislature wants to overturn Michigan’s “truth in sentencing” policy that says prison inmates can’t shorten their sentence by good behavior.