Genoa Township clerk arraigned on misdemeanor in connection with 2020 election
The Genoa Township clerk was arraigned on criminal charges Friday after officials allege ballots were placed in a bag instead of a pre-approved box in the November 2020 election.
Paulette Skolarus was charged on March 9 with one count of failure to perform duty under the state s election law.
The charges arose after the issue was discovered during a Board of Canvassers meeting on Nov. 9.
Minutes from the Livingston County Board of Canvassers meeting state, the Board determined to re-tab AVCB 2 Precincts 3,5,6, and hand count 8. It was determined that the Ballots were sealed in ballot canvas bags, not in approved ballot containers.
May 5, 2021 By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com
The decision on whether to allow taxpayer dollars to assist the legal defense of Genoa Townshipâs long-time clerk will come after the case is ajudicated.
A single misdemeanor charge of Election Law â Failure to Perform Duty was filed by against Genoa Township Clerk Polly Skolarus. A Michigan State Police report obtained by WHMI revealed multiple election officials, including several Livingston County clerks, stated that they saw Skolarus wheel in unapproved canvas bags with excess absentee ballots used in last Novemberâs election. She reportedly admitted at the time that it was her fault and that she had instructed election workers to use the bags. However, in a memo to the Genoa Township Board of Trustees dated March 30th, Skolarus claimed she was not aware that workers placed ballots in the unapproved canvas bags.
May 4, 2021 By Jon King / jking@whmi.com
Appeals have been denied in the murder case against two men charged in Livingston County for their roles in a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Attorneys for Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin filed motions in January to reverse earlier rulings against their clients that they should stand trial on 11 counts of second degree murder.
Last week, Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael Gadola denied both in a one-sentence opinion that cited a failure to persuade the court of the need for immediate appellate review. Cadden was a part-owner and Chin was a supervising pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center.
May 4, 2021 By Jon King / jking@whmi.com
A plea has been entered for a jailhouse assault by a Detroit man already serving time for armed robbery and fleeing from police in late 2019.
29-year-old Bryan James Busher was sentenced last month to serve a year in the Livingston County Jail for his plea to an armed robbery charge for an incident on Christmas Eve 2019 at the Genoa Township Walmart. Today Busher was back in 53rd District Court for a plea hearing on an assault and battery charge stemming from an encounter in the Livingston County Jail in March of 2020, where he had been incarcerated since his arrest. A deal was reached in which he will plead guilty to the charge in exchange for a 26 day sentence, which he can serve along with his current sentence. Formal sentencing was set for June 1st. Busher had faced prison time for the original incident in which authorities say he and another man had pushed out a shopping cart full of items without paying