Rewind: News Highlights From The Last 7 Days

In a 73-page report, a Michigan State University hearing officer confirmed that former head football coach Mel Tucker sexually harassed and exploited rape survivor and sexual assault activist Brenda Tracy in an April 2022 phone call. The officer determined that Tucker also made unwanted sexual advances toward Tracy before and after that call. Tucker has said the relationship was consensual, while Tracy believes he backed out of an agreement to have her speak to the team in summer 2022 because she rejected his advances. Tucker’s attorneys indicated that Tucker plans on appealing this decision. He was fired in September for cause.

 

The Michigan State University Faculty Senate voted 52-4 Thursday to call for the resignation or removal of Trustee Rema Vassar. On Friday, the board met for nearly four hours in its first meeting since Trustee Brianna Scott wrote a letter accusing Vassar of violating the board’s rules of conduct and ethics and bullying board members and administrators. At the meeting, Trustee Dianne Byrum said she couldn’t get three votes to bring a motion to the floor to remove Vassar as chair. Vassar has repeatedly stated that she won’t resign.

 

Lansing city leaders ceremonially broke ground on a new, voter-approved public safety complex on Thursday. The $175 million facilities, approved by 53% of Lansing voters last November, will be built at 2500 S. Washington Ave., the site of the city-owned South Washington Office Complex, and include the Lansing Police Department’s new headquarters and lockup, a fire station and the 54A District Court. The two-year construction process has not yet begun, however. The groundbreaking ceremony was set to correspond with National First Responders’ Day.

 

A Lansing 2-year-old has died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds sustained while he was left alone in a car Oct. 24. The incident happened around 3 p.m. at the Sunoco filling station in the 3000 block of Dunckel Road. The toddler was flown to a children’s hospital in Ann Arbor, where he remained in critical condition before dying the next day. Police said a 44-year-old man fled the scene, but he was apprehended. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the child’s family and friends in this tragedy, but of course thoughts and prayers are not enough,” said Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane in a statement. “We must take action, to find some measure of justice and prevent similar acts from taking more of our community’s children.”

BWL fired internal auditor Frank Macciocca for allegedly making unauthorized purchases with his utility-provided credit card, WLNS reported. Macciocca, an accountant and attorney, was hired in May 2022 and made purchases with the credit card until Feb. 21, 2023, including thousands of dollars’ worth of unauthorized food, travel and educational expenses. After an internal investigation, the BWL commissioners voted unanimously to fire Macciocca in April. A new internal auditor, Elisha Franco, starts Nov. 6. The board has also changed its credit card policies to prevent future misuse.

 

The City of East Lansing released a statement indicating that it had been the victim of a “sophisticated” cybercrime. The release said the city is working with state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to recover $550,000 that was stolen. “The sophisticated scam involved an entity that compromised a recognized vendor email account and fraudulently changed the routing information for payment of a legitimate bill,” the release said. “The criminals overcame financial validation processes in an attempt to defraud the City and its taxpayers.” Added City Manager Robert Belleman, “We want to reiterate that the integrity of the City’s departments was not compromised. It is thanks to the quick response and due diligence of our well-trained staff that we were able to identify this cybercrime as quickly as we did.”

 

Seann Patrick Pietila, a 19-year-old living in Pickford, will plead guilty Nov. 13 to charges of threatening an East Lansing synagogue last summer, the Lansing State Journal reported. Pietila, a former student at Eastern High School during the 2020-‘21 school year, has been charged with two counts of transmitting threatening communications and one count of threat to kill or injure by means of fire after he sent Instagram messages on June 1 and June 2, claiming that he “had a desire and a plan to kill or injure Jewish people.” Pietila was arrested June 16, and authorities found ammunition, magazines, a shotgun, a rifle, a pistol, knives, a Nazi flag, gas masks and military manuals during a search of his home. A note was also found in Pietila’s phone that referenced the Shaarey Zedek Congregation in East Lansing and the date March 15, 2024. He faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Rashad Trice, the man charged in the kidnapping and killing of Lansing toddler Wynter Cole-Smith this year, will not face the death penalty, federal prosecutors announced. Trice, 27, faces charges in multiple jurisdictions after a search over the Fourth of July holiday led to Cole-Smith’s body being found in Detroit. The murder happened in Lansing July 2, and Trice was later arrested in St. Clair Shores. He has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of kidnapping a minor and kidnapping resulting in death.

 

Best Furniture Outlet plans to open Nov. 10 in the Lansing Mall space formerly occupied by Macy’s. The wholesale furniture and mattress retailer has signed a five-year lease on the 100,000-square-foot space at 5330 W. Saginaw Hwy. that has been vacant since 2017. The store, which will initially be staffed with 20 employees, will include a 60,000-square-foot showroom. The remaining space will serve as a regional distribution center.

 

Public Safety: Following an investigation into the murder of 29-year-old Alicia Gallegos, authorities announced that she was walking toward the downtown Capital Area Transportation Authority station at about 6:45 a.m. Oct. 16 when Jacobo Montalvo, 57, allegedly pulled her from the sidewalk near East Lenawee Street and South Washington Square. She was found dead later that morning in a wooded area off Iosco Road in White Oak Township. Police arrested Montalvo Oct. 21. … A shooting in the 1800 block of South Cedar Street, just north of Mt. Hope Avenue, injured a 22-year-old victim at around 1:45 a.m. Sunday. … A three-hour standoff between police and a 28-year-old man in the 5300 block of Ferris Road ended in the suspect’s home early Wednesday morning after he fired multiple shots inside a nearby house while children were present. … A fire destroyed a Lansing home in the 6000 block of Wise Road just before 6 p.m. Thursday, WILX-TV reported. … Peter Counseller, 57, of Dewitt, pled guilty to one count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more from an elderly victim and two counts of filing false tax returns.

 

A Lansing man with dwarfism has settled a federal lawsuit with his apartment management company, the Lansing State Journal reported. While living in a federally subsidized apartment at Capital Commons Apartments and Townhomes at 600 S. Sycamore St., tenant Daniel Black requested a roll-in shower and an accessible electric entrance door for his rental unit under the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act. When he wasn’t accommodated, Black filed a federal lawsuit against the company and the Lansing-based First Housing Corp. in Dec. 2022. The suit was dismissed Sept. 20 with an undisclosed settlement between parties. The requests have since been granted.