Eaton County prosecutor reports 7,272 open cases; sheriff details dozen December incidents
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Summary
During the Jan. 15 Eaton County Public Safety Committee meeting, Prosecutor Doug Lloyd reported 7,272 open cases and operational metrics; Sheriff Tom Reich reviewed a series of December incidents including a child-predator arrest, a school threat, retail fraud and a shooting near Eaton Rapids.
Doug Lloyd, Eaton County prosecutor, told the Public Safety Committee on Jan. 15 that the county currently has 7,272 open cases.
"We have total open cases at this moment are 7,272," Lloyd said, and explained that last month showed a net decrease of 245 cases even as the office opened 288 new cases. He said his office authorized 101 matters and declined or deferred 110. Lloyd also listed operational activity: 727 hearing notices issued, 335 instances of discovery provided across 226 cases, 39 subpoenas over 32 cases, 239 victim contacts and 31 writs to bring defendants from other counties.
Lloyd said two of his attorneys are now several days into a murder trial involving a defendant charged in the death of a 5-year-old.
Sheriff Tom Reich followed with his department’s December highlights. Reich described a Dec. 5 breaking-and-entering in Delta Township that resulted in the arrest of two men found carrying copper piping. He reported a Dec. 10 felonious assault in the 5,000 block of West Willow in which deputies recovered a handgun and lodged a suspect, and a Dec. 11 retail fraud at Kohl’s involving about $2,462 in stolen merchandise and three juveniles, one of whom was already on probation.
Reich said on Dec. 16 deputies arrested an IT worker who traveled to a Delta Library to meet a 15-year-old; the sheriff characterized the case as a child-predator arrest. On Dec. 17, he said, a distorted-voice telephone threat to Waverly High School led the district to cancel classes while deputies and K-9 teams searched the building. Reich also discussed multiple resisting-and-obstruction arrests, a Dec. 28 flood response where deputies cleared plugged drains during heavy rainfall, and a shooting near William Durfee south of Eaton Rapids in which a 16-year-old female was shot in the knee and foot.
Reich closed by announcing the county’s long-awaited emergency command vehicle had arrived and would be available to the sheriff’s office and neighboring municipalities including Potterville, Charlotte, Eaton Rapids, Olivet, Bellevue and Grand Ledge.
The committee had no public commenters during limited public comment and raised no further questions for the prosecutor after Lloyd’s presentation. Several commissioners asked follow-up questions of the sheriff on specific incidents and about coordinating on school safety, and the sheriff asked staff to schedule a meeting to discuss Maple Valley Schools’ needs.
Next steps: the committee moved on to other agenda items; no formal action was taken on the prosecutor’s or sheriff’s reports at this meeting.
