MI- GH cop won't be on sex offender list

Unbelievable, but there still may be justice. Michigan has a catch-all statute (MCL 28.722) which should cause this man to be forced to register, that statute is not under the control of the prosecutor.

10-30-2009 Michigan:

Thomas Carey to be sentenced Nov. 2

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) - A former Grand Haven police officer lost his job and could lose his freedom for his on-duty sexual encounters, but one of his victims says she can't understand why his name won't appear on the state's sex offender registry.

She thinks Thomas Carey belongs there to warn other women.

"He's just a sick person that takes advantage of women that can't help themselves," the woman told 24 Hour News 8.

Carey, 47, a 20-year veteran and one-time Grand Haven Officer of the Year, could face up to five years in prison when sentenced on Nov. 2 in Ottawa County.

But it was a deal worked out between Carey's attorney, Charles Rominger, and Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth that will keep him from the sex offender registry.

Rominger said his client, who is married, is not a predator and doesn't belong on the list.

"I think it does a disservice to characterize this as a renegade police officer who was using his badge and authority to obtain sexual favors from non-consenting adult women," Rominger said.

That's not how state police saw it -- at least originally.

They investigated the case as first-degree sexual assault involving two vulnerable women -- ages 43 and 67 -- and an officer abusing his authority for sex, according to state police reports obtained by 24 Hour News 8 through the Freedom of Information Act.

The reports provide new details on the investigation -- and raise new questions.

Carey pleaded no contest to misconduct in office and gross indecency, the same kind of charge two consenting adults would face for having sex in public.

First-degree sexual assault carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; the most he can get now is 5 years.

Rominger said the officer agreed to gross indecency because it's not among the charges that land people on the sex offender list.

The 43-year-old victim said Carey first targeted her in early 2008, when she called police to report a suspicious person. Officer Carey -- the city's K-9 handler -- responded.

"I'd seen this cop before," she told 24 Hour News 8. "I've had other incidents and he was, you know, I could tell he had a crush on me, you know, that he liked me."

She had been diagnosed with mental health problems -- major depression, a dependent personality -- and other health issues, including insulin dependent diabetes, state police records show.

The officer was especially nice, the woman told police. He hugged her, told her a shower would make her feel better.

An hour or so later, he returned, providing more comfort, she said.

"He was holding me, rubbing my back," she said.

Then, the visits became regular -- Carey tapping on her window late at night, within view of the Grand Haven police headquarters.

Once, he appeared suddenly, in uniform, in her bedroom at 2 or 3 a.m, standing in the dark, she told police.

She couldn't undertand why his bosses didn't know.

"It's evident, I mean he come knocking on my bedroom window at 1 o'clock in the morning," she said. "I mean, how can you hide, you know, a police officer, you know, in his uniform, dressed, banging on someone's bedroom window?"

She felt obligated, she told police, to give him what he wanted: Oral sex -- up to a dozen times during the course of 14 months, almost always while he was in uniform and with a gun on his belt.

Each incident "was pretty much the same," lasting 15 to 20 minutes, and "when he was done, he would leave," the woman told police. He never used force or threatened her, she said.

He called her "his girl," and told her, "You want it, don't you?" she told police.

"When asked why she didn't resist or say no, (her) response was she felt she had to and that he was a figure of authority, a police officer," wrote the state police detective who interviewed the woman.

"He has a gun," the woman told 24 Hour News 8. "I asked him one time: What would happen if his gun was to go off? I said, then you've got some explaining to do."

The victim kept the secret until March 2009, when she told her psychiatrist and her Ottawa County Mental Health caseworker, reports show. The allegations reached Grand Haven Public Safety Chief Dennis Edwards, who asked state police to investigate.

"I blame myself," the woman said. "I mean, I could have said no, but what do you say? He's a cop."

Carey denied the allegations when he met with a state police sergeant on June 4 at the Grand Haven Municipal Marina. The frequent visits with the woman, he said, were good public relations.

State police interviewed neighbors, who thought the officer's frequent visits were to check on the woman.

They also searched Carey's police locker and his Grand Haven Township home. It appears they found no evidence of sexual assault. Among the evidence they sought: Green or blue men's bikini underwear described by the victim.

But it was another detail the victim described -- a blue, oval tattoo -- that convinced state police she wasn't making it up.

State police got a search warrant for Carey's body. And, there it was -- a tattoo on his upper arm in honor of fallen Grand Haven Officer Scott Flahive, shot in 1994 in the line of duty.

Then, the biggest breakthrough for police, in August: Rumors about a similar relationship with a 67-year-old woman.

This started in 2005 -- about the time Carey was named Grand Haven Police Officer of the Year. She had called police to report a fraud; Carey helped investigate.

First came the compliments -- he said she looked sexy -- then hugs and kisses, she told police. She described the first visits, some in the middle of the night, as uncomfortable. She described their last encounter as "repulsive."

The sex acts -- 50 to 60 in all -- weren't consensual at first, she said, but it developed into a relationship that lasted several years.

She told police, "He would keep his uniform on and that he would just unzip his pants."

State police described this victim also as vulnerable; she'd been seeing a psychiatrist for 20 years for a chemical imbalance and clinical depression, records show.

Without the second victim, prosecutors would not have filed charges at all, sources told 24 Hour News 8.

Carey's attorney said he negotiated a deal with Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth before charges were filed.

"My assessment was there was just as good a chance of an acquittal as there was a conviction," Rominger said.

Forsyth, who'd been asked to handle the case as a special prosecutor, wanted a felony sex crime conviction, and for Carey to never work again as a police officer.

Carey wanted to stay off the sex offender registry.

They both got what they wanted.

Carey got quick service in court: Charged and arraigned in Grand Haven District Court, then pleading no contest in Ottawa County Circuit Court -- all on the same day.

Forsyth wouldn't comment on the case.

Carey's former boss, Grand Haven Public Safety Chief Dennis Edwards, said he was satisfied with the charges. State Police Lt. Curt Schram, whose office investigated the case, said he believed the charges were appropriate.

Prosecutors would have had a difficult time proving the women were too vulnerable to consent, they said.

"At what point is somebody so incapicitated that they can't choose for themselves?" Edwards said. "It's better to get some conviction than to have a trial and end up with no conviction."

Carey's attorney agreed.

"They made knowing choices, willful choices," he said of the women. "There was benefit in the relationship to them."

The victim tells 24 Hour News 8 she plans to attend the sentencing, and has written to the judge, but she won't make a statement in court.

She no longer trusts police, or the system, she said.

"If he gets any jail or prison time, I don't think he's going to get the maximum that he should, being a cop," she said. ..Source.. by Ken Kolker