MI- Fmr officer gets 60 days (jail time) for sex case

Hopefully there are thousands of parents of juveniles who are registered, many without any conviction whatsoever, are ready to make a BIG STINK over this. Clearly this is an outrage!

11-2-2009 Michigan:

Thomas Carey faced up to five years in prison

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) - For the first time since resigning in August, a former Grand Haven Public Safety officer spoke out in court Monday.

"I apologize to the victim, my family, my profession and my community," Thomas Carey told the court after pleading no contest to a gross indecency charge. "I will continue to work on issues in my life that have caused me to make some wrong choices in my life."

Carey, who two women say used his badge to coerce them into sexual relationships, will serve 60 days in jail. One of the women is 67 and the other is 43.

The sentence was handed down by an Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge on Monday morning after a plea deal that keeps Carey off the streets as a cop, but also off the state sex offender list.

Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth was brought in to try the case for Ottawa County. He said he was concerned a jury might have trouble believing the relationships involving the two alleged victims were not consensual.

One of the relationships lasted three years. The other went on for just more than one year.

"My concern all along was, if it went to trial and we lost, some arbitrator would give him his job back," Forsyth said. "And I did not want him being a police officer again."

The case originally was investigated as first-degree sexual assault, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The gross indecency charge carries a maximum five-year sentence.

"(Carey is) just a sick person who takes advantage of women that can't help themselves," the 43-year-old alleged victim told 24 Hour News 8 reporter Ken Kolker. She says she had a 14-month relationship with Carey.

Carey first responded to her home on a suspicious person complaint. He kept coming back to comfort the woman and eventually convinced her to perform oral sex on him during several visits. Each time, he was in uniform.

The woman has been diagnosed with mental health problems including depression. She told state police investigators she felt she could not refuse Carey's request because he was in a position of authority.

But other questions remain over the way the case was handled.

By the time the public learned of Carey's charges, he had been through a good portion of the judicial process. He was arraigned in district court, waived his rights to a show-cause hearing, moved to circuit court for trial and pleaded no contest to the plea deal: All in one day.

Forsyth and Carey's attorney already had agreed to the plea deal.

It wasn't Carey's former police officer status, but court rules that allowed the case to move along so quickly, Forsyth told 24 Hour News 8.

"So if I walk in ... If Joe Sixpack walks in ... he'd get the same treatment?" our reporters asked.

"If you had a special prosecutor from another county? Yeah," Forsyth said. "Probably. If you'd worked out the plea ahead of time."

Judge Calvin Bosman said he received several letters of support for Carey from community members. However, he told Carey police officers need to be held to a higher standard. ..Source.. by Joe LaFurgey