Conrad court odyssey ends in probation

By Brian C. Louwers
C & G Staff Writer

WARREN — A former court official who originally faced a drunken driving charge after a 2008 traffic stop in Warren will spend two years on probation and must comply with a host of other terms and conditions.

James Conrad, 56 of Warren, a former magistrate and administrator at the 37th
District Court, was officially sentenced to two years of reporting probation on March 16 in the 40th District Court in St. Clair Shores. The sentence followed Conrad’s plea of no contest to the charges of disorderly conduct, a 93-day misdemeanor, and careless driving, a civil infraction that carries a penalty of three points on his driving record.

Judge Mark Fratarcangeli presided over the case after it was reassigned to his court through the office of the State Court Administrator last year as a single misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated. The reassignment followed a protracted legal battle centered on the disposition of the allegations against Conrad and the proper venue for trying the case, given his former role as a court official.

Acting in accordance with the terms of the plea agreement, Fratarcangeli dismissed the charge of OWI eventually leveled at Conrad months after his arrest on Eight Mile Road in January 2008.

Conrad was sentenced to two years of reporting probation on the disorderly conduct charge and was ordered to wear an alcohol-monitoring tether for a month. He was ordered to pay a total of $600 in fines and costs, plus an additional $25 a month as a fee for probation, and to continue outpatient substance abuse treatment.  Conrad must also complete a victim’s impact panel, and was ordered to refrain from using alcohol or drugs. Attorneys said random alcohol and drug testing would be a component of his probation, which would likely be supervised through the 37th District Court.

A jail sentence of 93 days was held in abeyance pending the successful conclusion of the terms of his probation.

Richards, who previously said that Conrad’s deal was a “compromise” and “one of a kind,” said the resolution of the case served several purposes.

“I’m glad to have the final outcome determined by an independent judge, which really was one of the things that grated on me the most when this initially developed,” Richards said. “I think it benefits the public in that at least we have some supervision. We’ve got an end to litigation. If there’s a problem, if he is unable to take care of business, if there’s an issue that comes up, he’s facing 93 days in jail. I think that will be helpful.

“He’s in a situation where if he has a problem involving drinking and driving, the consequences he’s going to face are going to be very severe.”

Defense attorney Kirsten Nielsen Hartig had argued that Conrad was “seized” by police under the false premise that the vehicle he was operating had a non-working headlight. She said “irregularities” in the case would have presented problems for the prosecutor if the case moved forward.

Commenting on the sentence, Nielsen Hartig said she has general reliability concerns about the SCRAM tether — short for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor — for all of her clients, including Conrad.

She also said she believed the two-year term of reporting probation was excessive.

“I felt a six-month probation was more appropriate, based on the fact that my client had been on a sort of ‘double-secret’ probation for two years and had been monitored,” Nielsen Hartig said.

She added that the plea, which precluded any possibility of a civil lawsuit filed by Conrad against the city relating to the arrest or prosecution, was a “good result” for her client.

“I think it was a fair result and I know that he is relieved to have this chapter of his life behind him,” Nielsen Hartig said.

Richards originally sought to hire an outside firm to handle the case because of his staff’s close working relationship with Conrad, who resigned as a magistrate of the court shortly after his arrest but remained its administrator until incoming Chief Judge John Chmura removed him in October 2008.

The outside firm later sought to transfer the case to Macomb County prosecutors when evidence of an alcohol-related driving conviction out of Detroit surfaced after Conrad’s arrest in Warren. The matter then passed between prosecutors at the county and state levels, until the office of the Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney declined to authorize charges, citing a lack of evidence.

Specifically, prosecutors said police did not seek to draw blood as evidence of Conrad’s alleged intoxication after he declined to take a breath test at the time of his arrest. The situation prompted police from various agencies, including the city of Warren and the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, to review policies related to the arrest of first-time drunken driving offenders.

Warren police said no evidence of a prior arrest for an alcohol-related driving offense existed on Conrad’s record when he was taken into custody in 2008. But Conrad’s 2003 arrest in Detroit and a previous alcohol-related arrest in Roseville in1998 were cited in documents submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court by the state’s Judicial Tenure Commission in 2005. Based on the recommendation of the JTC, the court later censured Conrad and suspended his duties as a magistrate for 180 days.

The case eventually came back to the 37th District Court where a legal battle ensued over Jakubowski’s decision to hear the matter and his decision not to authorize a charge.  That ended when Jakubowski retired and the judges of the 37th District Court, under Chmura, recused themselves and complied with the ruling of a Circuit Court judge by forwarding the case to the State Court Administrator for reassignment.

You can reach Staff Writer Brian C. Louwers at brianlouwers@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1089.