Plea entered in assault case
Plea entered in assault case
By STEVE BROWNLEE, Journal Staff Writer
ISHPEMING — A former Ishpeming-area corrections officer has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge following a January bar assault in Ishpeming that had racial overtones.
James Roger Chipman of Ely Township pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count of assault and battery in 96th District Court in Ishpeming, according to a court spokeswoman. The charge carries a maximum 93-day jail sentence.
With sentencing not scheduled until October, he is the only one of three defendants charged in the incident whose case is still pending.
He and co-defendants Michael Alan Holmgren of Ishpeming and Jason Francis Kutchie of Ishpeming Township were corrections officers at the Baraga Maximum Correctional Facility in Baraga at the time of the Jan. 8 incident.
All three no longer work for the Michigan Department of Corrections. After being suspended from their jobs on Jan. 13, Holmgren resigned his position on March 23 as part of a plea agreement with the Marquette County Prosecutor’s Office, while Chipman and Kutchie were fired by the MDOC on June 22, according to corrections spokesman Russ Marlan.
Kutchie was found not guilty of misdemeanor aggravated assault by a jury in the Ishpeming district court on June 1, according to the court.
On Tuesday, Chipman pleaded to the misdemeanor assault charge as part of a plea agreement with the prosecutor, according to the court. In exchange, a felony charge of ethnic intimidation, which carries a maximum two-year prison term, was dropped.
Chipman is scheduled for sentencing at 9 a.m. Oct. 4 in front of District Judge Roger Kangas, who also handled Tuesday’s hearing, the court said.
The victim in the assault, Steven Calhoun, 50, is black, while the three defendants are white, according to a report filed shortly after the incident by the Ishpeming Police Department. Holmgren was accused of assaulting Calhoun with a broken beer bottle at the Royal Bar in Ishpeming, while Chipman and Kutchie were accused of physical assault against Calhoun.
Calhoun sought his own treatment at Bell Hospital in Ishpeming after sustaining minor injuries, police said.
Holmgren received a delay in his sentencing for a year at a July 12 hearing in the Ishpeming court, the court said. He pleaded no contest on April 19 to one count of attempted ethnic intimidation, a one-year high-court misdemeanor. Felony charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and ethnic intimidation were dropped as part of his plea. The felony assault carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and ethnic intimidation up to a two-year term.
Holmgren also agreed to pay restitution to the victim for physical injuries, according to Marquette County Prosecutor Gary Walker.
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