2020-07-15

An Ionia man will spend one year in the Ionia County Jail for beating a 7-year-old child left in his care.

Brandon Fogarty, 34, was sentenced July 7 by Ionia County Circuit Court Judge Suzanne Kreeger for two counts of felony child abuse in the third degree.

A Belding man who picked up a second methamphetamine charge three days after he was released on bond for one was sentenced June 30 in Ionia County Circuit Court.

Norman Compton, 41, will serve nine months in the Ionia County Jail, with credit for 99 days previously served, and must pay $1,008 in costs and fees. In a second file, he was sentenced to nine months in jail with credit for 96 days previously served. He must pay $608 in costs and fees.

A Lowell man’s jury trial will move forward Aug. 5 after an Ionia County Circuit Court judge denied his attorney’s motion July 7 to adjourn the trial due to continuing concerns around the coronavirus.

Cameron Webb, 24, is charged with malicious destruction of property. The alleged incident happened Dec. 19, 2019, at the Ionia County Jail where Webb was being held.

Josiah Patterson has pleaded no contest to two charges stemming from a rollover accident in which his 9-year-old son died.

The 33-year-old from Lake Odessa entered the no contest pleas Tuesday in Ionia County Circuit Court to operating while intoxicated causing death, a felony, and operating while intoxicated with an occupant less than 16, a misdemeanor. Patterson appeared by Polycom from the Ionia County Jail.

In five weeks time, students will be returning to school to begin the next chapter of their K-12 education, but how that chapter will be read is currently anyone’s guess, as it’s still being written. 

During Monday’s meeting of the Greenville Public Schools (GPS) Board of Education, held virtually via Zoom, nearly 50 people were in attendance, about half of them concerned parents, teachers and members of the community, as the start date for school approaches while the coronavirus pandemic continues to linger.

The new Lakeview Community Schools superintendent attended her first official school board meeting Monday night, and it was a short one.

Kelly Nielsen and board members wore masks throughout the 20-minute meeting, at which board members quickly approved eight items of business and adjourned.

A handful of Crystal residents are once again starting a committee to try and bring a bank back into the township.

During last week’s meeting, the topic of bringing a bank in Crystal came up when Trustee Drew Lane mentioned the possibility of switching the township’s bank from Chemical Bank.