I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The alleged victim in the Macomb county HIV-as-terrorism case is speaking out.
In an interview with both the Macomb Daily and the Detroit News, Winfred Fernandis, Jr., 28, responded to questions about Thursdays ruling by Judge Peter Maceroni which resulted in the dismissal of bio-terrorism charges against defendant Daniel Allen, 45. Here’s what the Detroit News reported:
Fernandis said he doesn’t mind that the bioterrorism charge was dismissed “as long as something happens.”
“I’m glad there are still some charges out there,” said Fernandis. “There are always two sides to every story.”
Two sides, indeed. While Fernandis alleges Allen attacked him without provocation in October of 2009, “hugging up” to him and biting him on the lip, Allen counters that Fernandis and his family members attacked him in the culmination of years of anti-gay harassment. As a result of the neighborhood scuffle, Allen was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder,assault with intent to maim and use or possession of a harmful device — a bio-terrorism charge under Michigan law.
The reason for the terrorism charge? Allen is HIV-positive, and prosecutors contended that meant he was a walking, talking harmful device, because HIV-infected blood has been found by the state appeals court to be a harmful biological substance.
Allen will still face the two felony assault counts, each one carrying a 10-year prison sentence if he is convicted.
Allen has since gotten a personal protection order against Fernandis and his wife, and filed a hate crime report with the FBI. That complaint was dismissed, Allen and his attorney James Galen, Jr. said, because the incident occurred before the new federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act had gone into effect.
Maceroni on Thursday kicked the bio-terror charge to the curb, ruling that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate any evidence which would support terrorism. In his 8-page ruling Maceroni also noted the charges were not grounded in fact.
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