As a federal judge, Thomas L. Ludington has sentenced numerous people to prison from the bench in downtown Bay City.
After drunkenly crashing his car in northern Michigan, the 72-year-old jurist found himself on the business end of a gavel as he was ordered to spend the next few months on probation with the threat of jail hanging over his head.
In a few days’ time, a Michigan man went from promoting what he hoped would be the country’s largest historical book burning to asking a judge to reduce his guaranteed jail time.
With handcuffs around his wrists and walking with a limp, 23-year-old Jayden D. Scott on Monday, May 11, appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Jessie Scott Wood for arraignment on a bench warrant she issued in March. The warrant stemmed from an ongoing custody dispute in which Scott’s son’s mother is the plaintiff.
A former teacher at Michigan Lutheran Seminary is heading to prison for sexually assaulting a student. Addressing the sentencing judge, the ex-teacher’s teenage victim said she is wracked with guilt over her abuser’s fate and hopes to one day speak with him again.
Her mother, in contrast, was not as open to giving the assailant a second chance.
“Carl Boeder used his roles as teacher and trusted church leader at his private Lutheran school to groom my daughter,” she said. “He manipulated her through his role as educator, posed as a friend to our family, undermined his school, and betrayed his calling.”
A Bay County-based digital creator has been convicted of interfering with police when he used his drone to livestream their activity.
The defendant's attorney disagreed with jurors’ findings and said their verdict could have far-reaching implications.
“I think this is really problematic for news agencies and for pretty much anybody that wants to cover police activity with a drone if the police can basically take you out of the sky,” he said.
Jessica M. Burke was a committed mother to her son with special needs, so protective that she would not allow others to hold him, testified a longtime friend. Burke’s fear of her son being harmed extended to medical professionals and state officials, with whom she often disagreed.
Despite Burke’s dedication, her 4-year-old son, Noah J. Whitmire, died weighing 10 pounds in her Bay City apartment. Prosecutors assert the boy starved to death due to his mother’s negligence. Burke’s defense attorney maintains Noah’s death was all but inevitable from his litany of health issues, issues the state itself was not equipped to deal with.