Anatomy Of A Bar Complaint

There is a very interesting hearing being conducted today on a Respondent’s motion to dismiss ethics charges brought by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.

The motion appears to be predicated on the contention that the alleged misconduct is protected speech.

According to the allegations, Respondent was admitted to practice in 2016 and was an assistant prosecutor in a city on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan until until he was dismissed without cause in February 2022.

He is charged with post-dismissal communications concerning a criminal case involving a former sheriff’s deputy in violation of his duty of confidentiality 

Due to his employment as an assistant prosecutor at the Menominee County Prosecutor’s Office, Respondent came to possess non-public, confidential information about the Helfert investigation/cases.

The Helfert cases involved multiple investigations by the Menominee City Police Department (“MCPD”) over the span of years 2005 through in or about 2021.

After receipt of the MCPD reports, then-elected prosecutor Jeffrey Rogg shared MCPD reports with Respondent, then an assistant prosecuting attorney at the Menominee County Prosecutor’s Office.

After he left the prosecutor’s office

On or about March 9, 2023, a letter Respondent wrote to the Menominee County Journal was published, the subject of which was the Helfert criminal investigation/charges and drafted as a reply to James Bediant.

At that time of the publishing of Respondent’s letter, the Menominee County Journal was a general circulation newspaper published in Stephenson, Michigan and online at http://www.MenomineeCountyJournal.com.

Respondent’s letter was titled “Brian Helfert deserves to go to prison.”

Among the statements

that while employed as an assistant prosecutor, Respondent begged Mr. Rogg, the then-elected Menominee County Prosecutor, on numerous occasions to refer the Helfert case and the actions of Sheriff Marks to a special prosecutor due to his clear conflict of interest;

that after Mr. Rogg terminated Respondent’s employment, Mr. Rogg simultaneously dismissed over a dozen well- supported charges against Helfert;

that Mr. Rogg then reduced the dozens of new charges to a single charge … and Helfert would not be charged for any of the other crimes he had committed…

He allegedly sent an email to approximately 116 recipients

Respondent called Helfert “the worst sexual predator in Michigan” in his email.

He attended a hearing where the judge rejected the plea bargain

Upon leaving the courthouse, Respondent was observed dancing in the parking lot by Deputy Michael Kass, as well as by members of the public.

Rogg filed a bar complaint but then

In or about November and December of 2023, Respondent traveled to Menominee County of his own volition and offered to provide assistance to elected Prosecutor Rogg in the jury trial of the case of People of the State of Michigan v Brian Helfert, case no. 2022-4431-FH, 41 st Circuit Court.

Rogg accepted Respondent’s offer of assistance.

Helfert was convicted by jury verdict of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and sentenced in or about March of 2024.

Prior to sentencing, Respondent again traveled to Menominee County of his own volition and offered to assist Rogg with sentencing preparation.

Rogg accepted Respondent’s offer and Respondent also later attended Helfert’s sentencing.

A second count alleges misconduct in texts Respondent sent to Rogg after sentencing.

Upper Michigan Source TV 6 reported on the Helfert case

A former Menominee County Sheriff’s deputy got another prison sentence Friday.

Brian Helfert is already a convicted sex offender. Last December, a jury found Helfert guilty of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a weapon. He was sentenced in March to a minimum of nine years and a maximum of 15 in prison. Friday’s sentencing pertained to a different case and a different child.

During the sentencing, 41st Circuit Court Judge Christopher Ninomiya said Helfert was a “monster” who deserved the maximum prison time allowed by law.

“In this case, the maximum sentence the court can impose is a sentence of 40 to 60 months in the Michigan Department of Corrections,” Ninomiya said.

The sentence was the result of a plea agreement Menominee County Prosecutor Jeffrey Rogg and Helfert’s attorney, Trenton Stupak, reached in July. Helfert was initially facing two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree for accusations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

“I have been working long and hard on these cases, plural, for almost five years,” Rogg told the court. “It will be five years next month.”

As part of Helfert’s no contest plea, the charges were amended to one felony count of attempted sexual contact in the first degree.

While the victim was not in court today, Rogg says the agreement respects his wishes.

When I talked to the victim Wednesday after our in chambers conference with the court, he ratified that he did not want to be here today,” Rogg said. The prosecutor then turned toward members of the media and other attendees and exclaimed, “He wants to be left alone!”

Stupak says this sentencing closes the book on what he called the “Menominee County Horror Story.”

“I believe it’s come to an end in the appropriate way through the final sentencing that closes all the cases known to the prosecuting attorney, to myself and lets Mr. Helfert live the remainder of his life,” Stupak said.

Friday’s sentencing does not mean Helfert will be behind bars longer. He will serve the 40 months to five-year sentence at the same time as his previous 9-to-15-year sentence.

According to Wikipedia, among the notable persons born in Menominee is Doris Packer, who played the elementary school principal on Leave It To Beaver and the mother of Chatsworth Osborne III on Dobie Gillis.

She played Grandmother Nedra in S3 E35 (1962) of The Twilight Zone entitled “I Sing the Body Electric“. She played the wealthy Mrs Huntingdon in a 1963 episode “I’m No Henry Walden!” on CBS’s The Dick Van Dyke Show. She appeared on three episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies as wealthy matron Mrs. Fenwick. She made a guest appearance on Perry Mason in 1962 as Mrs. Campion in “The Case of the Polka Dot Pony”

(Mike Frisch)