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Host Lily Guiney recaps and gives update on Michigan Supreme Court decision regarding MSU swim and dive team. Then Guiney gives an update on President Stanley's contract.
Welcome to The 1909, the podcast that takes an in-depth look at The State News’ biggest stories of the week, while bringing in new perspectives from the reporters who wrote them.
Lily Guiney 0:10
Welcome to The 1909: your home at The State News for everything happening on campus and around Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney.
Today we'll be recapping court decisions regarding both MSU swim and dive program and a former gymnastics coach, an update on the saga of President Stanley's contract review and a new emergency room with a goal of better serving Eastern Ingham County. Then we'll hear from our senior city reporter Wajeeha Kamal about updates on a police shooting case. Let's get into it.
The Michigan Supreme Court has denied Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's application to review the overturning of the conviction of ex-MSU gymnastics coach Kathie Klages and August 21, Klages was charged with two counts of lying to police regarding her knowledge of sexual assaults committed by Larry Nassar on MSU. campus before the 2016 investigation, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed Klages conviction on December 21, 2020, ruling that there was insufficient evidence that she made a false or misleading statement to authorities.
Nessel filed the leave to appeal application in February in a statement released Wednesday. Nessel said the jury's original convictions were rightly made and that the court's decision was setting a dangerous precedent for future prosecutions.
In District Court news, MSU was granted an extension and given until November 18 to submit a compliance plan in the women's swim and dive team lawsuit. This comes after the university asked for more time to submit a title nine compliance pant plan, hoping to delay until the US Supreme Court responds to its requests for review of the lawsuit. The university's attorney argues that submitting a plan prior to the decision would cause irreparable harm to the school. Now the case is in the hands of the Supreme Court which has yet to agree to hear it MSU asked the court to review the lawsuit in July. But the university's attorney said that MSU won't hear from the US Supreme Court about a possible hearing until November. It would possibly announced its decision as early as November 7.
Lily Guiney 2:09
And to finish up with our MSU news. Here's an update on President Samuel L. Stanley Jr's contract review process.
Ninety-four high-ranking professors released a letter of support for Stanley last week, slamming transparency issues within the Board of Trustees and calling for better communication of the board's actions. This is the latest of many statements given by various student and faculty organizations in support of Stanley.
The President himself spoke out on September 20 in defense of his signing off on MSUs June Title IX certification documents, which is at the center of the board's review of his contract. Board members have called for Stanley's resignation due to concerns over the certification process, accusing him of falsely certifying the title nine document without a review from all of the board members.
Lily Guiney 2:53
With a signature, Stanley checked yes to a section of the title IX transparency reform reporting form saying the university certifies that its president or chancellor and a member of its governing board. As reviewed all Title IX reports of involving alleged misconduct of an employee of the university, Stanley maintains that the board failed to do its job of fulfilling the latter half of those requirements, which state that at least one member of the board must review the reports as well. Stanley said that he signed the document under the impression that the board members had read and reviewed the reports.
Lily Guiney 3:24
So that's it for MSU news. I just want to acknowledge everyone on The State News staff who's been burning the midnight oil this week to make our coverage of MSU administration news as comprehensive as possible. Now on to some local stories.
Lily Guiney 3:38
The new Sparrow emergency center In Okemos opened last week. It's located on Jolly Road and is one of the only emergency rooms in the state to stand independently of a hospital but still maintain all the functions of any other ER. The ultimate location will be staffed to provide 24 hours seven days a week care. Medical Director Ken gagne said that Spiro opened the center to better serve the eastern side of the Greater Lansing area, where residents don't always have access to the same medical facilities as other parts of the Capitol Region.
Lily Guiney 4:07
New emergency room is also expected to relieve congestion at Sparrow's main location and urgent care facilities. That's it for our news round-up. Now I'd like to introduce our senior city reporter Wajeeha Kamal. Hi Wajeeha.
Wajeeha Kamal 4:19
Hello.
Lily Guiney 4:21
Good to have you on.
Wajeeha Kamal 4:22
Good to be here.
Lily Guiney 4:24
So last year, you were our cops and courts reporter. So you've been following the story that we're about to discuss. Since its inception. Can you give us a reminder of the events of the Okemos Mejier police shooting and what all went down in the immediate aftermath?
Wajeeha Kamal 4:38
It's a pretty intense case. So the shooting happened on April 25. At the time, I was the cops and courts reporter but also at the time, notably, there wasn't much information about who the individual was that was shot. And so the East Lansing Police Department, the Michigan State University Police Department and the Lansing police town police department were all at the scene.
And so, the race of the individual was notably not revealed, just the fact that someone was allegedly carrying a gun. And there was some sort of Chase. And so later on, ELPD Chief Kim Johnson issued a statement and said it was the officer-involved shooting, meaning the individual who was quote, unquote, being chased was shot by an officer of either East Lansing police department, and we later found out it was two officers who were firing shots. And so later on, the East Lansing Police Department revealed or released body cam footage, and that was on May 5.
And it was a very graphic video being released, and so it had come out that it was a 21-year-old black man who was shot by the East Lansing police officers. And so there were a lot of videos and the leading up to the shooting. His name is DeAnthony Vanatten. And the shooting itself and the events immediately after the incident were shown in the shouldn't, shooting footage at the body cam footage of the officers.
And so the shooting video also came from the Meijer security camera. And so there were a lot of verbal exchanges, one might say, for example, the body worn camera footage from one officer showed that the officer was chasing the individual saying things like get off the ground, get on the expletive ground, get on the ground, you're gonna get tased, he's got a gun, and there was no gun found on the individual when they were arrested and handcuffed.
Wajeeha Kamal 6:48
And this officer had fired two shots. It's not really clear in the body camera footage whether Vanatten had a gun, but regardless, activists in the community have come out saying that Michigan is open carry state. And so this individual being shot at being chased for allegedly having a gun that wasn't seen that was concealed is wrong.
And so the footage was revealed more footage was revealed in May. And then the investigation when the officer-involved shooting happens, especially at the East Lansing police department. It gets transferred to MSP, which is the Michigan State Police that conducts an investigation that gives it to the attorney general, who will look at an investigation, do a bit more of the investigation and come out and say like, here's what happened.
So Dana Nessel, Attorney General, came out in a press conference August 24, and announced that Vanatten would be charged with seven felony accounts, four counts of assault, three weapons charges and one misdemeanor account of retail fraud, also notably in the video cam footage, he is checking out at the grocery store at Meijer. So the felony charges include four counts of assaulting or obstructing police and one count of each of carrying a concealed weapon, receiving and concealing a firearm, and felony firearm possession.
And so Vanatten was taken into custody. He did not have an attorney. He has a public defender. And so the charges came as Nessel's office announced in a press conference in Detroit beforehand that her department's Public Integrity Unit would investigate the use of force incident by ELPD.
Wajeeha Kamal 8:33
And so addition Vanatten in the videos was also shown running out of the store with a white grocery bag. So there were allegations that he committed retail fraud. And we just don't know the full details about that.
Wajeeha Kamal 8:47
It's also unclear why officers were in pursuit of Vanatten. Something else that had been coming out was that the warrant to arrest him and come from a different jurisdiction. So there were allegations that he was being investigated before it seemed like that the police had indicated, but this is unclear and we do not know that.
And also, ELP declined to specify the crime van and was being investigated for when they were asked in April. And so later on. Community members at the recent city council and police oversight Independent Police oversight Commission have spoken out about this. And so the police oversight commission passed a motion to demand the city council to request that the City Council demand that Nessel dropped the charges.
Wajeeha Kamal 9:36
And that is what happened at the last City Council meeting. The City Council voted in favor of this to demand Nessel to drop charges. Notably, Nessel also scheduled a meeting with council member Dana Watson and Mayor Ron Bacon with the DEI coordinator leader for East Lansing. And so, notably also George Brookover. Another council member dissented and said, quote unquote,
"Officer, I asked that the oversight commission continue their work, let the Attorney General do hers and allowed this defendant to have his day in court. There will be continuing internal police oversight over the actions of our police. Well, I might just remind people also have their own rights under union collective bargaining".
And that is the update I have for you.
Lily Guiney 10:25
So there's been an update to your update on this story in the past few days. Can you tell us about that?
Wajeeha Kamal 10:31
Yes. So as I mentioned, the police oversight commission, at their last meeting, passed a few motions. So it's very important to understand that the police oversight commission itself does not have any power in the city. It makes recommendations, and it makes requests, and those requests are voted on by the city council. And so, at the September 8 meeting, Independent Police oversight commission, it was also revealed by Captain Chad Pride that the officer who shot Vanatten one of them has returned to duty but not in a patrol function. Another one has not yet returned.
Wajeeha Kamal 11:06
And so the first motion that the police oversight commission recommended to the City Council was that the Attorney General drop all charges against Vanatten or transfer the case to the Ingham County prosecutor's office. Notably, in a statement to The State News, the prosecutor Carol Simon said that she can't ethically comment on Nessel's case but also, there has been the county office developed a policy when I saw his office in June 2020. That said, cases involving an officer-involved shooting or death of an individual in police custody would go directly to the agency's office for review.
Wajeeha Kamal 11:39
And so the City Council did vote in favor of the police oversight Commission's motion. And there was also another motion that passed that recommended that the city manager and mayor asked Nessel's office for the investigation file. And so during that meeting, during that city council meeting, Mayor Ron Bacon had said that, quote unquote,
"I thought many elements were political theater, I think it's very difficult for any defendant to go against the machine backed by the political theater."
Wajeeha Kamal 12:08
And so now, there is no police oversight commission until meeting until October. But the city council does meet next week. And so that's the updates that I have now. Also, while meeting with Nessel, Dana Watson said that it's unlikely that she will drop the charges, but transferring the case is not out of the question just yet.
Lily Guiney 12:31
Gotcha. So can you just explain a little bit? Obviously, there are a lot of hands on this case. We've got multiple agencies, multiple jurisdictions, all kinds of crossing lines here. Why is it that the attorney general would pick up a case like this?
Wajeeha Kamal 12:49
I cannot comment on exactly why she would take up the case. But as Ron Bacon said, a lot of it is the midterms. Nessel wants to look hard on crime, but she also wants to look tough on officers. And so we have yet to see if there will be some action against the officers who have now been allowed to return back to work. And so a lot of it is just state politics that have an impact on the local level, and individuals that live in places like East Lansing that sort of get involved in these large systems that are involved, that involve a lot of politics.
Lily Guiney 13:25
So there was obviously a pretty big on response to this incident from local chapters of Black Lives Matter and other activists. Can you tell me a little bit about what that looks like?
Wajeeha Kamal 13:37
And on September 7, there was a protest of sorts at the city council meeting. And I had the privilege of talking to activists in the community. And so one of those activists was from, for example, a public commenter, his name is Farhan Sheikh Omar. He was caught publicly commenting at the city council meeting, addressing LPD Kim Johnson directly and said accountability is not part of the department's practices.
Wajeeha Kamal 14:05
Notably, the police chief did not say anything at this meeting and did not have a public comment was just sitting, and you know, observing and taking it in, I suppose. And so another activist that I had the privilege of talking to is a member of Black Lives Matter. Lansing, his name is Karrington Kelsey. And he said that the shooting of Vanatten and then the actions of the department have shown how they value Black Lives.
Kelsey said that "they value us in ways that dehumanize us Dana Nessel lied to the community, she virtue, virtue signaled everywhere. But guess what's still happening? Seven felonies one misdemeanor and a bullet in this man's body when he was clearly not a threat."
Wajeeha Kamal 14:43
Another issue that was brought up by Black Lives Matter, Lansing and other activists in the community was ordinance 1490, which prohibits calling the police based on racial motives versus criminal conduct. Notably, the 911 dispatcher call that happened against Vanatten and said that he was not a threat. Yet, over three police departments responded to one individual who allegedly was carrying a gun.
Lily Guiney 15:12
So we know that in the past couple of years, East Lansing police in the city of East Lansing has been trying to make some forward strides on diversity, equity and inclusion and policing, policing policies around race in general. Do you think that this might stir up some more of that?
Wajeeha Kamal 15:33
I think the two definitely coexist. The East Lansing Police Department — this is the first officer-involved shooting. I believe that may not be 100% true, but in recent think, you're right. Yeah. In recent history, it is. And so having this happen during the birth, essentially, of the police oversight commission means that there's a lot of work to do. And I have spoken to commissioners. I've spoken to the chair of the commission, Eric Williams, and he essentially said that they're they don't have power, but they have the ability to make recommendations that the city council will pass or reject or, you know, all these things will be brought to the City Council. So City Council has the power to, you know, enforce the changes that the police oversight commission is recommending. But what that what the police oversight commission's work looks like? I don't think many of us know; I think it's an ongoing process of figuring out how to counter this. And this shooting, I think, is a wake-up call of like we have to do something and there is a sense of urgency directly to make change in the community, the local community.
Lily Guiney 16:43
Well, thank you so much would you have for coming on The 1909 today and giving us this update.
Wajeeha Kamal 16:48
Thank you.
Lily Guiney 16:49
It's been a pleasure. And that is your news roundup for the week.
This has been The 1909 from The State News. We air every week on Mondays and you can get us wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and signing off from East Lansing. I'm Lily Guniey.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai