The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 11/ March 16, 2024 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 146th year

Sheriff asked to hand over voter fraud investigation

files to special prosecutor, says he won’t

Jayson Bussa

Editor

When a special prosecutor

deemed there was insufficient

evidence to charge Barry

County Sheriff Dar Leaf with

a crime in August, Leaf told

the Sun and News he was

likely to receive a subpoena

to testify in cases against

those who were charged.

That hunch came to frui-

tion last week when Leaf

received a subpoena — one

that he is fighting back

against.

Muskegon County

Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, who

is acting as a special prosecu-

tor for the state in cases

against three individuals

accused of illegally obtaining

and testing voting equip-

ment, issued a subpoena to

Leaf on on Thursday, March

7, requesting that Leaf appear

the next day and also turn

over files he has compiled

during his years-long investi-

gation into voter fraud.

One of the individuals

being charged is Stefanie

Lambert, who has served as

legal counsel for Leaf

throughout his investigation

into voter fraud, which jump-

started following the 2020

presidential election. The

subpoena Leaf received was

part of the People of

Michigan vs. Stefanie

Lambert

Former Michigan State

Representative Daire Rendon

and former Republican can-

didate for state Attorney

General Matt DePerno are

also being charged.

Cutlerville Fire Department to get

name change ahead of pending split

between Gaines and Byron townships

James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
The Cutlerville Fire
Department will get a new
name after the partnership
between Byron and Gaines
townships ends later this
year.
The Gaines Charter
Township Board on Monday
night voted 7-0 to change the
name of the Cutlerville Fire
Department to the Gaines

Charter Township Fire

Department. Township

Manager Rod Weersing said

the hope is that the name

change will take effect by

Jan. 1, 2025. That is a poten-

tial date by which the part-

nership’s dissolution might

be finalized.

The Byron Township

Board voted in July 2023 to

sever the 73-year-old contact

with Gaines in mutually

operating the Cutlerville Fire

Department. Under an inter-

governmental operating

agreement, the partnership

must begin to officially dis-

solve within one year, by

July 2024.

Gaines officials said they

were stunned last summer

when they heard that the

Byron board had voted to

end the partnership. Some

felt they were not given ade-

quate advance notice that

Byron officials were consid-

ering it. Gaines Township

Supervisor Rob DeWaard

said it was “disrespectful.

But Byron Township

Supervisor Donald (Amos)

Tillema said his township

wants to have its own fire

station in Cutlerville because

Byron is one of the fast-

• Caledonia plans open house for
  proposed rental inspection program


• New addition to Yankee Springs
  Township Hall already damaged


• Prep work begins at site of Pine
  Rest Pediatric Center


• YS board bans commercial short-
  term rentals in residential areas


• TK grad Vanstee tabbed as GLIAC’s
  top sub

IN THIS ISSUE...IN THIS ISSUE...

See FIRE DEPARTMENT, page 3

See LEAF, page 3

Vehicles broken into,

stolen in Middleville

crime spree

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

At least 30 vehicles in

four residential neighbor-

hoods in the village of

Middleville were broken

into, with four vehicles

being stolen, during a

crime spree Monday night,

according to the

Middleville unit of the

Barry County Sheriff’s

Office.

That has one local resi-

dent calling for a greater

police presence in the vil-

lage.

Sgt. Scott Ware of the

sheriff’s office Middleville

unit told the Village

Council Tuesday night

that the incidents occurred

in the Seneca Ridge,

Rolling Oaks, Towne

Center and Misty Ridge

subdivisions.

“One car was recovered

close by home, due to it

being a non-drivable vehi-

cle, yet they managed to

get it started down the

road a little bit ... One

vehicle was recovered

after a pursuit,” Ware said.

Five subjects were iden-

tified as a result of the

pursuit but no arrests have

been made so far. They are

from outside the

Middleville area, and are

said to be part of “a much

bigger crime ring,” Ware

said.

“The investigation is

ongoing and we will be

sending everything to the

Prosecutor’s Office next

week for review,” Ware

wrote in an email to the

Sun and News.

Ware said that one dep-

uty works in the village at

night, and was on patrol in

a different part of the vil-

lage from the subdivisions

when the incidents

occurred.

“These guys were in

and out in all those neigh-

borhoods in less than an

hour ... If it wasn’t for

somebody waking up and

hearing them steal their

car, they would have been

long gone, the pursuit

would never have hap-

pened and we never would

have caught somebody.

When a neighborhood can

help, it helps us,” Ware

said.

The department

received video footage

that was captured by at

least 10 Ring home securi-

ty cameras, helping inves-

tigators identify those

responsible, Ware said.

Ware noted a common

theme with the break-ins.

Cutlerville/Dutton Fire Chief Ken Van Hall (right) announces service recognition awards for two recently
retired firefighters on Monday. At left is one of them, Brett Holmes (Photo by James Gemmell)

Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf appeared in front of
the Barry County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday
morning sporting the department’s new black uni-
forms, which are a departure from the long-recog-
nized brown uniforms. (Photo by Jayson Bussa)

See CRIME, page 2

I don’t think we’ve ever had four (cars) at once

stolen, I don’t we’ve ever had this many houses

affected. Typically they hit one neighborhood,

they’re in and out. This is by far the worst I’ve

seen.”

— Scott Ware, Sergeant,

Barry County Sheriff ’s Office