Sevenski juror believes officer wasn’t assaulted
Photo by Linda Gallagher
A dejected Larry Sevenski (center) and his attorneys Rick Steiger (left) and Christopher Turkelson react last week after Sevenski was found guilty of assaulting a police officer following a jury trial held in Antrim County’s 13th Circuit Court. Sevenski should never have been charged at all, according to one of the jurors who spoke to the Antrim Review after the trial.
BELLAIRE – Guilty.
And as Larry Sevenski hung his head in dejection, and members of the audience offered emotional responses to the verdict, one member of the four-woman, eight-man jury said to himself, “This isn’t right.”
The events leading up to the two-day Circuit Court trial – which began on Wednesday, July 19 and ended later the following day – occurred around 11 p.m. Saturday, March 17 along US-131 near the intersection of Thumm Road in Antrim County’s Warner Township. That’s when the now 84-year-old Sevenski, longtime owner of Larry’s Seven Ski Bar and Grill, encountered two Michigan State Police troopers on patrol for St. Patrick’s Day revelers and drunk drivers.
According to testimony from the two police officers, Sevenski assaulted Trooper Brock Artfitch after he was pulled over for failure to use a turn signal, a charge later dropped. Instead, Sevenski was charged with resisting, obstructing and assaulting an officer – a felony in the state of Michigan.
But, said juror Horst “Hoss” Kruger a day after the trial ended, “I don’t think he assaulted anyone.”
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