Officials with the Michigan State Police forensic lab identified 43 impaired driving cases in the five-county area for review by county prosecutors, following a previous discovery of a blood testing issue.
In northwest lower Michigan, MSP and county documents show two cases were identified in Antrim County, two cases in Benzie County, 22 cases in Grand Traverse County, 14 cases in Kalkaska County and three cases in Leelanau County.
Records provided to the Record-Eagle in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the counties, as well as public court records, show many of these cases have already made their way through the court system.
For example, in Kalkaska County, Prosecutor Ryan Ziegler said of the 14 cases MSP identified in that county, two were never received by his office for prosecution, six were dismissed or declined, four were for defendants who pleaded guilty to the charges, one was for a defendant who successfully pleaded not guilty at trial and one is for a defendant with a bench warrant out for their arrest.
The MSP made headlines late last summer after acknowledging the organization’s toxicology process couldn’t tell the difference in blood tested for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and CBD, an ingredient used in supplements and other products, but which doesn’t produce a “high.”
Read more at Traverse City Record Eagle