Court Watching: VBT father, son face marijuana, drug charges in April 2 court session

By Diane Madigan
Independent Court Reporter
On April 2, co-defendants Dale Kenneth Phifer, 76, and his son Kirkwood Lane Phifer, 24, appeared before 34th District Court Judge Brian A. Oakley for a preliminary examination on drug and marijuana charges.
According to Van Buren Township Police Detective Donovan McCarthy, the Phifers were arrested on Nov. 13 at their home on Bog Road — Dale for possession of 83 marijuana plants and Kirkwood for possessing 65 tablets of LSD.
At the April 1 court session their attorney Charles Todd Inness asked to have his name withdrawn as Dale’s attorney because Dale could not afford to pay for an attorney.
Dale’s new court-appointed attorney David Lankford asked for his client’s preliminary exam to be postponed until April 23 to give him time to review the evidence and to review Michigan’s medical marijuana law.
Judge Oakley agreed to postpone Dale’s preliminary exam until April 23.
Judge Oakley also agreed with attorney Inness’ request to waive the reading of the charges against Kirkland and to bind him over to circuit court at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit for an arraignment on the information on April 16.
Mahdi Anis Soueidan
Also on April 2, Mahdi Anis Soueidan, 26, was escorted into 34th District Court by officers from the Wayne County Jail where he is being held on charges brought by the Detroit Police Department that he abducted his girlfriend on Feb. 23 in Detroit and drove her to Belleville.
Soueidan appeared with his attorney Trevor Garrison for a preliminary examination for a misdemeanor pre-trial exam in which he is accused of failing to stop at a traffic accident at Fifth and Main in Belleville, fleeing the scene, then trying to break into two residences.
Belleville Officer Matthew Vandeweghe with the assistance of VBT Sgt. Bart DeVos and VBT Officer Pat Wehrman tracked him along the lake shoreline to an unoccupied apartment in the 100 block of North Liberty Street where he was hiding.
Soueidan’s attorney informed the court that Soueidan was scheduled for a competency exam on “another serious matter” and asked that the pretrial exam with possible sentencing be adjourned until June.
Judge Oakley ordered that Soueidan’s pretrial exam on the misdemeanors would be adjourned until July 16.