Belleville Police refile charges against driver found with fentanyl

Christian Devon Harris, 22, formerly of Van Buren Township and now of Southfield, was charged with delivering/manufacturing narcotics and possessing a controlled substance when 56 fentanyl tablets were found in the borrowed car he was driving on May 2, 2021 in the city of Belleville. He also was charged with driving while license suspended.
On Dec. 6, an exam was held at 34th District Court and the drug charges were dismissed. At his pretrial on Dec. 20 on the DWLS charge, that charge also was dismissed through a motion of the prosecuting attorney. Case was closed.
The court then advised the city of Belleville to return the $2,700 in cash taken from Harris during his arrest. At its Jan. 16 meeting, the Belleville City Council approved accounts payable including a check for $2,718.39 to Harris from the police department’s drug forfeiture fund where it had been placed.
The case was refiled on Jan. 4 and Harris was arraigned on Jan. 17 by Judge Lisa Martin. Defense attorney Kevin Martin objected, saying the charges already had been dismissed, most recently by Judge Martin herself. He filed a motion to dismiss at 6:28 p.m. the night before this scheduled 10:15 a.m. arraignment / probable cause conference.
Judge Martin set the next probable cause conference on the charges for Feb. 21 and the hearing on attorney Martin’s motion also was set for Feb. 21.
Attorney Martin said this was the third time the charges have been filed. He said the charges first had been filed on July 26, 2023 and were dismissed by Judge Tina Brooks Green on Oct 4 for lack of evidence. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Mohamed A. Mohamed said that was because the Michigan State Police laboratory was swamped and didn’t get to the pills in time for the court session.
The charges were refiled on Oct. 5, after the MSP had identified the pills as fentanyl, and the charge went on the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) on Oct. 6. Harris was before an out-county judge on Oct. 7, but there was no paperwork on his arraignment, so he was arraigned before his preliminary exam on Dec. 6.
Attorney Martin pointed out that Judge Martin [no relationship], who arraigned Harris on Jan. 17, also had dismissed charges against him on Dec. 6.
At Harris’ Jan. 17 arraignment, Judge Martin said Belleville police had asked for $100,000/10% bond to be levied and he had eight traffic warrants and was on parole on bond for another. Attorney Martin requested personal bond for his client.
Judge Martin said that Harris had shown up for his court dates and so she ordered personal bond of $20,000. She asked his attorney to see that his client takes care of the $1,803 he owes the court for different cases. Harris, who was present via Zoom, laughed at the judge’s request.
Attorney Martin said he had no new discovery for this new filing and Judge Martin said the prosecutor is aware of that and is on notice on the discovery issue.