Court Watching: Scott Settles bound over for trial on terrorism charge

On March 20, 34th District Court Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green bound Scott William-Samuel Settles, 43, of Belleville over to Wayne County Circuit Court on five charges, including terrorism.
He is due at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit on April 3 to face trial. He is free after posting bond of $10,000/10%.
Settles is charged with using a rifle to threaten the bartender and patrons at Egan’s Pub in Belleville just before closing time on Dec. 18.
Representing Settles at the March 20 preliminary exam before Judge Green was Joseph Hall. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor was Megan Mathews.
The charges are:
• Terrorism, a felony with a possible 20-year and/or $20,000 sentence;
• Carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, a felony with a possible 5-year and/or $2,500 sentence;
• Felony firearm, a felony with a possible sentence of 5 years and/or $2,500;
• Possession of a firearm while under the influence, a misdemeanor with possible sentence of 93 days and/or $500; and
• Brandishing a firearm in public, misdemeanor with possible sentence up to one year and fine of $500.
The terrorism charge was added before the exam and defense attorney Hall said his client was waiving exams on the four other charges, but would have the exam on the terrorism charge.
Mary Elizabeth Winter was the first witness for the prosecution. She said the incident happened at 11:30 p.m., Dec. 18, at Egan’s Pub, which was to close at midnight. She said they had issued last call.
Winter said Settles was a good customer of the bar where she worked as bartender. She said Settles had a verbal disagreement with another man who was there and, “I asked him to leave.”
She said Settles got angry with her and said that if she makes him leave and not the other man, too, “I’ll be back and everyone in there would be dead.”
She said a few minutes later she saw him outside the building across the street. She said Belleville police were called and responded.
Winter said he sent her a Facebook message instructing her to “send them out.” She said she believed he was going to hurt somebody, but she didn’t know who.
Prosecutor Matthews asked how far away Settles lived from the bar and she said 5-7 minutes walking. He returned in 8-10 minutes.
Under cross-examination by the defense attorney, Winter said there were seven employees in the bar and four patrons.
“I was unsure who he wanted,” she testified, noting the other customers were with the other man and Settles dispute was only with her and the one man.
“I asked him to pay his tab and go home,” Winter said, adding the other man also told him to, “Go. Pay your tab.”
The second prosecution witness was Belleville Police Officer Matthew Vandeweghe who said he was dispatched to 396 Main St. because a man was carrying a rifle.
Officer Vandeweghe testified he observed Settles behind the bar, crouched behind a concrete pillar, in a ready-to-fire position aimed at the entrance at the rear of the bar mainly used for employees. He described the rifle as a Winchester .338 Magnum.
“I told him to come to the front of the patrol car and he did,” Officer Vandeweghe said. Settles had three rounds in the magazine of the weapon and more ammunition in his vehicle parked across Main Street. “He was unlicensed to drive,” Vandeweghe testified.
Under cross examination, Vandeweghe testified there was no round in the chamber of the weapon and the defendant’s car, with more ammunition, was across Main Street from the bar, about 150 yards away.
Vandeweghe said he was very familiar with the weapon, a bolt-action rifle, and it shot one round at a time and then took about three seconds to be ready for the next shot.
“When he saw me, he was shocked,” Vandeweghe testified. “He didn’t expect the police to come.” Settles put the rifle down as directed and put his hands on the police car, Vandeweghe testified. “He followed my commands. He complied,” the officer testified.
When the defense attorney asked about how Settles looked, Vandeweghe said he looked like he was having some kind of mental breakdown and, “He seemed intoxicated.”
Officer Vandeweghe said it appeared to be a dispute between Settles and three other people.
“I placed him in the rear of the patrol vehicle after he laid the gun down …” he said.
Prosecutor Matthews questioned Vandeweghe who replied, “We asked him what was going on … The gist of what happened.” After completion of the Data Master test at headquarters, Settles was read his Miranda Rights and questioned, Vandeweghe said.
The prosecutor made a motion to bind Settles over on all the charges and the defense attorney objected to the terrorism count. He said the dispute with three men and an apparent felonious assault has turned into a terrorist act.
“We’re not talking about Sandy Hook,” defense attorney Hall said.
But Judge Green said the defendant said everyone would be dead.
Hall said when his client said to send “them” out, it was in reference to the three.
Judge Green said the bartender didn’t think she was safe.
Hall disagreed, saying his client wasn’t a threat to the civilian population.
“We’ve seen it,” Judge Green said, noting the defendant threatened to go into the pub establishment and take everyone out. Then she bound Settles over to circuit court on all of the charges.
She reminded Settles that he had a no-contact order for the bar and two bartenders.
Marquise Anthony Latell Kane
Judge Green bound Marquise Anthony Latell Kane, 22, over to circuit court for an April 3 arraignment on the information after a preliminary exam on three charges: assault with a dangerous weapon, home invasion-2nd degree, and larceny of less than $200.
Kane is free after posting bond of $20,000/10%.
The only witness was Cynthia Burns who testified that between 5 and 6 p.m. on Feb. 4, she came home from work and found Kane in her Van Buren Township apartment home. She said she has known him for four years and they have children together. He had been living with her, she testified, but he left on Jan. 1 of his own free will.
“He was trying to make up with me,” she testified concerning the Feb. 4 incident, saying he broke in her back door, knocking the doorknob off, which he has done before.
She testified they argued, he put his hands on her neck, and chased her around with a butcher knife and another longer knife from the kitchen and threatened to stab her.
She said he had her phone and car keys and she tried to get them back. She said he pushed her to the ground outside, really hard, and then took off on his bicycle. One of her neighbors called the police.
She said he stole $120 out of her wallet.
When he left on Jan. 1 he told her he took everything he wanted and whatever he left he didn’t want, she testified. She said he has a no-contact order with her.
It was pointed out that she was reluctant to testify as a witness, but she was subpoenaed.
Burns testified she threw a mail holder at him and it missed and broke on her door. It had been mounted on the wall inside the apartment next to the door.
She said he had been trying to cook dinner for her.
After the prosecutor made a motion to bind the charges over to circuit court, retained defense attorney Saundra White objected, stating, “She is making this up.”
Howard Oliver Blalock
After a preliminary exam, Judge Green bound Howard Oliver Blalock, 46, over to circuit court for an April 3 arraignment on the information on charges of assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Maurice Flannery of Belleville was the only witness brought by Prosecutor Mathews. Flannery said at 10:30 p.m. Feb. 23, he called for a Lyft ride from Mike’s restaurant outside New Boston to go home to Belleville.
When Blalock arrives, Flannery asked if he could smoke in his car and Blalock said no. Flannery said he agreed with the car’s owner to not have smoking, but he commented that it smelled like somebody had been smoking weed in there.
That’s when the driver became agitated, Flannery testified. He said Blalock was raising his voice and in a conversation with himself about how his daughter smokes medical marijuana.
“He was getting more aggressive and rolling the window down,” Flannery testified. Then he asked Blalock to drop him off at the church, which he did. As he was heading across the street towards home, he heard footsteps behind him and Blalock was behind him and hit him with a crowbar three times.
Entered into evidence was a picture of Flannery’s head, “bleeding like a pig,” and a picture with blood on his face. He was hospitalized, he testified.
He said he had dinner and one beer at the restaurant with friends and he had a date that canceled so he needed to get home.
Under cross-examination by retained defense attorney Jamil Khuja, the attorney questioned him about a pending preliminary exam for home invasion third degree, which Judge Green said had been dismissed. Flannery said he had been convicted of arguing with his son and daughter.
Khuja asked if he argued with the driver about smoking in the car and the GPS route he took and Flannery said he didn’t argue with him.
Flannery said he has short-term memory loss and headaches from the injury. He also is ADD, he said.
He testified he was uneasy and he asked Blalock to take him to the church for “protection from God.” He said he did not hit Blalock and break his glasses, as the defense attorney alleged. Khuja said his client had to go to the hospital.
Flannery said he put his hands up for protection, but he did not hit Blalock in the eye with his fist.
Mathews made a motion to bind over and Khuja agreed it was a question of fact to be determined at circuit court.
Devontae Cartez Gambles
After a preliminary exam, Judge Green bound Devontae Cartez Gambles, 26, over to circuit court for trial on a charge of possession of analogs in the City of Belleville on Dec. 29.
Belleville Police Officer Jeff Wickham testified that he was operating a radar in his patrol car and at about 10:30 a.m. when he observed a purple 2018 Dodge Charger speeding on Belleville Road, doing 45 mph in a 30 zone. He and his partner made a traffic stop and the driver, identified as Devontae Gambles, the only person in the vehicle, said he didn’t have a valid driver’s license.
Officer Wickham said he smelled the odor of burnt marijuana and asked Gambles to step out of the vehicle and he was arrested and cuffed for not having a driver’s license. He said they impounded and inventoried the vehicle and his partner found suspected Xanex and something else in a case on the front passenger seat, plus a bag of marijuana in Gambles’ pocket.
Wickham testified that Gambles said, in a spontaneous utterance, “That’s my medication,” and Wickham asked him if he had a prescription. Wickham testified that Gambles replied, “I could get one.”
Wickham said he checked on the statewide registry for prescriptions and found no record for Gambles. He said they sent the medication to the Michigan State Police lab and is came back as analogs.
Under cross-examination, retained defense attorney Mohammed Nasser brought out that there was no speeding citation issued and Gambles was not the registered owner of the car. It came back leased to Brendan Lockridge.
The second witness was Belleville Reserve Officer John Rourk, who testified he and Wickham were running stationery radar at Quirk and Belleville roads when they stopped the car.
He said he found the Louis Vuitton case on the front seat with the prescriptions inside sandwich bags. He also testified that a Cartier sunglasses case was also in the bag.
Eileen Gail Green
Eileen Gail Green, 42, who is facing charges of being in possession of two financial transaction devices in Van Buren Township on July 20, had been assigned a defensive attorney by the court, but now wants to hire an attorney.
She was set to have her preliminary exam on March 20, but Judge Green adjourned the exam and gave the defendant until April 10 to hire an attorney. The court-appointed attorney said he would be back on that day in case she has no attorney.
William Raymond Pitt
William Raymond Pitt, 34, was present for his probable cause conference before Magistrate Lisa Martin on March 20 and he waived his upcoming preliminary exam and was bound over to circuit court. He is lodged on bond of $25,000/10% on charges of operating with a high blood alcohol content and operating while intoxicated on March 8 in Sumpter Township.
His arraignment on the information at circuit court is March 27. He also is being held for a violation of probation hearing on charges from 2017. His hearing is April 23 at circuit court.