Patrick Bernard Thorns, 29, was bound over to circuit court for trial after a preliminary exam Dec. 26 before 34th District Court Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green.
He is charged with possession of narcotics, assaulting a police officer, and driving while license suspended on Nov. 21 in Van Buren Township.
He is due at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit on Jan. 2 for an arraignment on the information.
Thorns was brought to court by two guards from the Michigan Department of Corrections. He told the judge they were holding him until they found out what was happening to him at 34th District Court.
Thorns hadn’t been arraigned and the defense attorney asked that the charges be read aloud, so Judge Green read the charges, arraigning him.
Then, the court-appointed defense attorney asked that the charges against her client be dismissed because of the delay in Thorns’ arraignment. She said the probable cause conference was held a week ago and he wasn’t arraigned until just now.
Judge Green asked if she was charging a grievable offense against the defense attorney of the previous week. Thorns was supposed to be in the courtroom the previous week by video from prison and his court-appointed attorney had his file. She asked if the defense attorney was claiming incompetence of the previous week’s attorney. She pointed out Thorns had been represented.
The prosecutor objected to a dismissal. She said the previous week the defense attorney was unable to have contact with Thorns and there was a problem because he was in prison. The attorney said they would go on to the preliminary exam the next week.
Judge Green denied the defense attorney’s motion to dismiss. She held up a note that had been stuck on the file that said the defendant needs to be arraigned.
“Can’t do it without him,” she said of the defendant.
At the end of the court session, the court-appointed attorney asked for personal bond for her client, but Judge Green said they do not give personal bond for habitual offenders. A list of Thorns’ past convictions in Washtenaw County had been read as a part of the arraignment.
Judge Green was told Thorns had no failures to return for scheduled court sessions and no holds, so she set a bond of $5,000/10%.
For the preliminary exam, the only witness brought by the Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor was VBT Police Officer M. King, who has worked for VBT almost five years and for Fraser 28 years before that.
He said on Nov. 21, 2017 he was running stationary radar in a construction zone on the U.S. 12 (Michigan Avenue) bypass. He testified he stopped a vehicle going 64 mph in a 45 mph zone. Officer King said he asked for the driver’s identification and vehicle information and it wasn’t available. He said Thorns gave him a different name, but when he saw a name tag saying “Patrick” on the man’s chest, he checked him out on LEIN (the law enforcement information network) and found he was driving on a suspended license and had a warrant out for his arrest.
Officer King said he took Thorns to booking at the VBT Police Department and they took off their winter coats. He further checked Thorns and found a baggie in his groin area containing what appeared to be crack cocaine, marijuana, “stuff like that.”
He placed the baggie on the counter and bent down to do some more checking when Thorns bent over and sucked the baggie into his mouth. Officer King said he pinched Thorns’ cheeks together so he couldn’t swallow and kept telling him to spit it out. He wouldn’t spit it out and kept biting down on King’s fingers.
By sucking the baggie into his throat, it blocked his air passage and he couldn’t breathe, so the two went to the ground. He finally got the baggie out and Officer Adam Byrd came in to assist and got the baggie out of the pool of saliva, blood and vomit on the floor.
Officer Byrd took the bag to the locker room to secure it. Exhibit one in the court case was the report on the drugs from the Department of Police Lab Report.
King said Thorns reported he had swallowed cocaine and heroin and so rather than put him in the holding cell he was transported to the hospital.
Under cross examination, the defense attorney asked King if he was wearing a body camera and King replied his department does not have body cams. He said the videos in the car were on, but he didn’t know if they had been provided to the defense.
Leesha Marie Corum
Leesha Marie Corum, 28, who was set for her preliminary exam before Judge Green on charges of home invasion first degree, domestic violence, and assault and battery, took a plea deal instead.
She pled guilty to entry without the homeowner’s permission and the other charges were dismissed.
Corum said on Oct. 10 she entered property without permission and assaulted, pushed, shoved Mary Grech.
The prosecutor said this has been a continuing problem and as part of the agreement, Corum is not to return to the house in the 100 block of North Liberty in the City of Belleville. The defendant said she lives in Haggerty subdivision in Van Buren Township.
Grech said from the courtroom audience that she wants Corum never to return to her home.
The prosecutor also said the defendant is not to contact Ryan, who is the father of her children, not to go to his work, and have no social media contact with him. He was in the audience, as well, and nodded in agreement at the stipulations.
Judge Green said Corum will be on one-year probation and must pay court costs. She also is to continue her drug treatment, which Corum said was at Oakview, and have random drug screening and alcohol assessments.
The prosecutor said Child Protective Services has said if she does not follow the stipulations they will take her children away.
Judge Green said that had no part in her court’s sentence, since CPS is separate. She said if Corum isn’t going to drug treatment, “I’ll lock her up.”
Corum has a driving while license suspended charge and Judge Green scheduled her to come to court on Jan. 15 to deal with that.