Defense attorneys for two of three men charged with manslaughter after a killing in Warren say the case should be dismissed after the Macomb County medical examiner took the rare action to remove homicide as the manner of death.
Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Spitz initially ruled the death of Kenneth “Kenny” Klingler, 24, of Auburn Hills, as caused by another person.
Review the evidence
After viewing related video of the incident Spitz changed the manner of death in January to “indeterminate.”
Video shows Klinger could have been run over by one vehicle, and possibly as many as three, as he laid on Mound Road in Warren.
Attorney Michael Komorn, representing co-defendant Chris Twarowski, agreed charges should be dropped and blamed prosecutors and Warren police officials for initially presenting a “false narrative” of the incident to the public and Klingler’s family.
“It’s a huge disservice to the victim’s family by suggesting this false narrative, that they beat him and left him to die,” he said.
Three men remain charged with involuntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
“I’m very pleased Dr. Spitz was willing to take a second look at this … and had an honest change of mind,” said Robbie Lang, attorney for defendant Christopher Zehnpfennig. But, “I am just shocked why this case continues and has not been dismissed.”
It’s been unfair to the defendants as they all have had trouble getting jobs while the charges are pending, the attorneys said.
Zehnpfennig and Twarowski, both 23 at the time of the incident, reside in Warren. Their co-defendant is Nathan Thomas Domagalski, 25 at the time, of Hazel Park. The trio’s preliminary examination scheduled for last Friday in 37th District Court in Warren was adjourned after Spitz’s amended report was disclosed.
A new date was set for March 25, 2020.
Read the back story and a lot More Here in the Oakland Press
If you have a case that needs one of the top criminal defense attorney’s in Michigan to help defend your freedom and future. Call Komorn Law 248-357-2550 or visit KomornLaw.com to learn more.
OTSEGO COUNTY, Mich., A Michigan musician who was a finalist on “The Voice” has been sentenced to 1 year probation.
Laith Al-Saadi plead no contest to one count of possession of a controlled substance.
Two other drug charges were dropped with the plea deal
The charges came from a traffic stop in February 2017 when Al-Saadi was pulled over by Michigan State Police for an expired license plate.
According to the trooper, there was a strong smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle.
The prosecutor said the troopers then searched the vehicle and found a backpack that contained marijuana, as well as other drugs including hydrocodone.
“I fully recognize that it was stupid, and I have attempted to use this to better my life in the best way possible,” said Laith Al-Saadi at sentencing.
Honorable George J. Mertz of the 46th Circuit Court said he took multiple things into consideration during sentencing, including the fact that Al-Saadi is 41 years old and does not have a criminal record.
“My point is that I don’t think that you are using these things recreationally, and that makes a difference to me in sentencing,” said Judge Mertz. “You do have a very successful career and from what I’ve read you’ve used that in ways to help the community which I think is important, and I think it’s important you continue to be able to do that.”
Although the case has had an impact on Al-Saadi’s career, his attorney says they are satisfied with the sentencing.
“This a situation where he [Al-Saadi] had a previous prescription for the narcotic that he was found with, and it had lapsed, as that sometimes happens,” said Attorney Michael Komorn. “Also, I think it’s important that the court recognized that he is under a doctor’s care, and most remarkable I think is that the court agreed with us that he does not have a controlled substance problem.”
Charged with a DUI or Drugged Driving? Contact Komorn Law… 800-656-3557
While on probation Al-Saadi will be allowed to travel in and out of the state, as well as the country, if it is for work purposes.
LAITH AL-SAADI
His next performance in northern Michigan is a charity concert to support mental health will be held at the Traverse City Opera House on February 15th at 7:30 p.m. ‘Cure for the Winter Blues‘
” Lieutenant, this lawyer is a pain in the ass, I can’t stand him, I really hate him”
This was my client’s observation of the prosecutor after exiting the conference room she and I had been in for over an hour discussing and negotiating a possible resolution of his 2 count felony, 1 misdemeanor case.
These were the words my client told me he heard coming out of the prosecutor’s mouth as she stood in the hallway asking, begging the officer in charge to approve of or sign off on the demands I had made during our negotiations.
In the moments before this conversation took place I had made it clear to the prosecutor what I thought of the case against my client.
As it goes in many criminal cases the facts of what actually transpired were in dispute.
The criminal case involving under cover and vice officers, no video, audio or even written recordings are made during the investigation.
These type of “typical” investigations result in cases that revolve around the credibility of the officers. When a prosecutor has a police witness who will assert a fact in a case it is considered the gospel. It is believed that if the officer testified to that fact, independent of any counter facts or versions that differ, it will be believed.
Often the prosecutor in these situations will say during Pre-trial discussions sometime with the officer sitting in the same room, ” counsel are you saying the officer isn’t being honest?
It is these scenarios that we are grateful that we have jury trials so that peers within the community can decide who is telling the truth. But getting the prosecutor to believe the version of the facts that are told by the defendant and disregard the police officer version never happens. This case was a case filled with complete adverse and disputed facts.
Prior to the court proceedings we had done an extensive independent investigation and had uncovered witnesses that observed or were aware of the events alleged in the police reports. I realized these unknowns to the police witness observations were in conflict with the gospel of the police officer witness.
These scenarios usually lead to trials.
These scenarios are why we have trials.
These scenarios never result in the prosecutor abandoning their police officer witness and taking the side of the defendants version of the facts.
Prosecutors never agree with defense attorneys that their police officers versions are in error or untrue.
My strategy was let the prosecutor know that she was going to have to accept my clients version or we would be going to trial.
The prosecutor was obviously unaware that her conversation and advocacy to do what I wanted on the phone was within earshot of my client. During these moments I remained in the conference room and while I was aware she was calling the officer in charge I had no idea and could not hear what her she was actually saying to the officer in charge.
Shortly thereafter the prosecutor came back into the room to explain that they had capitulated and agreed to dismiss all felony charges in exchange for a no contest plea to an innocuous misdemeanor. As I was relaying this information to my client he explained what he had overheard the prosecutor saying about me to the officer in charge.
Michael, I was wondering what was going on in the conference room because when the prosecutor came out of the room and got on the phone she keep telling the person she was talking to how much she hated you and what a pain in the ass you were.
But wait it, the observations in the theatre of so called justice gets even better.
After we secured the charge reduction, dismissal of all felonies and misdemeanors and a no contest plea to the innocuous misdemeanor we still needed the pursued the judge to a sentence that also included everything that we wanted or that was acceptable.
It was late in the morning and most of the cases had cleared out and been resolved. The court room had become empty when me and my client entered the Court with my intentions to discuss sentencing with the Judge.
As it goes the judge invited me ( the prosecutor had waived her presence for these discussions) into her chambers which were immediately behind the Judges Bench. and unbeknownst to me the Judges Chambers also are within “yelling” earshot of anyone who was or remained in the Courtroom.
This scenario and positioning I am describing was also observed by client who also watched me enter the Court room and then leave with the Judge into her adjoining chambers.
While I would like to describe what took place over the next 10 minutes with the Judge in her chambers as a healthy academic debate about current morals and virtues what my client heard was loud voices and yelling.
Of course my client couldn’t see or hear the softer spoken words that the judge and I agreed upon or the friendly handshake she and I had after our academic ” discussion” about morality.
Which is why when I exited the Judges chambers to return to my clients side I could tell he was scared out of his mind.
What happened in there…? my client asked.
I said the judge and I had a healthy debate and she is going do what we want at sentencing.
Really, said my client, because from where I was sitting it sounded like the judge hated you. I smiled and said she is going to do what we want for sentencing.
We left the court room, and went outside into the parking lot and walked together to our cars. As the morning sun was turning to midday my client turned to me thanking me for the outcome and reflected upon his observations.
Michael, everyone in that building seemed to hate your guts. I heard the prosecutor saying how much she disliked you and then it sounded like the Judge was going to lock you up. Despite that he said we got everything that we wanted and I couldn’t be happier.
I realized at this time the perspective by which he had observed the events from his day in Court.
Everyone hated his lawyer, me. Yelling and disdain are the emotions and reactions that he had observed. He described his emotions as total fear when he heard prosecutor talk ill of me and the judge screaming at me from her chambers.
Yet as we stood in the parking lot and his case was resolved he explained his joy and how happy he was with the way things turned out.
There is a joke somewhere that begins with lawyers have thick skin or when can you tell a lawyer is offended … I am not sure what the punch line is but I do know that my client’s reflection on the events of the day and how the hatred and disdain for me brought about the favorable resolution of his case.
I was emotionally devoid of any care of concern of who liked me or hated me.
Being a lawyer is not a popularity contest. It is a commitment to get the best results possible for my client.
Lawyers strategize and the negotiation process can be a disaster if a good strategy is not employed for the process. Sometime the discussions are friendly sometimes they are not. But this experience may be the first where the disdain for me and my involvement in the case was the catalyst to our favorable resolution.
I could be wrong but I really don’t think that the prosecutor hates me, instead she knows that if we are going to litigate the case I am going to make her life miserable by litigating, advocating and fighting the case till the end.
This is not hate in my eyes but respect. Likewise much of the yelling from the judge’s chambers actually was my voice as I encouraged the Judge to see things my way and not her silencing me or yelling over me.
In other words the loud academic debate was meaningful and needed to take place.
On the other hand maybe they do all hate me and maybe my skin is thick, and if that is the case then let their hatred be revered.
“Allowing medical marijuana for those with autism was supposed to be the clinical trial,” Komorn said. “Instead, we’re going to have criminal trials.”
Lawyer slams decision to deny cannabis to autistic kids
The Detroit News Article
August 28, 2015 – Lansing — Michigan’s regulatory director on Thursday rejected the use of medical marijuana for the treatment of children with severe autism.
Michigan was poised to possibly become the first state to allow medical cannabis consumption for children with severe autism when the state’s Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 earlier this month to recommend autism as a condition that qualifies for the drug.
Mike Zimmer, director of the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, said he rejected the request because of the lack of medical evidence showing marijuana helps with treating autism. He cited the opposition from the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Eden Wells.
“This lack of scientific evidence is more concerning when considering the broad scope of the petition, which does not limit medical marijuana treatment to overly severe cases of autism,” Zimmer said in his four-page letter.
Michael Komorn, a lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of a mother in southeast Michigan, called the decision disappointing and misguided. He said he’s considering seeking judicial review of the decision in Ingham County Circuit Court, where a judge’s prior ruling led to the review panel decision.
“He calls out the 55 parents and calls them all criminals. How dare you?” Komorn said of the impact of Zimmer’s decision on families seeking legalization of marijuana for autism treatment. “These parents are all in because their children are sick.”
Komorn said Zimmer’s concerns about a lack of controlled trials “is the red herring we’ve been fighting for a long time.”
Parents, he said, “are coming forward with anecdotal evidence” their children are being helped. The proper starting point for a clinical trial would be allowing them to continue, Komorn said.
Dr. David Crocker, a Kalamazoo physician who recommends cannabis use for patients with chronic pain, serves on the state’s medical marijuana board and questions its purpose if Zimmer can overrule Michigan’s marijuana “experts.”
“If you’re going to assemble a panel of experts for the purposes of determining this, why wouldn’t you go with their recommendation?” Crocker said. “I thought that our advice would be heeded in this case.”
“While I fully support finding new treatment options, there are neither sufficient studies nor scientific trials demonstrating its clinical impact to justify approval at this time,” Calley said in a statement.
Paul Welday, head of a marijuana advocacy group seeking reforms of Michigan’s medical marijuana law, said Zimmer’s decision “has met with universal disdain by virtually everyone who has been watching this issue.”
Welday said his organization, the Michigan Responsibility Council, “will be talking with our attorneys/drafters to include both autism and Parkinson’s as eligible conditions” for medical marijuana in reforms it is proposing lawmakers adopt this fall. The organization wants to work with lawmakers on pending legislation that also would set up a regulatory regime governing medical marijuana policies.”
State law doesn’t appear to allow the use of marijuana oil or juice — two methods that advocates described as ways children could take medical marijuana, Zimmer said.
He also worried that allowing autistic children to use medical marijuana could cause an explosion of use with unknown health consequences, considering the prevalence of autism in Michigan.
The director added that autistic children who experience seizures because of their condition may already be eligible to use medical marijuana as a treatment under state law.
Supporters argued oil extracted from marijuana and swallowed has been effective in controlling extreme physical behavior by kids with severe autism.
But Michigan’s 2008 voter-initiated law did not explicitly legalize oil-based cannabis products. Supporters of marijuana for children with autism said the drug could be ingested orally instead.
“The reality is there are other ways of ingesting it besides the oil form that can be just as effective,” Crocker said. “I don’t think that the fact the oils are illegal should preclude autism from being a qualifying condition.”
The panel that initially approved the use of marijuana for autistic children was influenced by comments from some Detroit-area doctors, especially the head of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and from parents desperate for relief.
The state panel in 2012 and 2014 rejected allowing medical marijuana for autism. It led to a court battle and a challenge by Attorney General Bill Schuette before the panel accepted the latest formal request in the spring.
Article by
Gary Heinlein and Chad Livengood, Detroit News Lansing Bureau August 28, 2015
Michael Komorn, a Michigan attorney who specializes in medical marijuana laws and is also the president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, who filed a petition on behalf of a mother with a child who has Autism in southeastern Michigan spawned a flurry of articles through out the media world.
Please watch the video from the meeting and Michael Komorn’s comments
State officials on Monday acknowledged they’d omitted hundreds of pages of medical studies from packets supplied to a state review panel slated to consider medical marijuana for treating autism according to the Detroit Free Press.
The panel will reconvene July 31 to reconsider autism, officials said.
LANSING (AP) – Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if a senior official follows the recommendation made Friday by an advisory panel. The state’s Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 to …
LANSING, MI — The Michigan Medical Marijuana Law Review Panel voted Friday to recommend adding autism as a qualifying condition fit for treatment under the state law. That recommendation now heads to Mike Zimmer, director of the Michigan …
LANSING – Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if an official follows the recommendation of a state panel. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted, 4-2, Friday to recommend autism as …
LANSING (AP) – A state panel is meeting again to consider whether to add extreme forms of autism to the conditions that qualify for medical marijuana in Michigan. Supporters say oil extracted from marijuana has been effective in controlling severe …
A state board has approved adding autism to the list of conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana. The Michigan Medical Marihuana Review Panel voted 4-2 on Friday to make the recommendation. The final decision will be made by Michigan …
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel has recommended to include autism as one of the health conditions that the state approves for medical marijuana treatment. The recommendation, which the panel released on July 31, is one step closer to …
Supporters of medical marijuana in Michigan received some surprising and hopeful news. On Friday, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted to recommend that autism be added to the list of conditions that doctors can prescribe medical …
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan would develop into the primary state to permit medical marijuana for youngsters with extreme autism if a senior official follows the advice made Friday by an advisory panel. The state’s Medical Marijuana Evaluation Panel …
Fathers high-fived with their children. Old men shed tears. Strangers embraced as if friends. Autism was recommended to be included in the list of illnesses covered under the protections of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. Although there still …
In this photo taken on June 26, Ida Chinonis helps her daughter, Bella, take her cannabis based medication at their home in Grand Blanc. Bella, 6, suffers from seizures, and her mother says the only medication that helps her is a cannabis oil. (Photo …
(WLNS) – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one in every 68 American children have some form of autism. On Friday families directly affected by autism are one step closer toward being able to use marijuana as a form of treatment.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state panel has recommended that severe forms of autism be added as a condition that qualifies for medical marijuana in Michigan. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 Friday to recommend its use. The group’s …
“We’ve been doing all of the regular gammits of everything that doctors recommend for us to do – advanced behavioral analysis therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. We have him maxed out,” explained Bruno’s Father, Dwight Zahringer.
A state panel met on Friday to consider adding extreme forms of autism to the list of conditions that qualify for the use of medical marijuana in Michigan. In a 4-2 vote, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel is recommending the approval of a …
A state panel is recommending Michigan add extreme forms of autism to the conditions that qualify for medical marijuana. In a 4-2 decision, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted to recommend allowing medical marijuana for children with …
The state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Marijuana Review Panel is expected to vote today on whether or not medical marijuana can be used as treatment for people with autism. The panel has held a public hearing and reviewed several …
A regulatory panel will consider is autism will be included on the list of things medical marijuana can legally treat. Show Transcript Hide Transcript. THEY JUST DID WHAT THEY HOPED EVERYONE WOULD DO IN THAT SITUATION. Karen: SOME SAY IT’S …
Parents who are in favor of the proposal say medical marijuana in small doses works wonders with kids who have autism, and that it helps with behavioral issues. Opponents say there is no strong evidence the drug is very helpful. LANSING A state panel …
autism cannabis marijuana Multi-talented Michigan attorney Michael Komorn is calling on families of children with autism to attend a crucial vote of the Medical Marihuana Review Panel on July 31st. The Panel is considering whether to recommend approval …
