By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
On Friday January 6th, Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis posted that after nearly four years, 49-year-old Robert Joseph Presley, Jr., of Oakland County’s Clinton Township, is going back to prison for a 2018 assault.
She said, “The case was delayed through changes in defense counsel, many filed and argued motions, and then the COVID shutdowns.”
His sentence ended a case that began three and a half years ago on June 6, 2018 when he assaulted a 38-year-old woman from Madison Heights during a domestic dispute that involved him attacking her with a chainsaw, dragging her through a fire and kicking her until she was finally able to get away.
She was able to flag down a passing motorist who took her to an emergency room for treatment of what the Michigan State Police press release said were “very serious injuries.”
The assault happened in the Village of Temple at Presley’s Redding Township cabin.
After the woman escaped the assault, Ambrozaitis reported, “Presley then drove himself to the Clare County Sheriff’s Office to report that he had been assaulted by the victim.”
Police determined that he was intoxicated when he drove to the Sheriff’s Office, and that he had “nine firearms and ammunition in plain sight in his vehicle.” He was arrested on a weapons charge by officers from the Clare County Sheriff’s Office.
He was also arrested by the State Police and was charged with the assault with attempt to murder (a felony with a term of up to life imprisonment), operating while intoxicated 2nd or subsequent offense (a one-year misdemeanor); and habitual offender 3rd offense.
Ambrozaitis said the Michigan State Police investigated the assault with intent to murder and torture while the Clare County Sheriff’s Office investigated the weapons and drunk driving charges.
Last month on December 20th, Circuit Court Judge Roy Mienk sentenced Presley to serve 40 months (three years and four months) for the assault with credit for 404 days already served. Judge Mienk also ordered Presley to pay $1,898.00 in assorted fines and costs.
The December 20 sentence will run concurrently with a sentence he is currently serving on the separate weapons case. He pled guilty on June 12 to weapons charges (9 counts) on the same June 6th date as the assault and was sentenced on the weapons case on July 15, 2019 by Judge Mienk to serve from 32 months to ten years on each of three counts of “felon in possession of firearms as a habitual 3rd offender.
When he was arrested for the assault, Presley was already on probation for felony weapons offenses and prohibited from abusing substances and from possession or owning firearms, Ambrozaitis said in a post in 2018, after his arrest on the latest charges.
Presley pled guilty last April 26 to Assault with Intent to do great bodily harm less than murder as a habitual 3rd offender in the State Police case.