Mike Hills (center), the attorney for former Fabius Township Supervisor Ken Linn (left), addresses the court during a final pre-trial hearing in Linn’s criminal sexual conduct case in Kalamazoo County Ninth Circuit Court Monday. The trial of Linn in the case, which stems from an alleged incident from 2010, will begin with jury selection Tuesday, March 12.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
KALAMAZOO — The trial of a former Fabius Township supervisor accused of sexually assaulting a woman back in 2010 will begin next week.
On Monday, the final pre-trial hearing in the case against Ken Linn was held in Kalamazoo County Ninth Circuit Court, in which both sides reviewed trial procedure and told the court they would not pursue any further plea agreement offers, meaning the trial will go forward.
Jury selection in the trial will begin on Tuesday, March 12 at 9 a.m., which is expected to last all day to find the 14 jurors for the case. The trial is expected to begin in earnest on Wednesday, March 13 at 9 a.m. in Kalamazoo County Ninth Circuit Court, to be presided over by Judge Kenneth Barnard.
The 58-year-old Linn, who was Fabius Township’s supervisor from 2021 to 2022, was charged in Kalamazoo County back in October 2022 with four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, stemming from an alleged incident in Kalamazoo County on Aug. 14, 2010 following a golf outing at Sauganash Country Club in Three Rivers. According to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, Linn is accused of assaulting a woman, who was 22 at the time, in her Kalamazoo County apartment while she was physically helpless due to extreme intoxication and was unable to give consent, resulting in physical injury.
The case was brought to court under the state’s sexual assault kit initiative, which investigated sexual assaults related to previously-untested sexual assault evidence kits. The kit in this case, which was completed the day after the alleged incident, was first submitted to Michigan State Police’s forensics lab in 2014 for testing, sent back untested in 2015, and then resubmitted in October 2021 under the initiative, where it was tested, with the analysis resulting in the charges against Linn. In the week after being charged, Linn resigned as Fabius Township supervisor.
A preliminary examination in the case was held in late November 2022, in which a Kalamazoo County District Court judge found probable cause to move the case forward to circuit court. Four witnesses, including the victim, testified during the five-and-a-half-hour preliminary exam.
During Monday’s hearing, Michael Hills, Linn’s attorney, told the court that after discussing with Linn about pleading down to a third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge, his client did not “authorize me or ask me to go back to [Assistant Attorney General Erin] House or this court for further discussions on a resolution for a [third-degree criminal sexual conduct],” ostensibly rejecting the possible plea agreement. Hills also added that an offer made by him to House, the prosecutor in the case, for a fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge, was rejected.
No other record of any plea negotiations were made during Monday’s hearing.
Both sides are expected to have several witnesses available for testimony during the trial, which is expected to last through the end of next week, and possibly go into either March 19 and/or March 20, the first two available trial dates the week after next.
“It could take longer than that, I guess it could take shorter, but in our discussions, we don’t believe there’s any way the trial will complete next week, and that it’ll go into the following week,” House said.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@acnccrtest.c1.biz.