Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 23

Thursday afternoon, Stephen set out in his charcoal gray Jeep Commander with a $3,000-plus cash stash. One of his envelopes held $1,145; the other $1,912.

Motoring south along North Avenue in Mount Clemens, right near the sheriff’s office, Stephen failed to signal as he turned east on Elizabeth Street. He was promptly pulled over by a deputy. It was 2:13 P.M.

The stop rattled Stephen, causing him to lose some of the cool demeanor that had perplexed the cops up till now. “I know why [you’re] pulling me over,” he blurted, according to a later police report. “It’s because [of] my wife.”

The officer ran the usual check on Stephen’s identification and found that he was driving on a suspended license. He was placed under arrest.

A closer look at Stephen’s past revealed a terrible driving record, as well as a more serious brush with the law. Stephen was arrested in Clinton Township on October 28, 1989, for reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon. He was stopped by Officer Mike Friese for driving seventy miles per hour in a 45mph zone. When Friese approached the car, he noticed a pouch near the brake pedal, and it held an unloaded Colt pistol. Stephen did not have a permit for the gun.

He was charged with reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon. However, Stephen pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of careless driving and failure to obtain a permit for a handgun, and was fined $500.

Stephen’s license was suspended three times in 2002 and 2003 for failing to pay speeding tickets in the Detroit suburbs of Allen Park, Rochester, and Troy. His latest two suspensions came in 2005 after he ran a red light in Mount Clemens and failed to pay fines in Clinton Township.

After Stephen’s arrest, police also discovered that he had paid almost $900 in back traffic fines the day before reporting his wife missing. The fines stemmed from two moving violations and twelve parking tickets in several communities.

Accounts of the next several hours differ. Stephen claimed he was held against his will for six hours and interrogated at the Macomb County Jail.

The sheriff told a different story. Hackel said Stephen was detained for only a short time. “It’s standard procedure—if someone is driving on two suspended licenses, we arrest them,” Hackel said. “If my deputies let someone like that go free, and they later get into an accident and hurt someone, then what? So, of course, we arrested [him]. I would have questioned my officers if they hadn’t.”

If Stephen had been willing to submit to a polygraph exam, as he’d assured the evidence technician who had visited his house the night before, his jailhouse stay put him in a less cooperative frame of mind.

“Three police cars surrounded his car as he was driving home, and arrested him over an unpaid ticket for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a forty-five-mile-per-hour zone,” Griem said. “Then they incarcerated him for six and a half hours and questioned him. Those are Neanderthal tactics and demonstrated bad faith on the part of the police.”

Stephen struck a macho pose when he discussed his February 15 police encounter with the Detroit News.

“I get why they stopped me—they thought I was going to be a little girl and go down there and cry and confess all my sins,” he said. “But there’s no sins, though. I’m a big boy and I can take care of myself.”

Stephen said he was forced to retain an attorney. “It’s not like I had Dave Griem on my speed dial. But do you blame me for getting a lawyer?”