News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Theodore Beck and Defense Attorney Matt Wojda are pictured in the 89th District Court in Presque Isle County on Tuesday.

ROGERS CITY — Theodore Beck, 65, was bound over to the 53rd Circuit Court after preliminary examination on three charges of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) on Tuesday.

The alleged victim is a former employee of Beck Funeral Home in Rogers City.

Beck is facing four other charges of fourth degree CSC in the 53rd Circuit Court filed by a different alleged victim.

The preliminary examination took place in the 89th District Court in Presque Isle County with Judge Michael Ekdahl presiding. Preliminary examinations are done to determine whether there is probable cause that a crime occurred, meaning whether there is enough evidence for a reasonable person to believe that a crime was committed.

The alleged victim and Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Cody Bellmer testified.

The News does not name alleged victims of sexual assault without their permission.

The alleged victim testified to three instances of sexual assault against them by Beck.

Prompted by questions from Zakary McLennan, Presque Isle County prosecuting attorney, the witness testified that they had worked with Beck at Beck Funeral Home for over a decade, beginning when they were around 16 years old and quit in 2023.

The alleged victim testified that they believe Beck made sexual contact with them more than 50 times over the course of their employment and added that they never freely or willingly consented to the alleged contact. The witness said that they tried many times to physically stop Beck from touching them, once resulting in Beck being injured with a bloody nose.

The first charge of fourth degree CSC happened in the fall of 2022. Beck and the alleged victim were working in their offices, which shared the same space, on the second floor of the funeral home. The alleged victim testified that Beck came around behind them and made sexual contact with the victim’s back and armpit

The second charge occurred in December 2021. The defendant and the alleged victim were changing clothes in the office space preparing for a removal. Beck grabbed the alleged victim’s genitals over their clothing and would not let go until the victim forcibly removed his hand.

The third charge had no specific time frame, but similar incidents occurred “dozens of times”. Beck and the alleged victim often drove in one of the funeral home’s mini vans on work business. The alleged victim testified that while Beck was driving he would reach his hand over to the passenger side and make sexual contact.

Additionally, the alleged victim said that Beck commonly made sexual comments.

Defense Attorney Matt Wojda inquired into the alleged victim’s testimony.

Wojda asked how in the first charge the defendant could have made contact with the victim’s back when the victim was sitting in an office chair, assuming that chair had a high back. The witness responded that the office chair had a low back.

For the third charge, Wojda asked about the size of the console between the passenger and driver seats and whether the seats had arm rests. The alleged victim said that the center console was low, at butt level, and that both seats had arm rests.

The alleged victim explained that they would move Beck’s hand away during those incidents in the mini van and Beck would “treat it like a game” and touch the alleged victim again. Wojda asked whether the alleged victim had ever touched the defendant’s genitals, to which they said yes, but over their clothing. The alleged victim testified it was not willingly or consensually, but there were other circumstances that influenced that decision. If the alleged victim did not reciprocate Beck’s advances in certain aspects, working conditions were harsh, the alleged victim said.

Wojda asked whether Beck explicitly told the victim that they had to touch him physically or else he would make the victim’s life difficult. The alleged victim responded that Beck had never told them that.

Wojda asked the alleged victim about a number of instances where Beck paid for or offered to pay for various developments in the alleged victim’s personal and professional life, including offering a loan to purchase a funeral home in Onaway and paying for them to attend mortuary school.

In his redirect, McLennan asked for clarification on what the witness meant by harsh working conditions. The witness said Beck would become angrier and any little mistake the witness made in their work would be magnified.

During D/Sgt. Bellmer’s testimony, McLennan played two clips of body camera footage of Bellmer’s interview with Beck.

In the first clip, Bellmer asks Beck whether he ever put his hand down the front of the alleged victim’s pants. Beck said no at first. Bellmer asked that if the alleged victim told him that’s what happened, would the victim be lying?

“I would say no,” Beck said in the footage.

In the second clip, Beck says that he and the alleged victim were friends and that was about it. Bellmer asks whether anything else happened, like when Beck put his hand down the front of the victim’s pants, did the alleged victim want that?

“(They) didn’t say no,” Beck said in the clip.

In his closing argument, McLennan argued that all three charges should be bound over to Circuit Court. Based on the testimony, the sexual contact initiated by the defendant was non-consensual and the acts were done by the defendant for purposes of sexual gratification.

Wojda said in his closing argument that for the first charge, there is a legitimate question about whether that kind of touching would be for a sexual purpose since someone’s back and armpit are not generally associated with sexual activity or gratification.

“It may well be an assault,” he said. “I don’t know that it fits the elements of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.”

Wojda said he found it “incredibly unlikely” that someone could grip another’s genitalia in the manner which was testified in regards to the second charge.

For the third charge, Wojda said he did not think there was a coercive environment, since the victim testified that the defendant offered to pay for business ventures that would have taken the victim away from working at the funeral home. Wojda said he is opposed to bind over on all three charges.

Judge Ekdahl found probable cause on all three charges and bound Beck over to the 53rd Circuit Court.

“I note as well that this would be criminal jury instruction 20.25 states to prove this charge–and this is, this would be read to a jury where the burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, we’re here just on a probable cause standard–the jury instruction says to prove this charge, it is not necessary that there be evidence other than the testimony of the complainant if that testimony proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge Ekdahl said. “So, I think that the court could certainly find based on (the alleged victim’s) testimony alone on this record that there’s probable cause.”

Beck’s next hearing will be an arraignment at 9 a.m. on May 11 in the 53rd Circuit Court.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.