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Man says fireworks prompted gun threat, gets 10 months

ALPENA — A man found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon was sentenced Monday to 10 months in the Alpena County Jail, despite his claims that he was afraid for his life the night he aimed a gun at the head of his neighbor.

A jury found Brian Fortner of Alpena guilty in June of assaulting his neighbors in late July 2018, yelling threats as he pointed a loaded tactical shotgun with a barrel-mounted flashlight at one of the victims from his apartment window, court records say.

Fortner claimed at sentencing he was acting in self-defense because, he said, he had been verbally threatened by the victims and, hearing a firework nearby on the day of the incident, thought he was being shot at.

Fortner’s attorney, Joel Bauer, called Fortner a “victim of his location” because of the nature of his neighborhood. Bauer revealed that Fortner is undergoing mental health treatment, encouraging the court to take that into consideration. He said incarceration would cause a setback to any progress Fortner has made with his treatment.

Fortner’s Monday claims of specific threats made by the victim were never shared with police or mentioned at trial, Alpena County Prosecutor Ed Black said.

One of the victims spoke at sentencing about the ongoing trauma inflicted on his wife after having a rifle trained on her forehead in her own back yard, asking that Fortner be given the maximum amount of jail time because of the terror he caused.

Judge Michael Mack in the 26th Circuit Court noted that mention of Fortner’s mental health was coming up only at sentencing, “when it really should have come up at the time somebody gave you a gun.”

Fortner could be released on a tether after six months.

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Also in Circuit Court on Monday, Alpena woman Aaron Bissonette, who last week appeared as a witness in a drug distribution trial, appeared to be sentenced on charges of conspiring to deliver a controlled substance and maintaining a drug house.

Bissonette pleaded guilty in June after being offered a reduced sentence of 90 days in jail in exchange for her testimony against Milton Baytops, of Flint. Baytops, who was found guilty by a jury last week, was accused of using local women to distribute heroin while living in hiding at Bissonette’s apartment.

At the scheduled sentencing, Bisonnette’s attorney told the court his client receives daily methadone treatments in Gaylord to combat an opioid addiction. The treatment, the attorney said, would be impossible to continue if Bissonette is incarcerated according to the original arrangement.

In considering the defense’s request that jail time be minimized or waived, Mack expressed desire to allow the defendant to have continuing treatment, but called the 90-day jail cap reasonable, considering the seriousness of the charges to which Bissonette pleaded guilty.

“She did what she was supposed to do, and now we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do,” Mack said.

The judge requested copies of Bissonette’s drug tests from recent months to review before making a final sentencing decision.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

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