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Man sentenced for funny money

News Photo by Julie Riddle Defendant Cameron Gardner stands with his attorney as he is sentenced to spend more than a year in jail for possessing and passing counterfeit money.

ALPENA – A downstate resident who has spent most of his adult life in prison will spend at least one more year there, an Alpena judge said Monday.

In Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court, Judge Benjamin Bolser sentenced Cameron Gardner, 25, to 13 months to 14 years behind bars for defrauding and attempting to defraud local businesses using counterfeit money.

Gardner was arrested in September after employees and bank procedures caught the fake $20 bills, which Gardner confessed to owning and trying to use to make purchases while in Alpena.

He was recognized during a traffic stop after officers had been reviewing store surveillance footage. Police found $900 in fake $20 bills at his residence.

The defendant was sentenced to nine months in the Ogemaw County Jail for other counterfeit bill charges stemming from the same date. The Alpena incidents involved more victims, Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski told the judge, and should warrant a stiffer penalty.

Before sentencing, Gardner told Bolser he had spent his adult life in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections. He was released from parole shortly before passing the counterfeit bills, and, he said, he “begged and pleaded” with the judge to keep him in the county jail.

Gardner was sentenced as a habitual offender to a minimum of 13 months on seven counterfeit charges, with 181 days’ credit. He will have to pay several thousand dollars in fees and costs, including $45 in restitution to two Alpena businesses for the purchases that brought him to the attention of law enforcement.

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An attorney for Christopher Olsen — former custodian of All Saints Catholic School in Alpena who is accused of possession child pornography — informed the court he intended to offer an insanity defense.

He also filed a motion suggesting that Muszynski should recuse herself from the case as it moves toward trial, as her children attend the school where Olsen worked.

Bolser gave Muszynski until April 6 to offer a response to the motion.

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A car crash led to a man pleading guilty to the illegal use of drugs.

Justin Wenzel told the court on Monday he was high on Xanax when he crashed his vehicle in late 2019, requiring that he be airlifted to a Traverse City hospital. There, drugs were found in his system.

Meanwhile, other drugs were found in his car’s glove compartment by police conducting a search.

Wenzel pleaded guilty to operating while intoxicated, a 93-day misdemeanor, and to possession of tramadol, a two-year felony. A charge of attempting the delivery of drugs, and the inclusion of fourth-offender status, were dismissed as part of a plea arrangement with the prosecutor’s office.

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A man who embezzled from a local hotel was supposed to be sentenced Monday, but he never showed up to pick up a required packet of information, attorneys said.

Jordan Nitchman, 24, was arrested in October after an Alpena Police Department investigation and hunt by the Michigan State Police fugitive team after he left the area. A longtime employee of the hotel, Nitchman was charged with one count of felony embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in February, with a request that, at sentencing, he be extended protections under Michigan’s Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which would keep his record out of the public eye. The prosecutor’s office objected, an argument that would have been made Monday.

Nitchman failed, however, to show up at the district courthouse to pick up a packet of papers and offer the information required for the creation of a pre-sentencing report to help determine the appropriate sentence.

The defendant explained that he had been confused about the requirements and uncertain where to pick up the paperwork.

“This is the end of leniency you’ll get from this court,” Bolser told the man, extending his court date until May.

Nitchman was then escorted across the street to pick up his paperwork.

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

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