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Agar settles on attorney — for now — in sex assault case

News Photo by Julie Riddle Defendant Todd Agar, speaking from a conference room in a state prison, explains why his attorney should not have been allowed to quit during a videoconferenced hearing Monday.

ALPENA — Todd Agar, accused of sexually assaulting three women when they were between 6 and 14 years old, is moving forward with a new attorney.

Agar was arraigned in the 26th Circuit Court on Monday. The arraignment — when a defendant first appears before a judge to be formally charged with crimes — was attempted two weeks ago, but was thwarted when Agar’s defense attorney asked to be removed from his client’s case.

Agar announced to a district court judge in March he was firing his court-appointed attorney, Justin Wilson. Agar, incarcerated with the Michigan Department of Corrections, left the court hearing prematurely when he was told he couldn’t fire his lawyer until a new attorney had been secured.

At Agar’s next hearing, when he was to be arraigned in circuit court, Wilson moved to be dismissed from the case, citing Agar’s publicly stated wishes to that effect.

Agar, again leaving abruptly when asked to stop interrupting the judge, was, by the end of the videoconferenced hearing, neither present nor represented by a lawyer.

Defense attorney Bill Pfeifer, who has previously represented Agar on the same case before being dismissed by the defendant, said he would be willing to represent him again.

If that was not acceptable to Agar, “as of this moment, I do not have another attorney that is willing to accept the case,” Pfeifer told the court.

Expressing displeasure that Wilson asked to be removed from the case, Agar accepted Pfeifer as his attorney and was arraigned.

Agar faces multiple charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from alleged incidents between 1998 and 2005.

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