The Alpena County Courthouse is seen in this News file photo.

ALPENA — An Alpena court case remains at the center of a fight to keep those with little to no income from having pay to run the court that prosecuted them.

The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday said Travis Johnson, convicted in Alpena County in 2017 on a second-offense domestic violence charge, can have his day in court — again.

Johnson has for several years said his conviction included an unfair demand that he pay $1,200 in court costs.

The State Appellate Defender’s Office used Johnson’s case to challenge the tradition of trial courts charging defendants for the cost of running offices and handling paperwork needed to run a court.

The office has taken on cases across the state in which defendants hoping to appeal their cases qualified as indigent.

In April 2021, the State Court of Appeals set a precedent by siding against Johnson in a published opinion, which means it became part of the body of law in the state and can be cited by attorneys and judges in determining the outcome in other cases.

In the appeals case, Johnson’s attorney argued that judges shouldn’t assess court costs because it incentivises them to convict defendants to generate money for the courts.

The appeals court disagreed.

The Supreme Court agreed last year to take another look at Johnson’s case, and on Friday said it will hear oral arguments addressing whether the imposition of court costs tempts judges to be biased in their judgements — and, if so, what the state court should do about it.

The Supreme Court invited several criminal justice entities to take part in the examination of Johnson’s case, including the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, the Detroit Justice Center, Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, the Michigan District Judges Association — which asked for time to present oral argument — and the Institute for Justice.

Friday’s decision in Johnson’s case impacts at least two other cases on the Supreme Court’s radar. The court on Friday placed on hold a Wayne County case it may hear, pending the final decision in the Johnson case, and said another Wayne County case will be heard by the court because they had OKed Johnson’s case.

Johnson, 31, pleaded no contest to aggravated domestic violence and interfering with electronic communications in November 2017. He was sentenced to thirteen months to five years in prison on the domestic violence charge and was released in April 2020, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Johnson made regular court-ordered payments to Alpena County between early 2019 and mid-2021, according to court records.

In Alpena County, anyone found guilty in a criminal case is assessed $700 in court costs per conviction. Previous to 2018, the county charged $600.

Neither amount covers all of the actual expenses of moving a case through court, according to the Alpena County Clerk’s Office.

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