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ALPENA -- Alpena man Andrew Swoffer-Sauls can argue that he shouldn't have to register as a sex offender, but the Michigan Supreme Court won't hear his arguments that an Alpena jury reached a faulty decision when they found the man guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2019.
The state's high court on Tuesday sent Swoffer-Sauls, now 23, to the state Court of Appeals to try his argument that registration with Michigan's Sex Offender Registry, part of his sentence following the jury's guilty verdict in 2020, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The Appeals Court already rejected an appeal saying a judge had allowed inappropriate witnesses at the trial.
In May, a judge resentenced Swoffer-Sauls to three to 10 years' incarceration after the Court of Appeals negated his initial sentence -- for the same amount of prison time -- because Swoffer-Sauls appeared via videoconference at the first sentencing hearing.
The hearing, held during a state-mandated lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, came two months after Swoffer-Sauls' trial, which was held only days before the first pandemic-related mandate restricting in-person gatherings in Michigan.