News File Photo The Alpena County courthouse is seen in this August 2021 News archive photo.

ALPENA — Charges should come before a trial, not after, an Alpena courtroom heard on Monday.

Judge Ed Black, in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court, nixed Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski’s attempt to add charges to those already levied against defendant Kevin Baughan.

In July, Black dismissed a jury who said they could not reach a consensus in Baughan’s trial, where he faced accusations of pouring gasoline in a home and on a woman and threatening to light it.

Several children were sleeping in the home at the time of the incident.

A second trial, originally scheduled for this month, was postponed when Baughan’s attorneys said Black dismissed the jurors too quickly and said charges against Baughan should be dropped.

On Monday, Black said a request by Muszynski to add four counts of second-degree child abuse before the second trial, if it happens, came too late.

Asked by Black why she didn’t include the child abuse charges to begin with, Muszynski said she believed them appropriate after hearing the defendant’s side of the story and the concerns of jurors in the first trial.

Adding charges based only on what she heard in court wouldn’t be fair, Black told the prosecutor.

With Baughan incarcerated for nearly two years since his arrest, Muszynski had plenty of time to add charges before the trial, Black said.

Baughan’s attorneys, from the Northeast Michigan Regional Defender Office, earlier this month told the Michigan Court of Appeals that Black failed to give attorneys time to propose alternatives before he declared a mistrial and sent jurors home.

In her response to that appeal, filed last week, Muzsynski told the appeals court that Black had no reasonable alternative to dismissing jurors, who had deliberated for about seven hours and declared themselves deadlocked.

In notes given to Black but not shared with attorneys, jurors said they could not reach a verdict unless a bias among them was removed.

Jurors later told Black and the attorneys that one juror refused to consider a guilty verdict in any count or to apply the law.

Baughan’s attorneys said that, had they seen those notes or been asked their opinion, they might have thought of a solution other than a mistrial.

Muszynski, in her response, said Black did share the content of the notes with attorneys and gave the defense plenty of time to speak up if they objected to the dismissal.

Notes suggesting juror bias could have prompted Black to believe the trial could not be resolved fairly, Muszynski added in her response.

Baughan will remain in the Alpena County Jail awaiting a decision whether the Court of Appeals will hear his case.