News Photo By Temi Fadayomi Former Alpena attorney Michelle Elowski (bottom right), her attorney Ravi Gurumurthy (top right), and Judge Laura Frawley (top left) appear via Zoom for a hearing in Oscoda County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

MIO — Former Alpena attorney Michelle Elowski’s request for a Cobbs evaluation was denied by Judge Laura Frawley during a hearing in Oscoda County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

A Cobbs evaluation is a procedure that allows a defendant to get a sense of what their sentence might be if they plead guilty to certain charges.

The request was made by Elowski’s attorney, Ravi Gurumurthy, who, along with Elowski and Frawley, appeared in court via Zoom.

Elowski is facing multiple charges, including fraud and embezzlement charges, across three separate cases in Oscoda County Circuit Court.

Gurumurthy argued that the Cobbs evaluation would provide guidance on whether Elowski should proceed with a plea or go to trial.

The evaluation was requested to understand what sentencing guidelines might apply if Elowski accepted a plea offer.

“We might be able to proceed if we have an idea of what the court’s going to do by way of sentencing,” Gurumurthy said. “It gives the defendant an idea of what the sentence would be and what this would entail going forward.”

Oscoda County Prosecutor Kristi McGregor opposed the request, arguing that Elowski had been offered a plea deal, which was set to expire on Tuesday.

“Ms. Elowski can either accept that plea offer or we can proceed to trial,” McGregor said.

Frawley sided with McGregor, noting that the rights of crime victims to address the court played a role in her decision.

“We have a number of victims in this case who are going to want to address the court,” Frawley said. “I don’t want to put us in a situation where Ms. Elowski enters this plea agreement in reliance on something I might say today that may very well change based on a pre-sentence investigation, based on the victim’s allocution.”

Ultimately, Frawley denied the request for a Cobbs evaluation, stating that it “would put this court in a position of harming the public’s view of it as a neutral arbiter of the facts or an impartial dispenser of justice.”

The court scheduled the next hearing for 1 p.m. on Tuesday, with the possibility of setting a trial date if no plea is entered.

Temi Fadayomi can be reached at 989-358-5693 or tfadayomi@thealpenanews.com.