News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Douglas Smith and Attorney Christopher Parks are pictured in the 26th Circuit Court in Montmorency County on Monday.

ATLANTA. — Douglas Smith, 67, is expected to head to trial in the coming months, according to a hearing Monday in the 26th Circuit Court in Montmorency County. The court also heard arguments for a motion to quash bind over from the defense.

The motion was denied.

Smith is charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a license, using a fire department or emergency medical services emblems, and impersonating firefighter or emergency medical services personnel. He is also charged with possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony and reckless driving.

In February of last year, Smith was allegedly noticed by a Michigan Department of Natural Resources officer driving what appeared to be a fire department vehicle at a high rate of speed, passing vehicles, and passing through intersections in Montmorency County.

The vehicle Smith was driving included EMS verbiage on the side, a siren, and emergency lights.

Smith was stopped by police and allegedly told the officer he was responding to an emergency call, but the call was cancelled.

Police verified Smith was not affiliated with any emergency response agency in Michigan and found an uncased pistol in the front of his vehicle.

He was arrested in late March.

Smith had a status conference hearing in the 26th Circuit Court in Montmorency on Monday, where Defense Counsel Christopher Parks presented his oral argument for a motion to quash the bind over from the 88th District Court.

A motion to quash is a formal request to a court to nullify or invalidate a proceeding.

Parks argued that the DNR Officer that initiated a traffic stop on Smith’s vehicle testified that Smith was driving erratically and had lights on it.

Parks said that Smith had no visible stickers saying that he was part of any kind of county, city, fire, EMS, or police affiliation. Smith clearly had a vehicle that had search and rescue on it, because he was involved in search and rescue missions.

Smith was not in any kind of uniform and had no visible emblem on the truck, Parks said.

“What about the fact that the emblem says fire department?” Judge Ed Black said.

“The two inch emblem underneath the window that nobody can see unless you were sitting right next to his vehicle?” Parks said.

Parks also said that the vehicle looked nothing like a fire engine and that there is no evidence that Smith was driving recklessly, except for the testimony of the officer.

Judge Black said he has to decide whether there was abuse of discretion, which occurs when a judge makes an arbitrary, unreasonable, or capricious decision that violates established law or ignores crucial evidence, rather than exercising sound judgment.

In this case, Parks had to prove that an abuse of discretion was made by Judge Lora Greene when she bound over the case to Circuit Court after preliminary examination.

“The fact that it says fire department, there’s an officer that says that he’s testifying about what actually occurred, how is that not sufficient evidence for probable cause and bind over?” Judge Black said.

“You honor, I believe that is an abuse of discretion on Judge Greene’s part,” Parks said. “She clearly could have found and should have found that (the officer’s) testimony wasn’t good enough to bind over.”

Parks claimed that Judge Greene “struggled” with the decision of whether there was probable cause to bind over.

“Well, I don’t know how counsel would know that Judge Greene struggled, or not, your Honor, that’s ridiculous,” Prosecuting Attorney Vicki Kundinger said.

“That is how she said it in the transcript, your Honor,” Parks said in response.

Kundinger argued that the court should deny the motion to quash.

“He did have the fire emblem on his truck, he was running with sirens and lights, he caused traffic to stop to pull over to the side of the road as if it was an emergency type vehicle,” Kundinger said.

She also said that Smith was driving 85 mph in a 35 mph speed zone.

“There was never any allegation that it looked like a fire truck, your Honor, there are lots of volunteer firefighters who do not drive fire trucks but clearly this defendant was impersonating either fire, EMS, or other law enforcement…I don’t believe necessarily that the judge struggled with her response but this is clearly not a case in which she violated any kind of probable cause standard and we would ask the court deny the motion,” Kundinger said.

Judge Black said he does not believe that there was an abuse of discretion and denied the motion to quash.

Judge Black asked whether Parks wants the matter set for trial, to which he said yes.

Parks and Kundinger said that the trial would last two to three days, given the number of witnesses they plan to call to the stand.

Kundinger said she had made an offer for Smith to plead guilty to the counts of carrying a concealed weapon without a license and possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony. The rest of the charges would be dismissed. That offer has not been accepted by the defense.

Smith’s next hearing will be at 9:45 a.m. on March 23 for a final status conference before trial.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.