4 Michigan corrections officers avoid incarceration for 2019 death of jailed man

Four corrections officers in western Michigan avoided incarceration with plea bargains Thursday in the 2019 death of a jailed man who suffered multiple seizures while in a cell.

Muskegon County sheriff’s Sgt. David Vanderlaan and Deputies Jeffrey Patterson, Crystal Greve and Jamal Lane pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty and were sentenced in Muskegon County Circuit Court to 100 hours of community service and fined $1,000.

The four originally were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Paul Bulthouse, 39, who had been jailed on a probation violation. A medical examiner testified that Bulthouse suffered 18 seizures over 4½ hours.

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The four corrections officers still work at the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office, their attorney told WOOD-TV.

The case was prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office after the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office found no wrongdoing in 2019.

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The jail employees were working in the receiving and booking area where Bulthouse was being kept in a solitary observation cell.

Defense attorney Marc Curtis said in a statement that “evidence would have shown that the medical staff, not these deputies, neglected (Bulthouse) even after being alerted of his deteriorating condition by these same deputies.”

Bulthouse’s family reached a $2.4 million settlement with Muskegon County in 2021.