Ousted Macomb County Clerk Karen Spranger on Wednesday pleaded no contest in a court case in which she was accused of taking $1,660 from an elderly Warren woman she cared for last year.
In an agreement, Spranger pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace, a 90-day misdemeanor, with the original larceny felony charge to be dismissed.
She was ordered to pay $1,660 in restitution immediately, as well as $425 in fines and court costs during sentencing before Macomb County Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski, which occurred right after the plea was accepted. She also was given credit for one day served in jail.
Druzinski set a sentence review for Sept. 10, but Spranger does not have to appear if restitution is paid by then.
On this day a year ago, Spranger was arraigned in circuit court on the five-year felony offense.
On Wednesday, via Zoom, Spranger entered the no contest plea as she sat next to her attorney, Joseph Arnone. She responded with simple yes and no answers and made no statement during her sentencing.
"This is obviously a very unique case of very different facets," Arnone said during sentencing, adding that "there have been a multitude of attacks on her as a result of this."
Arnone said Spranger basically has been on probation since the beginning of the case last year and has had no contact with the victim.
Arnone said he has no reason to believe anything like this would happen again and that Spranger "has no intention of contacting the complaining witness at all."
Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Hall asked that the court verify Spranger paid full restitution before officially dismissing the felony charge.
In June, Druzinski said this was one of her oldest cases.
Spranger, 68, was accused of stealing the money from the bank account of the then-78-year-old woman without her permission. Warren police said Spranger was caring for the woman when she was seen on surveillance video taking money from an ATM.
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Former County Prosecutor Eric Smith, who resigned earlier this year amid his own embezzlement charges, previously said that Spranger took money from the account eight times in January 2019 without the woman's permission.
At a news conference last year, Smith showed photos from surveillance video that he said showed Spranger stealing money from the woman's bank account. He said she appeared to be alone each time, making the withdrawals without the victim's permission.
The incident was first reported Feb. 26, 2019..
On Wednesday, Hall read from reports of the situation. He said the victim had a missing item from her home and thought it was in Spranger's car. The victim said they both were at Spranger's car, and the victim started to look through the items in the back of Spranger's car. Spranger started to yell at the victim, grabbed her and pulled her out of the car. Both women lost their balance and fell backward, Hall read.
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After the incident, police were unable to locate Spranger despite pleas for her to come in for questioning by investigators. Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer had said information police received in March 2019 was that she may have been homeless and jumping from one hotel to another in the Macomb County area.
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Spranger was arrested in May 2019.
In March 2018, Spranger was ousted from the county clerk's job after a ruling by a St. Clair County judge, who determined she lied about her residency in her election paperwork. Spranger ran as a Republican and was elected in 2016, but had a tumultuous tenure in office.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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