'Damage may be done' in Muskegon Hts.

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. (WOOD) - No matter what the outcome of the investigation into the Muskegon Heights Police Department, the damage may already have been done.

"No matter what happens, it's going to create a headache for the police in that jurisdiction, as well as the courts," said Dennis Kolenda, an attorney and former Kent County judge.

After nearly 20 years in his position, Kolenda said, even the appearance of impropriety can cause pretty severe damage to a police department.

"Juries will know about it and there's always the risk that, in the back of their mind, even if there's nothing said, (there) will be a question -- this is a Heights case, isn't that the place where they had the evidence problem?" he told 24 Hour News 8 on Wednesday.

The Michigan State Police started investigating the department in March. But what started as an audit of a messy evidence room has become an investigation into missing money and potential misconduct -- which Kolenda said could jeopardize both pending and closed cases.

"Every defense lawyer is going to raise in front of a judge and jury the risk that the investigation is tainted because they did something inappropriate in another case," Kolenda said. "If an investigation shows a pattern and practice, not just odd misconduct here or there, there's going to be very real questions to whether it did carry over into other evidence."

But, he stressed, in the hundreds of cases he presided over, Kolenda only encountered one case where misconduct played a significant role.

"Not everything is going to go smooth every day, but that it hits a bump every once in a while doesn't mean it's a systemic problem," Kolenda said.

He hopes the public doesn't make a decision about the department until the state police finish their investigation.

"If something inappropriate happens, people need to be upset about that," Kolenda said. "They need to straighten it out, but they shouldn't conclude that it's immediately a big problem, because it may not be."

No officers have been disciplined. When the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office, which will decide whether to file any criminal charges.