PPO upheld against Commissioner Rolls

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) - A personal protection order taken out against Kent County Commissioner Gary Rolls will remain in effect, a judge in Muskegon ruled Friday.

The ruling came at the end of a two-day hearing on allegations Rolls molested a woman for several years. Rolls did not take the stand in the hearing to determine whether a PPO taken out by the woman against Rolls should be dropped.
 
Rolls, who was re-elected to his Fourth District seat Tuesday by a nearly 2-1 margin, denied the accusation in the petition.

While most of the alleged incidents took place in Kent County, the PPO was filed in Muskegon County because that's where the woman lives.

The petition claims Rolls sexually assaulted her for several years , and threatened her if she ever told anybody about the incidents. She said that control kept her from telling anyone about the incident until last year, and that a therapist convinced her to request the PPO in September, just months before Election Day.

On Friday, Rolls' attorney John Kerala grilled the alleged victim on some inconsistencies in the stories she's told. Kerala questioned the timing of the PPO, originally ordered in September - more than a year after the last contact between Rolls and the woman.

The woman claims the alleged sexual encounters with Rolls started when she was a teenager. She is now 28.

"One explanation has been suggested during the course of these proceedings is the acknowledgment that Mr. Rolls is running for Kent County, or up for re-election for Kent County commission and it would get blasted, as it did, all over the media," Kerala said.

Kerala wanted to know why the woman didn't tell anyone, even after counselors got her to talk about the alleged sexual assaults as an adult.

"Your counselor just decided to continue counseling with you? Did not recommend that you contact law enforcement about that?" he asked.

"They all wanted me to," she replied, "and I did not because I didn't want to ruin his family's reputation."

Kerala hammered away at inconsistencies in her Protection Order petition, including one detailing an alleged sexual encounter with Rolls when she was 19. In the PPO, she claims it happened when she was 15.

"That's a lie, isn't it?" Kerala asked the alleged victim. "That when you put age 15 down, it sounded a lot worse and would get him in trouble, right?"

The alleged victim explained she was confused when she put 15 down.

After the ruling, Rolls hurried from the courtroom without speaking to reporters.

"That is the Doctor Jekyll that we see," said Dan Bonner, the attorney for the woman. "But what we've heard about the last few days in this courtroom, your honor, is the Mr. Hyde part of Gary Rolls."
 
The Michigan State Police say they've got the evidence to turn this into a criminal case against Rolls.

Because Rolls is a Kent County commissioner, the Ionia County prosecutor is handling the case. Charges are expected to be filed by the end of the month.