Midland
County judge
dismisses
charges in
alleged
Pepperidge Farm
stuffing caper
December 03,
2009, 7:21PM
MIDLAND — A
Midland County
Circuit Court
judge has
dismissed
charges against
a Bentley man
accused of
stealing nearly
4,000 bags of
Pepperidge Farm
stuffing. Chief
Circuit Judge
Jonathan E.
Lauderbach on
Thursday
dismissed one
count of larceny
less than $1,000
against Stephen
M. Shoultes, 34.
Shoultes
originally was
charged with
embezzling less
than $20,000, a
15-year felony.
In a plea deal
that his lawyer,
Jason P. Gower,
negotiated with
prosecutors,
Shoultes
tendered a no
contest plea to
the one-year
misdemeanor and
received a
delayed
sentence. Since
Shoultes
completed the
year with no
additional
incidents,
Lauderbach
cleared him of
all wrong-doing.
Gower said his
client, a
trucker for an
independent
distributor of
Pepperidge Farm,
kept the goods,
destined for
stores up north,
at his home over
night so he
wouldn’t have to
go to the
Midland
warehouse to
pick them up
then backtrack
to make the
deliveries.
“What concerns
me, and should
concern the
public, is the
mentality that
seems to rest on
the assumption
that when a
police report is
generated
someone must
have committed a
crime,” Gower
said.
“This case was
nothing more
than an
administrative
procedure that
wasn’t followed
by Mr. Shoultes.
He would have no
use — no use —
for over 200
(cases) of
Pepperidge Farm
stuffing.”
Authorities
accused Shoultes
of taking 217
cases of
stuffing mix.
Each case
contained
18 bags of
stuffing.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/12/midland_county_judge_dismisses.html
