BERRIEN COUNTY SENTENCES TWO HIGH PROFILE CASES CASS: FORMER COLLEGE INSTRUCTOR BOUND OVER FOR TRIAL

By DEBRA HAIGHT

BCR Correspondent

NILES – Sentencings took place this week in two high-profile cases in Berrien County Trial Court. Meanwhile, the alleged victim in the George Field case in Cass County testified during a preliminary hearing last week.

James Parker Huffman, 52, of South 14th Street in Niles, received the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the chance for parole Monday in Berrien County Trial Court in Niles. He had been convicted of first-degree murder in March after a three-day jury trial.

Huffman walked into the Niles Law Enforcement Complex July 24 and told police that he had strangled his longtime girlfriend, Angela Cluver, in a failed double suicide pact at their South 14th Street home in Niles. Police then went to the home and discovered Cluver’s body which was in a state of decomposition. He claimed he tried but failed to kill himself.

While Huffman continued to maintain Monday that he and Cluver had agreed on the suicide pact, Berrien County Trial Judge Charles LaSata disagreed.

“I don’t believe a word of it, you’re a cold, calculated killer,” LaSata told Huffman. “You showed callousness in how you left her body there for three or four days. You threw a blanket over her while you did your laundry and manufactured excuses. That’s disturbing and disgusting.”

LaSata said he wasn’t impressed with Huffman’s alleged attempts to kill himself

by cutting and other methods. “I’ve gotten worse scratches picking raspberries,” he said. “That was a manufactured ruse. I’m going to give you the sentence you deserve. The jury got it exactly right.”

Defense attorney Scott Sanford said Huffman will be appealing the jury’s verdict. For his part, Huffman apologized for what he did. “I want to apologize to family and friends,” he said. “I regret not being able to live up to our pact. We loved each other and were partners for life.”

Also Monday, former Brandywine softball coach Jeffery Brett DeBoer received a sentence of probation, jail and

registry as a sex offender for assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct against one of his student athlete players.

Judge LaSata sentenced DeBoer to five years probation, 210 days in jail, 90 days tether and $1,158 in fines and costs. He has credit for 52 days already served including 30 days from a March contempt conviction for violating bond conditions when he was at the Niles Y in the presence of youth age 17 and younger.

DeBoer must register as a sex offender, cannot have any device that connects to the internet and cannot have any contact with the victim and her family or any female age 17 or younger. He cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of a school or 500 feet of parks or recreational facilities such as the Y.

In Cass District Court, a preliminary hearing was held for former Southwestern Michigan College instructor George

Field. Field, 57, of Dowagiac, faces 17 felony charges ranging from first-degree criminal sexual conduct to practicing psychology/counseling without a license, perjury and insurance fraud.

The alleged victim said Field was her professor at SMC starting in September 2015 and she started going to him for counseling in late September 2015. The counseling took place at the Family Center in Dowagiac and the sexual relations at Field’s home next door.

Others testifying last week were a woman who went to him for marriage counseling and had sessions paid by insurance, a Blue Cross Blue Shield representative who investigated the insurance claims made and found that Field was not licensed and two detectives who took part in the investigation last fall.

Cass District Judge Stacey Rentfrow found probable cause to bind Field over for trial on all 17 charges at the conclusion of the hearing. He remains in jail and will be arraigned May 7 in Cass Circuit Court. A trial date will be determined later.