NEW CHARGES AGAINST FORMER SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE

By DEBRA HAIGHT

BCR Correspondent

Area court action this week and last included sentencings for assault and other crimes as well as new charges against a former Southwestern Michigan College professor.

News of the new charges against Dowagiac resident George Field came last

week at the start of a scheduled preliminary hearing in Cass County District Court. The hearing ended up being postponed until this week when some of the prosecution witnesses weren’t available to testify.

Field, 57, of South Michigan 51 in Dowagiac, was arraigned last September on five felony charges including first-degree criminal sexual conduct during the commission of a felony and practicing psychology/counseling without a license.

First-degree CSC carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while second-degree CSC carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. The practicing without a license charge is four-year felony while the fourth-degree CSC charge is a two-year felony.

He is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 20 year old female SMC student who also went to him for counseling in his private practice. The incidents occurred between September 2015 and September 2016.

Cass Chief Assistant Prosecutor Tiffiny Vohwinkle told Cass District Judge Stacey Rentfrow last week that she plans to file several additional counts including ones for criminal sexual conduct in connection with a second victim, ones for insurance fraud and one for perjury.

Vohwinkle said she is adding another CSC count involving the original victim, a second offense possession of marijuana count and a perjury count related to Field’s testimony during a pretrial motion hearing in Cass Circuit Court last month.

In addition, she said she plans to file three counts of insurance fraud and 10 more CSC counts involving a second victim. She told Judge Rentfrow that her office had been unable to serve the insurance company or the second victim in time to appear last week.

SMC officials said last fall that they had cooperated with the criminal investigation last summer and fall after a student had reported a concern to them. They then fired Field after their own internal investigation.

Sentencings this week in Berrien County Trial Court included ones for assaultive behavior and fleeing police.

 

Matthew James Gonzalez, 32, of South Bend, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 76 months to 10 years in prison. He has credit for 82 days already served and must pay $266 in fines and costs.

The incident occurred Jan. 9 at a home on Fairfield Drive in Niles township when he strangled and beat Tanya Canul and also hit Brandon Nelson with a gun.

“In the wake of the victims you left behind, your sentence should be more than five, six, seven years,” Berrien County Trial Judge Charles LaSata said. “Where we’re at is protecting the community from your violent, assaultive behavior.”

“Your first adult conviction was when you were 17 in 2003 and it’s been pretty much non-stop since then,” he added. “We have no recourse, you don’t deserve to live in the community. Your behavior is disgusting.”

LaSata refused defense attorney Jason Engram’s request that Gonzalez be able to serve his prison sentence in any penal institution as he has warrants out for him in Indiana. “Absolutely not,” the judge said. “The victim is in Michigan and I’m not giving him credit or allow him to serve the sentence in Indiana.”

Engram noted before the sentencing that Gonzalez had been using meth at the time of the incident.

For his part, Gonzalez apologized. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said. “If I could go back to that day, I’d do a lot of things different.”

William Terrell Gilliam, 25, of Lake Street in Niles, was sentenced to two to five

years in prison for one count of third-degree fleeing and eluding police and a concurrent term of one to five years for another count of third-degree fleeing and eluding.

He was given credit for 19 days already served of fourth-degree fleeing and eluding and one count of resisting and obstructing police. He must pay $712 in fines and costs.

The fleeing and eluding incidents occurred July 12, Nov. 1 and Feb. 22 in Niles, while the resisting and obstructing incident occurred July 12. Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Taylor said at least one of the fleeing and eluding incidents involved multiple police agencies.