JACKSON, Mich — One of 2024’s biggest stories in Hillsdale: multiple felony charges filed by Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel against former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and her lawyer Stefanie Lambert.
The case revives questions about how local election officials handled the 2020 elections.
The charges include withholding a voting tabulator when ordered by the Secretary of State's office to turn it over for maintenance and breaching the confidentiality of voter data by sending it to a technology expert for examination.
As 2024 ended, a preliminary hearing was underway in District Court, with Judge Megan Stiverson presiding. Arguments between Prosecuting Attorney Richard Cunningham and Defense Attorney Dan Hartman have sometimes been heated, with each expressing outrage at the other's position.
Cunningham is arguing that the hearing should focus on whether the defendants flouted a direct order from the Director of Elections he says was legally binding, and whether Scott and Lambert illegally disclosed voter information.
Hartman argues that to comply with her obligations under federal and state law to preserve voter data and ensure election integrity, Scott was right to disobey the Director of Elections and have voting equipment and voter rolls examined by a technology expert contracted by Lambert, her lawyer.
That expert, Benjamin Cotton, testified that he found discrepancies between the local Adams Township voter list provided by Scott and a voter list for the Township obtained from the Secretary of State and indications that voting equipment was online when it was not supposed to be.
The case will continue into 2025.
The death of Hillsdale County Deputy Sheriff William “Bill” Butler, Jr., during a traffic stop in late June shook the entire community. I got word of the incident after hearing that the suspect, Eric Fiddler, had fled the scene of the stop after shooting Butler and was on the run.
When I arrived at the scene, the suspect had just died in a shoot-out with police. Witnesses at the police roadblock told me they had heard an exchange of gunfire.
Following the tragedy, my Fox 47 colleagues and I were in Hillsdale to witness the outpouring of love, support, and condolences from Hillsdale neighbors, with several public tributes to Deputy Butler, including a deeply moving funeral and procession through the city that brought out both the local community and law enforcement from across the state.
Tensions between the community and Hillsdale College surfaced during a City Council debate on whether the City should support the College’s plan to build a new campus hospitality complex. Still in its early stages, the idea is to build a 4-star, 158-room hotel, conference center, and restaurant on campus in place of the current Dow Hotel and Conference Center.
The College offered the City $2 million as part of a development agreement that includes vacating sections of two streets near the location of the proposed development, which is to be built on property owned by the College.
Some neighbors voiced concerns about the influence of the College on municipal affairs and the impact of the College’s growing real estate holdings and tax-exempt status on local tax revenue.
Mayor Adam Stockford told me he believed a new College hotel would keep more money in the City by providing more options for parents visiting students to stay in Hillsdale rather than outside the City and that, at any rate, the College didn’t need the City’s permission to develop its properties.
The Council approved the development agreement for the new hotel.
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