Kevorkian Guilty Of Misdemeanors
A jury on Wednesday convicted Dr. Jack Kevorkian of two misdemeanor charges for a confrontation with police outside a hospital where he was dropping off a body. A Kevorkian associate was acquitted.
Royal Oak District Judge Daniel Sawicki immediately sentenced Kevorkian to pay a $700 fine and $200 in court costs. If he does not pay the fine, Kevorkian will serve 60 days in jail, the judge said.
After two days of deliberations, the six-member jury convicted Kevorkian of interfering with police and resisting arrest. It acquitted his associate, Dr. Georges Reding, of the same charges.
The verdict came one day after longtime Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger lost his Democratic bid for Michigan governor and voters also rejected a measure that would have made Michigan the second state with legalized physician-assisted suicide.
This is the first time Kevorkian has ever been convicted of a crime, said his current lawyer, Michael A. Schwartz.
He has been acquitted in three Detroit-area trials covering five assisted suicide deaths. A fourth trial in June 1997 in Ionia County resulted in a mistrial.
Fieger has represented Kevorkian before, but could not represent him during this trial because of his candidacy for governor.
Kevorkian and Reding were charged in a May 7 confrontation outside William Beaumont Hospital, where two officers were impounding Kevorkian's car.
They were dropping off the body of Matt Johnson, 26, a quadriplegic from Aptos, Calif., when they were arrested.
"This case is about two defendants who thought they were above the law," Royal Oak Assistant City Attorney Jim Marcinkowski told the jurors in closing arguments Tuesday. The trial began last week.
Marcinkowski said the officers were justified in questioning Kevorkian and impounding his car on the basis of seeing a body inside.
Schwartz said the case was an effort by police to cover up their beating of his client.
"They felt they were in trouble because they roughed up Dr. Kevorkian," he said in his closing argument.
Reding's lawyer, Rebecca Walsh, said the 73-year-old psychiatrist was in court because of his association with Kevorkian, not for any crime.
Kevorkian, 70, did not attend the trial but did enter Sawicki's court Tuesday afternoon. Jurors got their first look at him when they came in briefly to ask Sawicki for a transcript of the trial.
Kevorkian has acknowledged helping 120 people end their lives since he began his quest to legalize doctor-assisted suicide in 1990.
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