Michigan AG seeks to return ex-MSP sgt’s murder case to state court

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is asking a federal judge to send a murder case against a former Michigan State Police detective sergeant back to state court.

In a motion filed Tuesday, the AG’s Office cited a 2023 appellate ruling that the federal court does not have jurisdiction over former federal officers in arguing that the case against Brian Keely should be handled in state courts.

Keely, 50, of Grand Rapids, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Samuel Sterling. Last month, a federal judge agreed with Keely’s defense team that his case belonged in federal court because he was acting as a member of a federal task force when he hit Sterling with an unmarked cruiser in Kentwood, killing him.

But the motion from the AG’s Office pointed to a ruling that says the law allowing for removal to federal court “applies only to current federal officers, not formal federal officers, even if the defendant held federal office at the time of the act alleged by the prosecution.”

Prosecutors acknowledged the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan is not bound by the decision from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but called on the court to follow the “very well-reasoned conclusion” of its 2023 ruling.

“(The appeals court) said that its conclusion that former officers were excluded from the sphere of § 1442(a)(1) was reinforced by reading the entirety” of that law, the AG’s motion said.

The motion went on to argue that the law in question was designed to “protect the federal government from interference in its operations from the States.”

“…(I)f the person is no longer acting under a federal officer, that concern simply does not exist,” prosecutors said.

The filing says Keely’s defense team said it would oppose the motion. Both sides were expected to be in court for a status conference Thursday.

Looking to arrest Sterling , 25, of Grand Rapids, on a number of warrants, authorities tracked him to a Kentwood gas station on April 17 . Police say he ran away when they moved in to get him. Officers chased him on foot to a nearby Burger King while Keely pursued in an unmarked cruiser. Video released by MSP shows Sterling being hit by Keely’s SUV near the restaurant’s entrance. Sterling was hospitalized and died hours later.

The state AG’s office filed charges against Keely the following month, and he submitted a letter retiring the same day, making that retroactive to the day Sterling died.

Prosecutors say Keely “knowingly created a very high risk of death or great bodily harm,” arguing during a previous hearing in a Kent County courtroom that “at minimum, what we know is that Detective Sgt. Brian Keely intentionally turned his vehicle in the direction of Samuel Sterling.”

But Keely’s defense attorneys say Keely didn’t mean to hit Sterling and instead intended to block him from getting into the Burger King.

“The evidence demonstrates he was on the brakes, on the brakes hard, trying to stop. That doesn’t show gross negligence. That shows me somebody who’s trying to stop,” defense attorney Marc Curtis previously argued in court.

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