Woman sentenced for stalking Barry County prosecutors

HASTINGS, Mich. (WOOD) — A woman who state prosecutors say sent hundreds of emails and voicemails to Barry County prosecutors will serve probation.

Rita Williams, 37, of Richland, was sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation and ordered not to have any contact with or try to contact the Barry County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Michigan Attorney General’s Office says Williams emailed and called the Barry County Prosecutor’s Office hundreds of times about her husband’s case after he pleaded to an embezzlement charge and was sentenced in January to between 10 and 20 years in prison. Prosecutors told her to stop calling, but the AG’s Office said she “persisted gratuitously, sending harassing messages to the attorneys on both their work and personal devices.”

In October of last year, the AG’s Office charged her with misdemeanor stalking . She pleaded no contest earlier this year to two of the three counts against her.

At sentencing, Judge William Doherty warned Williams that if she tries to contact the prosecutors, she could find herself in jail.

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