Police officer heads to Circuit Court in Jackson County public integrity case

LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – A former Blackman-Leoni Township Public Safety officer has been bound over to circuit court on misconduct and perjury charges following a 2019 incident in Jackson County where he searched an individual’s property without first getting permission from the owner or the court, and then misrepresented his actions in his police report and in the affidavit for a search warrant he later obtained.

David Lubahn was bound over to Jackson County’s 4th Circuit Court Wednesday on one count each of misconduct in office and perjury of a record or document.

He appeared today for a hearing in 54-B District Court before Judge Richard D. Ball, who presided over the case due to the judges in Jackson County’s 12th District Court recusing themselves from hearing the case.

Charges against Lubahn were announced by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office in September.

Lubahn was among law enforcement responding to a report of shots fired near a hotel in Blackman Township on Oct. 23, 2019. After locating the suspects, officers discovered a gun safe and key in a hotel room. Lubahn used the key to open the safe, searching it without legal authorization, and located a gun.

After searching the safe, Lubahn then presented the court with a search warrant affidavit containing false and misleading information and wrote his police report claiming he opened the safe after he obtained the search warrant.

Lubahn is to be arraigned in the 4th Circuit Court in Jackson County. A date has not yet been set.

Attorney General Nessel added that the fair and unbiased prosecution of crimes committed by law enforcement and elected and other public officials remains a top priority, who has made public integrity a focus throughout her term as Attorney General.

Lubahn’s case is just one of several involving public officials and members of law enforcement that Nessel’s office has prosecuted due to requests from other agencies and prosecutors to avoid conflicts of interest.