Ex-Cop Facing Rape, Kidnapping Charges Takes Plea Deal

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A former police officer facing charges of rape and kidnapping pleaded no contest to a lesser count, a prosecutor said.

Former Covert Township police officer Erich Fritz pleaded no contest to a single count of unlawful imprisonment on Friday, June 9, Van Buren County Prosecutor Michael Bedford reports.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping that Fritz was facing, Bedford said.

The charge Fritz pleaded to carries a 15-year maximum penalty, Bedford said.

Police have said Fritz pulled over a man July 9, 2016, in Covert Township and arrested him for drunken driving, then took the passenger in the car, a woman who also was drunk, to his hotel room and sexually assaulted her.

Erich Fritz is accused of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping. All three charges carry up to life in prison.

The woman testified in Fritz’s preliminary exam in September that much of which she recalled from that night was “blurry,” but that at one point she woke up and “he was on top of me.”

The woman testified that Fritz took her to three different hotels that night to find her a room.

Fritz had not yet transported the driver he had arrested to jail when they went to the third hotel, Det. Sgt. Shane Criger of the Michigan State Police testified at a probable cause hearing in July. He took the man to jail after dropping the woman off at his hotel room, Criger testified.

The woman testified she was “dumbfounded” when she awoke to him having sex with her. She said she doesn’t think she had any conversations with Fritz about wanting to have sex with him and doesn’t think she consented to it.

The woman said she went to a hospital the next day and had a sexual assault kit done at the urging of her ex-boyfriend, who she contacted to pick her up the next day.

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