terpening to earn more time behind bars after pleading to new charges in 2015
March 28, 2016
At this point Terpening's stunts, with help from none other than his mother Kimberly Tungate, are likely to earn him another 3-4 years behind bars.
Terpening got involved with a serial lawsuit filer in an
effort to scam as much as 100,000 from a
witness in the
original case in Barry County, this writer and a target in
Oakland County.
Terpening's co-defendant, Stephen Jon Wilcox, obtained a judgment against his former criminal defense lawyer in Oakland and was able to transfer the judgment to at least two other people through fraud and use of Michigan's court rules for garnishments.
Kimberly Tungate provided her home address, as well as legal process serving through registered return receipt requested, making the Writs of Garnishment appear to be legal. The Department of Corrections would otherwise have intercepted the scam.
It's complicated and, typically weird, but the prison duo were using Tungate's address and actually were able to put a hold on the Oakland County target's credit union account. Michigan State Police were able to stop them from getting cash.
Prior to appearing in court to quash the Writs of Garnishment they were attempting to obtain against the witness and your friendly writer, the team behind this website wrote up a 50 page brief essentially laying out the attempts at fraud and Tungate's involvement.
In October 2013 a hearing was held before Oakland County President Judge Nanci Grant. She ordered Wilcox to explain himself and gave him 30 days to prove what he'd told the court was factually based. We later learned Judge Grant contacted the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office who were already working with Michigan State Police in Lakeview, Michigan.
So a long story short, this one one freaking big paperwork mess and Detective from Michigan State Police really dug into this case. Oakland County brought charges and those charges were resolved for Wilcox last week who fully admitted his crimes and for Terpening, being his usual cowardly self, pleaded no contest rather than admitting his crime.
It is expected this charges will add 3-4 years to his 10-15 year sentence.
Editor's note
I really want to thank the Michigan State Police as well as the prosecutor's office in Oakland County. Taking this from a civil case where these two sex predators got together to go after a witness in the case against Terpening, a totally decent man in Southeastern Michigan who did nothing more than try to mentor Wilcox and myself was unexpected. I knew we would win because American justice does not allow people like this to win.
What is more important, though, is Wilcox is someone who has hurt many people including the daughters of a murder victim whose father was convicted for the crime. Wilcox has sued many people but hurting by forcing them to hire lawyer to defend against his serial lawsuits is beyond the pale.
Since the criminal cases were resolved in Barry County against Terpening he has filed lawsuits against this writer, the witness the criminal case against him and even the parents of his sister's daughter. Ryon Ann Keeler, Terpening's sister, even used Terpening to file professional complaints against a witness in what I believe is a sick and vain attempt to intimidate a witness in the child custody case involving Terpening's sister's child.
At each and every point Terpening was beaten.
On the plus side when the Michigan Department of Corrections separated WIlcox and Terpening, Wilcox even sued Terpening and his ex wife while also involving Ryon Ann Keeler. One of the rewards for the game was Terpening exposed his own family to Wilcox forcing them to have to hire a lawyer.
Finally, I want to thank Michael Aaron Terpening for the choices he's made while behind bars. While I have never been one to celebrate someone being imprisoned, and didn't in 2012, we can all celebrate what Kimberly Tungate, Stephen Wilcox and Michael Terpening did when they got together as a team. Clearly, Terpening has been unwilling to serve his time and return to society without trying to hurt more utterly innocent people. The longer he is kept from freedom the better it is for the whole of society.
