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.
Federal court takes ex-MSP sergeant’s murder case
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.”