Barge in Grand Traverse Bay hasn't budged so charges sent to higher court

The barge hasn’t budged in the Traverse City region and neither will state prosecutors.

Moses Balcom, the owner of a barge in northern Michigan, was ordered to stand trial on seven charges in Leelanau County Circuit Court last week after he missed a deadline to find a home for his floating crane.

State and federal agencies have been trying to remove Balcom’s barge from Grand Traverse Bay for three years. The vessel, which is kept offshore, violated state laws by resting on bottomlands and causing pollution during a sinking.

The Michigan Attorney General’s Office wanted him to either sell the crane barge or find a home for it before a Dec. 8 court hearing, but Balcom has shown little interest in either option.

During the brief hearing, Judge Michael Stepka of Grand Traverse County's 86th District Court bound Balcom's case over for trial, setting a pretrial conference for Dec. 27. Balcom entered a plea of not guilty.

Balcom and his attorney, Thomas Seger, weren’t immediately available for comment. Balcom, 88, has an ailing hip and had to use a cane to walk into court.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it is cases like this one that prompted her to relaunch the agency’s environmental crimes unit.

“My department is committed to protecting the Great Lakes whenever they come under threat,” Nessel said in a statement. “The alleged pollution and trespass, or treating the Grand Traverse Bay as a dumping ground for abandoned vessels, are criminal offenses.”

Traverse City area man fights agencies over crane barge that wouldn't budge

The floating crane currently sits halfway out of the water on the property of a Balcom friend who lives near Suttons Bay.

Balcom didn’t bring the barge ashore until after Nessel’s office filed criminal charges in June. The seven counts are related to trespassing and causing pollution in state waters.

State and federal authorities allowed the vessel to be brought to the friend’s property temporarily so Balcom could repair a leak in the hull.

Now that the leak is patched, prosecutors want the barge removed from the property. The state may soon initiate abandonment proceedings so the vessel could be seized.

In a related development, Stepka admonished Balcom for bringing an item that could be construed as a weapon into a court hearing in October.

The item was described by the judge as a “multi-tool” that contained a blade-like implement. The exact nature of the implement wasn’t described.

Stepka held a brief show cause hearing on the offense, which violates court rules, but said he wasn’t interested in punishing Balcom. He just wanted to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

Seger, Balcom’s lawyer, said the tool wasn’t a weapon and that courthouse signs prohibiting such devices aren’t clearly visible.

But Seger’s biggest objection was when a courthouse security officer removed the item from Balcom, he told the lawyer not to talk to his client. When Seger told the officer he was Balcom’s attorney, the officer said he couldn’t have been because the multi-tool incident had just happened.

The judge asked the head of courthouse security to talk to the staffer about not interfering in the relationship between lawyers and their clients.

fdonnelly@detroitnews.com

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