Ex-landlord loses challenge to environmental crimes conviction

By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – A federal judge in Detroit has rejected a challenge by a former Washtenaw County landlord to his  conviction for illegally dumping an estimated 107,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Huron River. U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland rebuffed an effort by David Kircher to overturn his 2006 conviction for violating Michigan’s Natural Resources and Protection Act in a way that “substantially endangers” the public. He was sentenced to five years in state prison and fined $1 million. Earlier, the state Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence. The case arose from an October 2004 incident when sewage backed up at the Eastern Highlands apartment complex that Kircher then owned in Ypsilanti Township.