GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — An Internal Affairs Unit report obtained by Target 8 shows discrepancies between what happened the night a former Kent County assistant prosecutor crashed after a night of drinking and what Grand Rapids Police Department officers stated in their reporting.
The investigation was launched at GRPD Chief David Rahinsky’s request, but only after Target 8 began asking questions. An anonymous tip received in December 2016 led Target 8 to start investigating former Assistant Prosecutor Joshua Kuiper’s wrong-way crash into a parked car, which had happened the month prior.
The first page of the Internal Affairs report, obtained Wednesday via the Freedom of Information Act, states now-fired Lt. Matthew Janiskee called a deputy chief on Dec. 2, two weeks after the crash because now-retired “Kent County prosecutor William Forsyth had just called (Janiskee) and was upset with him because Kuiper had not been arrested for drunk driving on November. 19, 2016. Janiskee also shared that WOOD-TV was on the way to interview Prosecutor Forsyth… questioning whether Kuiper had been given preferential treatment…”
ADDITIONAL WITNESSES
The report shows Internal Affairs investigators made contact with at least two witnesses who noted Kuiper was visibly drunk the night of the crash. One woman, whose name was redacted from the report, stated “that she could smell alcohol on Kuiper’s breath and she could tell he was under the influence of something by how he was acting.”
Another witness was apparently present in the immediate aftermath of the crash. He told an investigating sergeant he wasn’t close enough to smell alcohol, but could tell Kuiper “struggled to formulate sentences.” The report goes on to state the witness watched Kuiper be released and “approached Officer (Adam) Ickes to question him on why Kuiper was not arrested… based on (the witnesses’) original observations that Kuiper was intoxicated.”
The witness said Ickes, the first officer on the scene, told him Kuiper passed the sobriety tests. Kuiper was never given a breathalyzer test.
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