DETROIT, MI – A 41-year-old man was arrested after police found his pregnant girlfriend with 60 percent burns all over her body.
Initially, he was released after posting a $5,000 bond, but thankfully the courts caught the error and rearrested him on a much higher bond.
Detroit man accused of setting pregnant girlfriend on fire released on bond https://t.co/4vuwRpYoKK pic.twitter.com/beXvoxRXDt
— New York Post (@nypost) January 23, 2022
The incident started after Detroit Police received a tip that a woman was being held against her will in a residence on January 14th. When police arrived at the home, they discovered the woman lying on a bed, barely able to move.
As medics were called to assist the woman, officers learned that she was 27 weeks pregnant with twins. The unidentified victim allegedly informed officers that she had been tortured and burned by her boyfriend, Devonne Marsh.
The woman claimed that she and Marsh got into an argument when he became enraged. She alleged that Marsh soaked her in lighter fluid then set her on fire.
Detroit Police Commander Michael McGinnis spoke about the case and his disgust for Marsh’s alleged actions. He said:
“How do you do this to another human being? It’s unimaginable. Just incredibly traumatic injuries. I just can’t imagine the pain she must be suffering.”
The Detroit Police Department arrested Marsh and charged him with kidnapping, aggravated felonious assault, and violation of the controlled substance act.
When they took Marsh to the county jail, despite his lengthy criminal record, he was assigned only a $50,000 bond which meant he only had to pay $5,000 to get out of jail.
“Convicted drug dealer Devonne Marsh allegedly doused his 26-year-old girlfriend with lighter fluid and ignited her on fire after the pair had an argument
The woman, who was 27 weeks pregnant with twins, suffered burns to 60 percent of her body…” https://t.co/Z6IcuKJiHX
— Dan Lyman (@realdanlyman) January 24, 2022
Shortly after his arrest, Marsh contacted a bondsman and paid the company $5,000 (10 percent) of the $50,000 bond and was released.
However, as soon as he was released, Marsh was immediately arrested by the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office on probation violation charges and is being held on a no-bond status.
After Marsh was taken into custody for the probation violation, Wayne County prosecutors filed a motion to increase the initial bond amount for the new charges of setting his pregnant girlfriend on fire. This time, the prosecutor’s office was able to get the original bond increased to $750,000. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy released a statement addressing the case:
“A judge must look at each case critically and make an informed decision. We are thankful that Judge King looked at the totality of the circumstances of the facts the defendant’s background and history.”
Marsh’s background and history are significant as he is a violent convicted felon according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. Marsh had an active warrant for his arrest for a probation violation as he was considered absconded from the Macomb/Mount Clemens Office as of March of 2020.
Before that, Marsh had pled guilty in the Macomb County Circuit Court to four counts of delivering over 50 grams of cocaine in 2019. Instead of being sentenced to prison, he was given two years of probation.
Detroit man accused of setting pregnant girlfriend on fire released on 10% bond! #Detroit “Devonne Marsh posted a $5,000 bond and walked out of jail in #WayneCounty , MI on Friday after being arrested two days! #DevonneMarsh #Insanity https://t.co/giP7dXtIdq
— Irish Today (@irish_today) January 23, 2022
Michigan Corrections records show that Marsh also has served time in prison for various charges, including possession of a controlled substance, weapons/felony firearms, and assault with a deadly weapon.
He also had an active arrest warrant out of the Livonia Police Department at the time of his arrest.
All of the investigative reports from the Detroit Police Department had not been submitted when Marsh was first taken into custody. She said that after those reports were presented in front of the judge, the bond was increased.
The Public Defender who is assigned to Marsh’s case is calling foul and saying the increase in the bond was “prejudicial.” The defender claimed the bond was only increased due to media attention on the case and should be reinstated to the original bond.
That request was denied and the charges against Marsh were elevated to assault with intent to murder, delivery or manufacturing of a controlled substance, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, domestic violence, assault of a pregnant individual, felonious assault, two counts of felony firearm, and three counts of a felon in possession.
The victim, in this case, is still in the hospital, listed in critical condition. It is unknown if the injuries she sustained allegedly by Marsh will cause her to lose the twins she is carrying.
Michigan judge exposed for berating 72-year-old cancer patient over “shameful” condition of yard
On that day, Burhan Chowdhury, 72, made a Zoom appearance in court after receiving a citation last May for not keeping up his yard.
The judge, Alexis G. Krot went off on Chowdhury, as if he had murdered someone, berating him for the condition of his yard. Now Krot is apologizing for her outburst.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Krot said during the court appearance. “Have you seen that photo? That is shameful!”
Continuing to browbeat Chowdhury, Krot said, “If I could give you jail time on this, I would. This is totally inappropriate!”
That type of unhinged behavior would be bad enough, but there’s more to the story—Chowdhury suffers from lymphoma, a type of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes and weakens the body significantly, his son Shibbir told CNN.
Shibbir appeared with his father during the Zoom hearing because the elder doesn’t speak a great deal of English, he said.
Video of Krot’s act went viral, and many who saw it on social media were livid about how she treated the man afflicted with cancer. That led Krot to apologize in a letter posted to the court’s website on Tuesday.
“I apologize to the person who appeared before me and to our entire community for having failed to meet the high standards we expect of our judicial officers and that I expect of myself,” Krot said.
“When someone appears before me and has made a mistake, I expect them to own up to it,” she wrote. “I expect nothing less of myself.”
Krot also noted that she had self-reported the incident to the Judicial Tenure Commission.
“I had no legal duty to report myself to the Commission, but I did so because, like apologizing to the community, it was the right thing to do. I will continue to hold myself to the standards I set for others.”
Shibbir told CNN that prior to his father’s cancer diagnosis three years ago, he along with his parents would work on the yard together. While Shibbir was overseas in Bangladesh, his mother had an accident, injuring her back, which left nobody to do the yard work while he was out of the country.
Upon his return to the U.S., Shibbir cleaned up the yard himself.
“My father was trying to explain that he was sick and he had cancer, but [he was] feeling shame,” he said. “We didn’t expect she could tell us like this. Maybe she could have told us more respectfully or maybe like, normally how people speak,” he said referring to Krot.
Although he wasn’t sure, Shibbir said he believes a neighbor had filed a complaint with the city.
He said if that in fact is what happened, he wishes the neighbor had reached out and spoken to him about the yard before involving the authorities.
Seizing on the incident, Michigan State Rep. Abraham Aiyash spoke out about it at a city council meeting last week.
He said the incident reminded him of an incident when he went to court with his parents who spoke English as a second language, and who were likely mistreated the same as Chowdhury was.
“Remorse is seen through deed, and that’s what we want to see,” he said. “Will there be a change in action? Will there by a change in conduct moving forward?”
Aiyash has spoken to the Chowdhury family, and is in the process of putting together a formal complaint to the Tenure Commission, an independent state agency which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct and/or incapacity, as well as recommending discipline of judicial officials to the Michigan Supreme Court.
“We would expect any of our elected officials in Hamtramck to treat people with dignity and respect and in the event that they’re not, we will hold them accountable,” the state rep said.
“What you saw over the last week and a half that surfaced from, particularly, Hamtramck community members is a reaction to pain.
“These are people who have felt and seen and experienced mistreatment and are sort of voicing their outrage from their own personal experience,” he continued.
“So many of us feel sympathy for Mr. Chowdhury, but for a lot of people, this just brings back flashbacks to their own experience and this moment opened up the eyes of a lot of folks who said enough is enough.”
The mayor of Hamtramck, Amer Ghalib also spoke out about the incident about a week after the city council meeting, telling the community it was “inhumane to stay silent in this case.”
“My personal opinion is the treatment that Mr. Chowdhury received was inappropriate, unacceptable, and unbecoming of the court,” he said. “Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. In this country no one should be afraid of elected officials.”
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