Not guilty of Peeping Tom charges
By GARY A. SCHLUETER
Sentinel-Standard writer
IONIA - Jeffrey Dean Bridinger is not a 'Peeping Tom' and he has a
jury's decision to back that up.
In the State of Michigan versus Bridinger, which concluded last
Thursday, Bridinger was found not guilty of 'Peeping Tom' charges
from an incident last January at the Belleview Place Apartment
Complex south of Ionia.
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was accused of
something he didn't do," said wife Ruby Bridinger.
The maintenance man for the apartment complex was initially charged
with two misdemeanors: trespassing for the purpose of eavesdropping
and willful or malicious destruction of a building.
"I am very pleased that the jury found my client, Jeff Bridinger, not
guilty on the trespassing for the purpose of eavesdropping charges.
Since his arrest in this case, Mr. Bridinger has been portrayed in
the press as a 'Peeping Tom,' which has made this an even more
difficult time for my client and his family," said Bridinger's
attorney, Betsy Miller, in a press release.
Ruby Bridinger feels the public had already convicted her husband
before the case came to court.
"He's been trying to get a job, but people look at him as though he's
some kind of sex predator, but he's not," she said.
Court records show that a tenant named Ann Boley was in her apartment
at Belleview when she noticed a hole in the wall about the size of a
pencil eraser.
She admitted she was "not sure" if the hole was big enough to see
through, but she called public safety anyway.
When the police arrived, Boley showed them two holes in the wall. The
police looked into the vacant apartment next door.
When asked in court whether he saw anything unusual in that
apartment, the officer said, "Absolutely. A hole in the wall."
Terri Ferguson, a representative of Belleview Apartments, established
that management had difficulty removing the former tenant in the
apartment next door to Boley.
When it was eventually vacant Bridinger, as the maintenance man,
received a request from management to patch holes, 64-A District
Court records show.
The record states there was no indication he made entrance into the
victim's apartment other than the screw holes through the wall.
While Bridinger is innocent of trespassing for the purpose of
eavesdropping, the jury found him guilty of willful or malicious
destruction of a building.
"I am very disappointed that the jury returned a guilty verdict on
the misdemeanor destruction of property charge. At trial, I believe
the evidence clearly showed that Mr. Bridinger was simply doing his
job as the maintenance man for the apartment complex by repairing an
existing hole in the wall of one of the apartments," said Miller.
Earlier in the year the apartment complex's management company
confirmed that a maintenance person had been fired over the incident.
At the time, they did not make his name public.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:17 CST