For years, Michigan DOC Training Officer Casey Wagner has set off explosions, detonated airborne devices, and caused documented property damage affecting his neighbor Lois Laroe in Ionia County, Michigan. An ATF agent described Wagner’s conduct in terms that characterized him as someone who behaves without regard for those around him. Despite this characterization and documented harm, Sheriff Charlie Noll, Prosecutor Kyle Butler, and Representative Gina Johnsen have each declined to act — describing Wagner as “a terrible neighbor” while claiming no enforcement options exist. What explains the pattern of official non-response is documented in the structure of Ionia County’s politics: a 2020 Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution and a network of political relationships that this investigation is documenting in a series of deep-dives beginning here.
The Problem That Won’t Go Away
Gunfire. Explosions. Property damage that insurance companies will not cover. This is not a description of a conflict zone overseas — it is the documented daily reality of Lois Laroe, an elderly Ionia County resident who lives next door to Michigan DOC Training Officer Casey Wagner. For nearly five years, Wagner’s conduct has caused Laroe permanent hearing loss and a PTSD diagnosis. Multiple officials with the authority to respond have declined to use it.
Ionia County Sheriff Charlie Noll, Prosecutor Kyle Butler, and Representative Gina Johnsen have all characterized Wagner as a terrible neighbor. None have pursued the enforcement actions that the documented record suggests are available under Michigan law. The claim that nothing can be done and the reality of what can be done are not the same thing — and the gap between them is the subject of this investigation.
The Officials Who Could Act
The Ionia County Sheriff has primary law enforcement jurisdiction over the conduct occurring on Wagner’s property. Sheriff Noll has characterized Wagner as a terrible neighbor while declining to pursue available enforcement options. Clutch Justice’s FOIA investigation into the Sheriff’s office handling of Laroe’s complaints is ongoing.
The Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney has prosecutorial discretion over which complaints are charged. Butler has similarly characterized Wagner as a terrible neighbor while declining to file charges. The documented pattern of conduct — including explosions and detonation of airborne devices near a disabled elderly neighbor — involves conduct that, in other contexts, would be examined under Michigan statutes governing reckless endangerment, nuisance, and disability-based harassment.
Representative Johnsen, whose district includes Ionia County, has declined to assist Laroe. The Clutch Justice investigation documented in prior coverage that a constituent who questioned Johnsen about the Wagner case was warned by a Michigan House Sergeant at Arms — a response that itself raised documented press freedom and constituent service concerns.
Ionia County as a “Second Amendment Sanctuary”: What the Resolution Actually Does
In February 2020, Ionia County became a Second Amendment Sanctuary county — a designation proposed by county attorney Gordon Love and passed by the Board of Commissioners. The resolution directed Sheriff Noll and Prosecutor Butler to prioritize Second Amendment considerations when evaluating enforcement decisions involving firearms. Both the Sheriff and Prosecutor should be legally independent actors; the resolution represents a Board of Commissioners attempting to direct their enforcement priorities.
The resolution’s origin with county attorney Gordon Love is worth examining carefully. Ionia County runs on a historically thin budget — 2025 projected a $10,000 deficit. A county with a high rate of officer-involved shootings faces potential liability exposure in civil negligence claims. If an established policy posture of Second Amendment deference exists, it can be invoked as institutional context in legal proceedings — an “I told you so” that documents the county’s orientation before any individual incident occurred. The resolution thus serves a dual function: as political messaging to constituents about Second Amendment values, and as potential liability management for a cash-strapped county facing claims arising from law enforcement conduct. Neither function is primarily about protecting neighbors from irresponsible firearms use by politically connected individuals.
The resolution does not override Michigan state law. It does not legally prevent the Sheriff or Prosecutor from enforcing applicable statutes when firearms conduct causes documented harm to others. What it does is create a political environment in which enforcement is discouraged — and in which officials can claim, with apparent institutional backing, that nothing can be done, even when the documented legal options suggest otherwise.
An ATF agent characterized Casey Wagner’s conduct using language that described him as someone who behaves without regard for those around him — a characterization attributed to a federal law enforcement official with documented direct knowledge of the conduct in question. That federal characterization exists alongside the local officials’ consistent characterization of Wagner as a terrible neighbor. The convergence of federal and local assessment of Wagner’s conduct, against the backdrop of zero local enforcement action, is the factual core of this investigation.
What the Investigation Will Document
This is the first installment in a series of investigative deep-dives into how Casey Wagner’s conduct has been enabled by the official structure of Ionia County politics, relationships, and fiscal incentives. Subsequent installments will address: the campaign contribution record and which officials received money from entities connected to the Wagner family; the specific Michigan statutes that available enforcement options would invoke and why they have not been applied; the insurance and mortgage company non-response to documented property damage; and the broader pattern of how politically connected individuals in small Michigan counties avoid accountability for conduct that would result in charges against anyone without those connections.
The pattern of inaction documented here is not an accident and it is not an absence of options. It is a system operating as the people running it have chosen to run it. That is precisely what an accountability investigation is designed to document — and that documentation is what follows.
Sources and Documentation
Rita Williams, Conduct Unbecoming: Michigan DOC Officer’s Destructive Behavior Enabled by Ionia County Officials, Clutch Justice (June 22, 2025), https://clutchjustice.com/2025/06/22/conduct-unbecoming-michigan-doc-officer-ionia-county-michigan/.
Williams, R. (2025, June 22). Conduct unbecoming: Michigan DOC officer’s destructive behavior enabled by Ionia County officials. Clutch Justice. https://clutchjustice.com/2025/06/22/conduct-unbecoming-michigan-doc-officer-ionia-county-michigan/
Williams, Rita. “Conduct Unbecoming: Michigan DOC Officer’s Destructive Behavior Enabled by Ionia County Officials.” Clutch Justice, 22 June 2025, clutchjustice.com/2025/06/22/conduct-unbecoming-michigan-doc-officer-ionia-county-michigan/.
Williams, Rita. “Conduct Unbecoming: Michigan DOC Officer’s Destructive Behavior Enabled by Ionia County Officials.” Clutch Justice, June 22, 2025. https://clutchjustice.com/2025/06/22/conduct-unbecoming-michigan-doc-officer-ionia-county-michigan/.
