When Local Officials Won’t Protect You: Help Lois Laroe Hold Ionia County Michigan Officials Accountable

The Ongoing Conduct — Now Documented on Video

The incidents continue. On July 4, 2025, and again on July 6, 2025 — described in documentation as coming home long enough to shoot and leaving — Wagner engaged in additional explosive and shooting activity on his property. Video documentation of both incidents has been captured and is referenced in this coverage. These are not isolated events. Clutch Justice has now documented an escalating pattern across multiple weeks of this investigation.

July 4, 2025 — Documented explosive activity on Wagner’s property, Ionia County, Michigan

July 6, 2025 — Additional documented shooting activity

The Ordinance Officials Are Refusing to Enforce

Ionia Township has a disorderly conduct ordinance on the books. The ordinance is documented, publicly available, and applicable to the conduct described in this investigation. Sheriff Charlie Noll and Prosecutor Kyle Butler have not enforced it. The available documentation — including photographic records of communications with the officials — shows that neither Noll nor Butler has read the township ordinances that Laroe’s situation implicates, and both are declining to apply them.

What “Refusing to Enforce” Looks Like in Practice

When law enforcement calls for help produce excuses rather than responses, the resulting harm is not abstract. In Laroe’s case, it is documented: permanent hearing loss. A PTSD diagnosis. Thousands of dollars in property damage. A home environment that Clutch Justice’s subsequent reporting documented as being deemed unsafe for social worker visits — meaning Laroe cannot receive in-home services she needs because the environment Wagner’s conduct has created poses a documented health risk to visitors.

Lois Is Not Alone — And Is Fighting Back

Laroe has engaged two significant advocacy organizations. The ACLU of Michigan has been contacted and is in communication with Laroe. Disability Rights Michigan — the state’s designated protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities, which has legal authority to investigate and address rights violations affecting people with disabilities — has also been engaged. Laroe’s documented hearing loss and PTSD constitute disabilities under applicable state and federal law, making her situation directly within Disability Rights Michigan’s mandate.

Sign the Petition

A Change.org petition calling on Ionia County officials and the Michigan Department of Corrections to investigate and act on Wagner’s documented conduct is now live. The petition calls specifically for investigation and enforcement action against Wagner for reckless endangerment and harassment; for Ionia County officials to stop using the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution as a justification for inaction; for equal application of the law regardless of the subject’s employment or political connections; and for accountability for Laroe’s documented harm.

Why This Case Matters Beyond Ionia County

The documented pattern in the Laroe case — an elderly disabled woman calling for help, officials acknowledging the problem while declining to enforce applicable law, and a network of institutional relationships that insulates the person causing harm from accountability — is not specific to Ionia County. It is the documented outcome when small-county institutional protection operates across professional and political lines without external accountability mechanisms. The ACLU’s involvement, Disability Rights Michigan’s engagement, and the public petition represent the external accountability mechanisms that the internal official channels have declined to provide. The investigation continues. The world is watching.