Once a nimrod, always a nimrod.
Yesterday, Barry County Judge Michael Schipper once again thumbed his nose at the Michigan Court of Appeals; this time in the resentencing of Scott Handley. The Court of Appeals explicitly told Schipper to resentence within guidelines and he refused.
This marks the third such blatant defiance in less than a year.
That’s not just pattern; it’s Schipper’s intentionally broken system.
A Quick Recap
Back in April 2025, Schipper resentenced a defendant to 396 days in jail plus two years of house arrest, when the sentencing guidelines and the Court of Appeals put the cap at six months. Even worse, the Appeals Court explicitly barred Schipper from handling the resentencing after it found he already had overstepped its guidelines…twice.
…And yet, he ignored them all.
This is not one rare lapse demonstrating Schipper’s belief that he is somehow above the law. In March, Judge Schipper handed down a six‑month jail sentence and probation to a 19‑year‑old involved in a fatal 2023 accident; the same charges Handley was facing, proving he cannot do his job at all evenly.
The third such example is his handling of Timothy Riddle’s case; Barry County “institutionalized” him by making him into a juvenile lifer and then blamed him for it.
More recently, we saw his courtroom “shell game”, canceling hearings with zero notice, leaving defendants, attorneys, and supporters out in the cold.
That’s not due process; that’s blatant obstruction and doubling down on his terrible decisions.
It’s also a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars to even bother with a Pre-Sentencing Investigation Report when Judge Schipper is just going to ignore the law anyway.
Let’s be clear: A judge who brazenly rejects higher-court orders, manipulates schedules to derail transparency, and disregards sentencing guidelines isn’t just a bad actor. He’s a liability to justice itself.
Denying Alcoholism as a Disease
Schipper is the least educated man in Barry County I’m fairly certain. He was callous enough to claim that “alcoholism isn’t a real disease.”
You are not a medical doctor, Schipper. I wouldn’t trust you to properly apply a bandaid at this point because I doubt you would follow the directions on the box.
Because yes, it is a real medical condition.
Something must be done:
- He cannot be trusted to respect the rule of law.
- He disrupts public confidence in the judicial system.
- And he refuses to follow appeals court rulings, time and again.
Judge Schipper’s pattern of defiance strikes at the heart of fair justice. It’s time for citizens and legal leaders to demand he be replaced with someone who honors the law, not subverts it.
There is no mercy in his courtroom; just willful ignorance.
Sadly, judges cannot be recalled in Michigan; a legislative issue that desperately needs a ballot initiative to be changed.
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