This is the copy of the file I found in the case Oakland County was basically forced to file against Chris Busch in the wake of the interviews of Greg Greene and Busch in Flint the last week of January 1977. The origin of the document is unknown; it was not provided in the FOIA documents Jessica Cooper provided first to reporter Kevin Dietz, then to the Detroit Free Press, and then ultimately (after clearly waiving their bullshit exemptions by providing to the media), to my Dad. This is a copy of the case brought against Busch on behalf of victim Ken Bowman.
I say “forced to file” because there was no way around it. Greene had been arrested in Flint on January 25, 1977, for criminal sexual contact with a number of boys from the baseball team this monster coached. He tossed Busch’s name as a suspect in the murder of Mark Stebbins. Greene went on to say some disturbing and incriminating things, including the fact that he and Busch had victimized Bowman in Oakland County and that Bowman was aware that Busch “had killed a boy.” So the police then interviewed young Ken Bowman. This resulted in the arrest of Chris Busch in Alma, Michigan.
Interviews with Busch resulted in charges being brought against him in Flint, Midland and Montmorency Counties, involving victims Bowman and Vince Gunnels. The gravy train started up for attorney Jane Burgess. Oakland County was the last county to file against Busch. No one in Oakland County even investigated Busch’s claims that he also found victims through his participation in the Big Brother program. Nope. It was just this case and we all know that in spite of charges being brought in four different counties, this freak got probation every single time.
This file is not a part of the FOIA documents I have previously posted. But here it is now. And of course the OCP didn’t willingly hand this over to us. I also discovered all of the pleadings filed in the case against Jessica Cooper after she denied my Dad’s FOIA request and the courts backed her:
All of that time and money, and Cooper subsequently provides a couple hundred documents to the media as a “fuck you” to our family. And then offloads the rest of the real file in the OCCK to Sheriff Mike Bouchard to evade FOIA requirements going forward. Oakland County is, was, and may always be, the dirtiest county in Michigan. They just continue to ignore and slow walk so that soon everyone who touched the Busch files is dead.
Cathy, I say this repeatedly, but I don’t know how the victims’ families don’t go insane. So I don’t understand the legal system and statute of limitations, but if it was proven that Busch was involved, could the families sue Oakland County/State of Michigan? I knew Busch was let out right before Tim was taken, but seeing it all again along with Thompson checking out his file the day after he was kidnapped is quite telling.
What a punch to the gut. Bastards one and all.
It is one thing for these dirty bastards to have done what they did. It is quite another for these motherfuckers to double-down and continue to obstruct decades later. Clearly trying to avoid a civil suit in addition to preserving their reputations and ability to make money.
I believe you are absolutely correct, that with the passage of time, the passing of victims, their family members, and the perpetrators, that Oakland County officials are hoping that one day third will all fade away. Time may wash away the memories, but the blood of four innocent children will always be a strain. I truly hope that the stories of cover ups and victim shaming continue to haunt those responsible. I would swear in Court that one of the younger men I met with Shelden was Chris Busch. The fact that this monster was caught, and released with nothing more than a slap on the wrist is shameful. Oakland County officials turned away as children suffered. There is a place in Hell for these predators and their enablers.
I cannot think of anything as tragic as this horrific travesty….You are absolutely correct: “There is a place in Hell for these predators and their enablers.” I am sickened that this county and its officials participated in its cover-up and continued to allow for these children to be tortured and killed…
First I’ve heard of Greene having coached a little league team in Flint (sickening). Could he have gotten near Tim’s team? Has any – even slightly – incriminating evidence or suspicion emerged involving adults linked to Tim’s team? I would assume his teammates have been willing to talk to your family. (If I understand correctly, Busch’s brother and Greene’s sister (married) lived 1/4 mile from where I grew up near a playground.)
Doesn’t anybody strike it as odd that GG apparently fingered CB for the death of Mark Stebbins, yet did not say anything about the girls, or did he? When GG was arrested Jan 25th, this was only a couple days after Kristine had been found and a couple weeks after Jill, so that was the “hot” case in those weeks. Mark had been found almost one year ago at this point.
Something even more odd is addressed in my next post. Ask yourself if you think those tip sheets and reports covering the interviews of Busch, Greene and the victim Ken Bowman contain all that was addressed during that most interesting week starting with the arrest of Greene on January 25, 1977.
Sick and disgusting. No words
And Brooks’ investigator Ralph Guerrini checked the file out next after Thompson. I guess Busch must have been engaged in welfare fraud, as that was what Gurerrini’s area of expertise was.
Also, the final entry on 6/1/77, where the assistant prosecutor writes “Spoke with Sgt. Dyer [?] & he agrees with plea & will explain it to victim.” Right. Explain to a kid that even though this fat, disgusting monster sexually assaulted him, and the kid had to come down to Flint PD and tell the story more than once to a bunch of cops and then get grilled by this fuck’s disgusting attorney who tried to humiliate and confuse at every turn, this pig is not going to spend a day in jail, not one day.
He’s just going to jerk off his probation officer and his shrink for a few months. Thanks for playing “This is the System,” especially as a youth.
Good old ‘no deal’ Dick, the amnesiac
Cathy,
1. My eyesight is a little fuzzy, but the initial Bowman complaint against Busch was sworn out on February 25, 1977.
So Oakland County was all over Chris Busch in the first week of March, even though Busch had (supposedly) been cleared in late January because of MSP Ralph Cabot’s polygraph. Yet they agreed to a stipulation that the case be adjourned on March 10. 1977.
Busch’s preliminary examination was held on April 14, 1977, at which time his father posted a total of $9,000 in bail money.
Hmm.
So in early March of 1977, Chris Busch (facing a total on three Bowman charges of 27 years in prison, named not only in court documents as a pedophile, but also in the Traverse City Record-Eagle articles as a participant in the North Fox Islands Ring, a suspect in Flint, who’d been hauled out of the Scotsman Restaurant in Alma and perp-driven back to Flint at the end of January), somehow participated in Tim’s kidnapping?
Maybe. But it doesn’t ring quite right.
Busch may well have been involved in Tim’s nightmarish ordeal at some point, but I doubt he was the kidnapper in the Hunter Maple parking lot. But I bet Busch knew who had done it, and I bet Busch was trying to blackmail someone. We know how that turned out for Busch.
2. What happened to Count III: (“Assault with intent to commit CSC with penetration” a 10 year felony?) It just disappeared from the record. Only Counts I (15 years) and II (2 years) remained. I thought “no deals” meant “no deals”.
Who made Count III go away?
3. Do you think it means anything that Jane Burgess’s firm (“Gage, Burgess and Burgess”) was located on the 29th floor of the Guardian Building? (This is not the first time the Guardian Building has come up in this case.)