KENT COUNTY. --A former assistant prosecutor in Kent County has been sentenced to jail on a Reckless Driving charge after a crash that injured another person in November 2016.
Joshua Kuiper was sentenced to 3 days in jail, with credit for 1 day already served, in Kent County Circuit Court Wednesday. He will also be on probation for 3 months, be required to do 40 hours of community service as well as attend one of the county's victim impact panels.
Kuiper was sentenced on a charge stemming from a November 2016 crash that happened in Grand Rapids. Investigators say that Kuiper was drunk when he drove the wrong way down Union Avenue when he hit a parked car. Daniel Empson had been reaching into the vehicle for a jacket at that time and was injured.
Kuiper was not given a breathalyzer test at the scene and three members of the Grand Rapids Police Department were disciplined for their response to the incident. One of them ended up being fired.
Judge J. Joseph Rossi spoke briefly about the unique situation Kuiper was in during sentencing Wednesday. He said, while Kuiper did not request special treatment during his police interaction, he was inevitably treated differently than other residents would have been.
Kuiper resigned from the Kent County Prosecutor's Office after the crash.
