LANSING, Mich. — Charges have been filed against a township official in a sexual assault case dating back to 2010.
Fabius Township Supervisor Kenneth Dwayne Linn was charged Tuesday with four counts of felony criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, in connection to an incident that allegedly took place in 2010.
Investigators say the Three Rivers resident is accused of sexually assaulting an unnamed woman who was "physically helpless due to extreme intoxication and unable to give consent".
The attorney general's office says she was physically injured during the assault.
Linn was arraigned in Kalamazoo Tuesday, where he was placed on a $100,000 cash or surety bond.
According to online court records, Linn has posted bond and is no longer in lockup.
FOX 17 reached out to him at his township supervisor email address and he responded, directing any requests for comment to his attorney, John McDonough.
McDonough responded to FOX 17, saying that Linn maintains his innocence in the matter.
Linn has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
State officials say a sexual assault nurse exam (SANE) was conducted the day after the alleged incident took place, but the kit wasn’t forwarded to forensics experts with Michigan State Police until late 2014.
It is unclear if the kit was tested at all in 2014.
It was resubmitted to the state crime lab by Portage police in 2016. Again, it is unclear if it was tested at that time.
Kalamazoo County's Sexual Assault Investigation Initiative (SAKI) Team received approval in October 2021 to resubmit the kit to the state crime lab for "additional testing".
Those results eventually lead to the charges against Linn.
When asked about whether or not Linn was named as a suspect by the victim back in 2010, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting told FOX 17, "I think we need to make sure that we let the court process play out here in terms of how the evidence unfolds, and so I don't want to go into details about things that I think will come out during the course of the preliminary examination or subsequent trial."
Getting said there were "lots of reasons" why the test kit may not have been tested at the time.
"And I think it's important to remember that it wasn't this one case, right, and not to single out individual cases here, there were well over 10,000 kits in the state of Michigan."
About a decade ago, tens of thousands of untested sexual assault test kits were discovered in police departments across the state.
The state legislature began distributing funds to local law enforcement in 2016 to begin processing the backlog of kits.
“Too many victims of sexual assault have waited years to see charges filed in their cases,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement Wednesday.
“I am proud to partner with the Kalamazoo County prosecutor on this important work and I am committed to see justice delivered for these victims.”
Linn is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary examination on November 10.
Those with knowledge related to the alleged assault are encouraged to connect with Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Investigator Richard Johnson by calling (269) 569-0515 or by emailing rajohn@kalcounty.com.
