Former U.P. Prison Employee Charged With Felony

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced that his Criminal Division has filed a felony charge against a former Aramark supervisor employed at Kinross Correctional Facility for allegedly soliciting an inmate to help orchestrate the assault of another inmate. Schuette charged Michael R. Young, 27, of Kincheloe, with one count of Solicitation to Commit Assault with Intent to Cause Great Bodily Harm, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The case was jointly referred to the Department of Attorney General by the Chippewa County Prosecutor’s office and the Michigan State Police (MSP).

“If you try to take the law into your own hands to exact revenge, there will be consequences,” said Schuette. “Criminal charges in this case are the result of a thorough and exhaustive investigation. I want to thank the Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan State Police and the Chippewa County Prosecutor’s office for their help and hard work on this case.”
Background on the Case

Young was employed by Aramark at Kinross Correctional Facility in Chippewa County. In 2014, a Kinross inmate allegedly reported to the Michigan Department of Corrections that he was solicited by Young to find an inmate to assault another inmate incarcerated at a different correctional facility. Young allegedly told the inmate that the target inmate was serving a sentence for the murder of one of Young’s relatives and provided the inmate with details like the name and prisoner number of the target inmate. It is alleged that Young offered tobacco products to the inmate in return for recruiting an inmate at the other facility to carry out the proposed assault. At the joint request of the Chippewa County Prosecutor’s office and MSP, Schuette’s Criminal Division conducted an extensive investigation into the allegations with collaboration from MSP and the Michigan Department of Corrections.

On May 19, 2015, Schuette’s Criminal Division filed the following criminal charge against Michael R. Young in Chippewa County’s 91st District Court in Sault Ste. Marie:

One count of Solicitation to Commit Assault with Intent to Cause Great Bodily Harm, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Young was apprehended by authorities in Kincheloe on May 19, 2015 and will be arraigned in Chippewa County’s 91st District Court in Sault Ste. Marie at 11 a.m. Young was assigned a $50,000 cash bond and is currently being held in the Chippewa County jail.

A criminal charge is merely an accusation and all defendants in this case are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.