Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Sentence deferred for Hurley man

HURLEY — A 46-year-old Hurley resident received a deferred sentence in Iron County Court Wednesday on a charge that dates to 2001.

John Kallas entered a no contest plea to exposing intimate body parts, a misdemeanor, following a plea agreement between his attorney, Richard Gondik Jr., and acting Iron County District Attorney Fritz Schellgell.

After one year, there will be a court hearing and if all conditions of the agreement are met, the charge will be amended to disorderly conduct, Schellgell said. A $443 forfeiture to the court will be due in one year.

Schellgell said there had been “several bouts of negotiations” in the case, which at one time had been scheduled for a jury trial Wednesday on a felony count of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13.

Schellgell said the exposing charge, now considered a felony, was a Class A misdemeanor in 2001 and that takes precedence.

The original charge that was dismissed was filed on March 24, 2015, according to court records.

Judge Ann Knox-Bauer told Kallas she did not have to accept the plea agreement and could sentence Kallas to nine months in jail and fine him $10,000. She said she found a factual basis to accept the plea agreement, however, and issued a finding of guilty on the exposing charge.

The alleged victim did not attend the sentencing hearing.

—Ralph Ansami

 
 
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