625-pound bomb threat suspect tells police to come get him, or drop the charges

Jeffery Allan KleinKent County Jail 

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A 625-pound man accused of a two-year-old bomb threat has told police and the courts exactly where he is 24 hours a day, but because of his size and myriad medical issues, he has yet to be arrested and brought to the Kent County Circuit Court to face justice.

Now after months of back and forth between the courts, the Kent County Jail and prosecutors, Jeffery Allan Klein and his attorney have said authorities either need to figure out how to safely arrest him or drop the case.

Klein, 44, is accused of calling 911 and reporting there was a bomb at the Cedar Springs Mobile Estates, set to go off in four hours, on Aug. 25, 2012.

Police and mobile home park staff were able to determine the threat was fake and Klein was soon charged with calling in a false bomb threat.

But when Klein showed up at Kent County District Court on Sept. 5, 2012, he fell ill outside the courthouse and had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

Klein showed up at Kent County District Court twice in the weeks after the incident and both times had to be taken from the courthouse via ambulance after suffering from apparent medical issues.

Related: Bomb threat suspect weighing 625 pounds is logistical problem for Grand Rapids court

Since 2012, Klein has missed numerous hearings in Kent County Circuit Court before Judge Dennis Leiber. This led to the court issuing a warrant for Klein’s arrest.

Klein now lives in southeast Grand Rapids and has written Leiber, claiming that he cannot leave his home to come to court. Klein includes what appear to be notations from doctors alleging a variety of obesity-related ailments including diabetes, back pain and COPD.

“I am in my own jail,” Klein wrote in a July letter to Leiber. “My life is no joke. My medical issues are real. I’m begging the court to dismiss this case at this time.”

Instead, Leiber ordered Klein last month to figure out how to get to court or face arrest.

Klein’s attorney, Damion Nunzio, sent information to the court, the jail and the fugitive taskforce telling them where to find his client at a home near Hall Street SE and Fuller Avenue.

But Nunzio also warned them of his client’s multiple medical issues and warned that the removal of the man from his home and his incarceration could be costly to the county and dangerous to the suspect.

Nunzio said the authorities have failed to move the case forward and the case should be dimissed.

The Kent County Prosecutor’s office sees things differently.

“(Nunzio’s letter) is a statement that in essence says ‘Here I am but if you try to get me, it may kill me,’” Chief Appellate Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Timothy McMorrow wrote in brief to the court. “The letter is more a warning than an invitation.”

“The other possibility, of course, is that the defendant is bamboozling everyone including the court, the prosecution and is own attorney and isn’t as sick as he claims to be,” McMorrow wrote. “But it can hardly be reasonable for an arresting agency to take that chance…”

McMorrow said the party thwarting due process in this case is not the police, who have been warned they would be jeopardizing the defendant’s life by arresting him, but on the part of the defendant who may be seeking to avoid answering for his crimes.

“It doesn’t merit dismissal of a case where any delay in arrest is due to the defendant’s representation of his own medical conditions,” McMorrow wrote.

Leiber has scheduled a hearing Friday, Sept. 26 where it is expected a decision will be made as to how to resolve this two-year old case.

Klein is charged with making a false bomb threat, a crime that typically carries a four-year maximum prison penalty. But because he would have four felony convictions on his record, Klein would face a maximum of 15 years in prison as a habitual offender.

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5