Our Former Historic District Commission Chair Has Pled Guilty

As most of you know, I’m a lawyer. But my practice experience is limited to commercial, employment, and municipal law, including litigation. I am neither a prosecutor nor a criminal defense attorney. I invite anyone more knowledgeable than me to correct anything I’m about to say in the comments at the end of this post.

I’ve attached a couple of documents regarding the case, but if you click through to read them, you’ll notice some redactions (blacking out). Those redactions were mine. Even though the documents are public and you can order an unredacted copy for yourself, I chose to remove the name and identifying information of the family involved because I think they’ve been through enough. I’ve also redacted James Meloche’s street address.

As I’m sure many of you are aware, our former Historic District Commission chair James Meloche was charged with crimes involving “child sexually abusive activity” after city manager Jonathan Smith found disturbing images the morning after an HDC meeting in a folder left in the city’s conference room. Smith immediately notified the Oakland County Sheriff, and the rest is local history.

Though Smith discovered the images in October 2023, Meloche was not arrested and charged until April 2025. The Clarkston News wrote a story on the Meloche arraignment, but a simple internet search will return more news stories regarding the arrest and charges.

I’ve attached a copy of the criminal complaint here. Meloche was charged with nine counts of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime. Counts 1, 3, and 5 are identical (child sexually abusive activity) except for the dates involved of the alleged crimes, as are counts 2, 4, and 6 (using computers to commit a crime). Counts 7-9 (possessing of child sexually abusive material) are identical, and if I had to guess, counts 7-9 were related to each of the three pairs of complaint claims (1-2, 3-4, and 5-6). When you read the complaint as a whole, you’re left with the impression that Meloche, a man in his 80s, will die in prison if the charges are proven.

When someone is charged with a criminal offense, they stand to lose their property, freedom, and in some cases, their lives. That’s why the law requires the prosecutor prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. My favorite law school example of this was the English common law definition of burglary, which required the breaking and entering into the dwelling of another at night with the intent to commit a felony therein. So, the crime of burglary involves a lot of elements: a breaking, an entering, nighttime, dwelling house, another person, intent, and the commission of a felony crime inside the house. Everything is defined from there by case law. For example, what is a breaking? Surprise! You don’t have to break a window. Walking through an open door could qualify. Smash a window in a garage and steal something? Doesn’t qualify because it’s not a dwelling. Commit the crime one minute after sunrise? Not a burglary because the crime wasn’t committed at night. Even though lawyers and judges are the only people who actually read them, all criminal statutes are published to give us all fair notice of what a crime is – and what it is not.

The criminal complaint in Meloche’s case focuses on MCL 750.145c, MCL 759.145c(2)(a) (I think this was a typo, because this statute number doesn’t exist and it’s not included in the case summary available online), MCL 752.796, and MCL 752.797. You can see all the activity in Meloche’s case by searching for his name on the Oakland County Circuit Court website. The criminal case number is 2025-295203-FH.

Michigan criminal procedure follows a standard process, and that’s what happened here. The charges were originally heard in district court, but since the case involved a felony, it was transferred to the Oakland County circuit court for trial. For me, the most interesting part of the case is the preliminary exam. That’s where the prosecutor has to put up or shut up and convince the judge that there is sufficient evidence to try this defendant for the crimes the prosecutor claims were committed. The defendant isn’t required to present any evidence or testimony at this hearing but is allowed the opportunity to poke holes in the prosecutor’s case. Meloche’s preliminary exam was held on September 25, 2025, and I’ve attached the transcript here. The prosecutor offered photos, a video of the city hall conference room, and the testimony of the children’s father, two Oakland County sheriffs, and city manager Jonathan Smith.

My criminal procedure professor was a former criminal defense attorney. I remember three things he shared with us (in addition to all the criminal procedure things we needed to know for the exam). One was his old business card that contained a picture of a stork with a cloth tied around its beak along with the caption, “if you don’t talk, you’ll probably walk.” The second was a three-part admonition warning us not to get emotionally involved in cases and to remind us that defendants who lose aren’t exactly excited about paying their legal bills: “1. Get the money up front. 2. Your client goes to jail, not you. 3. Get the money up front.” And lastly: “Every defendant is entitled to a speedy trial. No defendant actually wants one.”

That last one applies here. The Register of Actions on the Oakland County website for this case shows there were lot of delays. The original trial was scheduled for April 6 of this year but was later moved to June 15. The final pretrial conference was held on June 11. There is a notation on that date that states “Plea GAC,” which means Meloche pled guilty. There is no option to order a transcript online at the moment, so it’s not clear what the plea entailed.

And here comes the part that’s all personal opinion formed in my lawyer brain since all this happened.

I have always wondered about the strength of the prosecutor’s case, and the preliminary hearing didn’t resolve those concerns even though the judge determined the evidence was sufficient to go to trial. Essentially, Meloche was accused of creating disgusting images that involved combining pieces of non-pornographic children’s photos with adult pornographic images and adding his own captions. He didn’t download or purchase child porn. He didn’t sell his photoshopped images. He didn’t intend to distribute the images – they were in his personal meeting folder that he apparently accidentally left at city hall where Smith discovered them (imagine starting your work day that way 🤬), and Meloche tried to reclaim the folder the next morning. The images of the children were regular childhood photos that were voluntarily posted on social media by their mother. Meloche created the images and kept them on his computer and in his house. No one would have seen them but for his mistake in picking up a folder for an HDC meeting and mistakenly leaving it at the city offices after the  meeting.

It took a long time to charge Meloche. If it was a slam dunk, why did it take so long? Perhaps because the prosecutor was trying to make the facts fit within a criminal statute because, as I mentioned above, there has to be a statute specifically describing the crime and the prosecutor has to prove each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors are elected, so they’re not immune to public criticism – what would the blowback be if Meloche wasn’t charged with something? The headlines at election time write themselves.

I’ve always believed Meloche would be convicted by a jury because any group of average people would want to punish this type of disgusting conduct. But things are not as emotionally charged in the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court. These courts aren’t going to disturb a jury’s factual conclusions, but they will set aside convictions where the facts don’t fit the elements of the statute. I’ve always wondered whether Meloche would be able to get any conviction reversed on appeal because the facts are so strange. I’m sure the lawyers at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office wondered the same thing.

Plea deals fix a lot of things. The prosecutor gets to record a conviction and doesn’t have to worry about losing at trial or on appeal. The defendant gets a better deal than he might have if he went through the trial process and can avoid all the legal bills involved in trial and appeal.

Both the prosecutor and defendant have to agree on a plea deal. Consider why both sides might be motivated to do that.

I’m saying all this to urge you to temper your expectations about the sentence Meloche will actually receive. Even though the criminal complaint charged crimes that could result in 132 years of prison time and $390,000 in fines, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that any plea deal was limited to some or all of the following: probation, community service, child sex offender status, mandatory counseling, computer/social media restrictions, and perhaps a fine, in consideration of Meloche’s age, previous criminal record (or lack thereof), and relative risk to the community. And if that’s what eventually happens, I suspect it’s because the criminal statutes we have don’t fit the facts as well as the prosecutor might have liked – not because the prosecutor believed that what Meloche did wasn’t revolting.

But who knows? I’ve never practiced criminal law, there’s no current option to purchase a transcript of the plea, and I don’t have a crystal ball to know what the judge will do at the sentencing hearing. I’m not arguing this is the right result, and if I were the parents of the children involved, I would want to see Meloche spend whatever is left of his life in prison. You have to be a truly sick person to do what he did, and I will never understand the mind of someone who would commit any crime involving children.

The record reflects Meloche’s current date for sentencing as August 13, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. This proceeding will be open to the public, so you are free to go to Martha Anderson’s courtroom at 1200 North Telegraph Road in Pontiac. It probably won’t be the only proceeding scheduled for that date and time so you may have to wait. If you’re interested in attending, double-check the case entries on the Oakland County circuit court’s website to make sure that the date hasn’t been changed before you travel to court.