Clare County men charged in tree-removal fraud scheme take plea deals; could face prison time

Chad A. Michalski, left, and James M. Paulick

SAGINAW, MI The sentences for two men charged with a criminal enterprise of defrauding tree-removal customers will depend on how much they can pay back their victims by this time next month.

Chad A. Michalski and James M. Paulick appeared before Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Monday, Dec. 15, and accepted plea agreements in their cases.

Michalski, 33, and Paulick, 36, pleaded guilty to obtaining between $1,000 and $20,000 through false pretenses.

Prosecutors added the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, as part of the plea agreement. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors will drop an initial charge of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

After Cobbs hearings, Borchard indicated he will hand down a minimum sentence for the 33-year-old Michalski within his state sentencing guidelines, scored at 10 months to three years and 10 months. He'll do the same for the 36-year-old Paulick, whose guidelines were scored at one year to four years.

Borchard will determine the exact length of the sentences on how much restitution the men have paid by their Jan. 21 sentencing date, court records show.

With the defendants' guidelines extending past one year, Borchard could sentence them to prison. Both men acknowledged their fourth-or-subsequent-time habitual offender statuses, which increases the possible maximum for the false pretenses charge to life in prison with parole.

Prosecutors filed the criminal enterprise charge based on a police investigation that determined they committed seven counts of a misdemeanor charge of obtaining between $200 and $1,0000 through false pretenses from May 2012 to February 2014 in multiple townships in Saginaw County.

Their arrest warrants listed seven false pretense misdemeanors police allege one or more of the men committed at locations in Saginaw, Tittabawassee, Thomas and Richland townships.

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Clare County men charged in tree-removal fraud scheme take plea deals; could face prison time