LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. – Livingston County Judge Theresa Brennan has experienced a long fall over the last year. She went from a sitting judge to facing criminal charges, and now she's heading to trial.
The Michigan Attorney General's Office opted to charge Brennan earlier this year with three felony counts as the Judicial Tenure Commission finished its investigation into her conduct. She was charged with misconduct in office, perjury and destroying evidence.
Last spring, Genesee District Court Judge David Guinn held two days of preliminary examination.
"The court finds probable cause the defendant did commit counts one, two and three, and this matter is hereby bound over for circuit court," Guinn said Wednesday.
Brennan notably decided not to remove herself from supervision over her own divorce case, even after the Livingston County chief judge reminded her twice in a week that she needed to sign paperwork.
"This is a no-brainer," Guinn said. "The chief judge has the duty to raise disqualification, and the chief judge did."
Along with the recusal paperwork came an order to preserve evidence.
Guinn said Brennan ordered her court staff to help her figure out how to delete information from her iPhone. She later bought a new one and had the original set back to factory settings, officials said.
"That time was used, in the court's belief, to plot and scheme, trying to figure out what, if anything, to do with the evidence that was being requested," Guinn said.