Man with long criminal history arrested on drug charges while squatting in house.

LeClair

Man with long criminal history arrested on drug charges while squatting in house.

AMBER TOWNSHIP — A 59-year-old Ludington man was arrested on drug charges Friday, Oct. 18 by the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. At 11:26 a.m. deputies were called to that location for a report of a subject in a home that did not belong to him. Deputies located the man, Joseph Michael LeClair, inside the home, according to Sheriff Kim Cole and arrested him for possession of Alprazolam and hydrocodone. 

In August, firefighters were called to the unoccupied house for a fire in the house’s unattached garage. 

LeClair has a long history of criminal activity. Some of the most recent have included: 

February, 2019: LeClair, was sentenced in Mason County’s 79th District Court to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to breaking and entering.  

LeClair was arrested on April 5, 2018, by Michigan State Police (MSP) for felonies of second-degree home invasion, larceny in a building and fourth-offense habitual offender and a misdemeanor of malicious destruction of property $200-$1,000. 

In September, 2017, LeClair pleaded guilty September 22 to third-degree retail fraud and was sentenced to 50 days in jail with credit for 50 days served and $16.79 in restitution. A charge of second-degree retail fraud was dismissed.

In June 2017, he pleaded guilty June 6 to possession of marijuana and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

In October 2015, LeClair was sentenced in Mason County’s 51st Circuit Court to serve seven months up front of a one-year discretionary jail sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of resisting and opposing police and fourth-offense habitual offender.  He had been arrested in August 2015 by Mason County Sheriff’s Office and charged with one felony count of carrying a concealed weapon and two felony counts of resisting/opposing/assaulting police. 

In October 2014, he was found guilty Oct. 7 of second-degree retail fraud and was sentenced to two days in jail.

In March 2014, he was arrested by MCSO for a misdemeanor of second-degree retail fraud. 

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