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January 29, 2010

More charges for ex-court referee

Mikko allegedly had explicit images on his computer

BY ART BUKOWSKI

TRAVERSE CITY -- A former 13th Circuit Court official faces a fresh round of felony charges for explicit images police said they found in his e-mail and on his county-issued computer.

Dennis Mikko was arrested in September and charged with five felony counts of possession of child sexually abusive material. Authorities on Thursday charged him with four additional counts of child sexually abusive materials and a felony count of using a computer to commit a crime.

Mikko from 1997 until his August resignation served as a family division referee for the court. He handled custody matters in divorces with minor children in Grand Traverse, Antrim and Leelanau counties, along with child abuse and juvenile offender cases in Grand Traverse County only.

The initial charges stemmed from nude pictures of underage girls allegedly found in a briefcase under his desk at the Robert P. Griffin Hall of Justice. The new charges involve pictures found on Mikko's county-issued laptop computer, Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Al Schneider said.

"It was further review of the results of forensic testing of the computer," he said. "The original charges were based solely on print materials."

Court records indicate a Grand Traverse sheriff's detective searched the computer and allegedly found images in Mikko's e-mail account and in a separate folder on the computer.

Mikko was bound over for trial on the initial charges after a preliminary examination in October, and his trial for those charges is set for March. The new charges could be wrapped into those proceedings or treated as a new case, Schneider said.

Mikko is out on bond, and is expected to be arraigned on the new charges today. His defense attorney, Craig Elhart, said the new charges are based on information the prosecution had all along, not items uncovered in further investigation.

"We had a very good defense, and I think that they believe that by heaping more charges on, some of them will stick," he said.

Elhart isn't fazed by the new round of charges.

"I am as confident today as I was when these charges were first filed that Dennis Mikko is not guilty of anything," he said.

Authorities obtained a warrant to search Mikko's home and office in August after receiving a tip that Mikko allegedly engaged in conversations about sex acts with a person who identified themselves as a 14-year-old male on the Internet social networking site MySpace, police reports indicate.

His case is being handled by a visiting judge after his former bosses, 13th Circuit Judges Thomas Power and Philip E. Rodgers, recused themselves.

Related Stories:
- Judge: Mikko evidence seizure was legal
- New judge to oversee Mikko trial
- Former court referee to stand trial
- Child porn suspect had various court duties
- Petition seeks to lock up porn suspect
- Editorial: Red flags in family court
- Judges select new court referee
- Mikko allegedly had 'collage' of teen girls
- Ex-referee is charged for nude photos
- Mikko suspected of 'child exploitation'
- Circuit court referee resigns
- Referee may resign amid investigation

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