Lansing man who fled courthouse in Sept. sentenced

MASON – In September, minutes before Benjamin Conley was to be sentenced for torturing a pit bull that bit his son, he fled the courthouse.

Conley, 34, was at large for about three weeks before turning himself in.

On Wednesday in Ingham County Circuit Court, Judge William Collette admonished Conley for running away, but did not impose a harsher sentence for the torture conviction. He did sentence Conley to 90 days in jail for contempt of court.

In the torture case, Collette sentenced the Lansing man to one year in jail. If Conley pays $866 in court-ordered costs, his sentence will be reduced by 90 days.

Conley was found guilty in August, along with his brother, Nicholas, of torturing their mother's pit bull after it had bitten Conley's 13-year-old son. According to testimony, the dog was hung from the roof of a house, stabbed multiple times and placed in a shallow hole attached by a chain to a cinder block. The dog was later euthanized.

Both brothers were scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 24. Nicholas Conley, 31, was sentenced that day to a year in the county jail, with four months suspended if he paid court-ordered costs. Benjamin Conley, however, fled. His attorney, Kim Savage, said he had learned that day officials were recommending a longer sentence in state prison.

During Wednesday's hearing, Collette expressed dismay at the attention the case received.

Other cases in his court — from murder to a man slashed repeatedly with a knife to a girl who was raped — didn't generate the outcry he'd heard regarding the Conleys' case.

"I got phone calls from people in Saskatchewan demanding to talk to me about a dog that they knew nothing about," he said.

"That little girl who was raped — her family treated her worse than the guy who raped her," he added. "And I didn't hear about that."

Collette said when the size of the county jail was being reduced, few people attended the public meetings.

"But when they cut the size of Animal Control...they had an army show up," he said. "The priorities of this society are sadly, sadly bent."