By Jim Bloch
“I just spent Mother’s Day without my child,” said Sandy Schultz, addressing the Port Huron City Council at its regular meeting May 13. “Can you imagine how you would feel if you were me yesterday?”
Schultz’s son Josh Conant died outside the Roche Bar in the early morning hours of Nov. 4 after being held down by bouncers and handcuffed by a Port Huron police officer.
The Port Huron Police Department cleared itself and its officer in an internal investigation soon after Conant’s death. The department handed the case off to the state police and the Michigan attorney general’s office.
No formal conclusions or reports have been released from either agency.
“My son was – we’re going to say the word – killed in the city of Port Huron on a dirty sidewalk, face down and handcuffed,” said Schultz, who has addressed council a number of times since November. “What are you guys doing as a council? …What are you doing for justice in the city of Port Huron? Not just for Josh Conant, because our family is about the whole community. Not just justice for Joshua or my family, but the citizens of Port Huron. I personally have called the attorney general’s office today and asked who has called on behalf of Joshua. Because I have been told over six months that you guys have called, have reached out. I said your names. She said, Nope, that person hasn’t called. Nope, that person hasn’t called. One person was John Sanderson, Joshua’s grandpa. Yes, he called. So I know she’s looking.”
Schultz spoke during the public comment portion of the agenda, during which citizens have the opportunity to address the council for up to four minutes.
“My son is a respected person and he was murdered,” Schultz said. “You need to do something for the city of Port Huron. You have a problem. You have a problem.”
The audience applauded.
Normally, neither administrators nor council members address the people making public comments.
But City Manager James Freed responded to Schultz.
“As for Joshua Conant, when the incident occurred, the community demanded that a third-party independent investigation be done,” said Freed. “We handed over the investigation to the Michigan State Police and to the attorney general’s office. I have reached out to them requesting an update. They tell us nothing. And rightfully so. When you are part of an investigation and subject of an investigation, you are not included on updates. They are not going to tell what they are doing, what they’re looking at. They have walled off our agency to insure that an impartial and fair investigation is completed. I’m sorry I have no information to give you… We are equally as frustrated as the family is. I believe you deserve to have answers by now. It is shocking to me that it has taken this long. It is frustrating to all of us… I truly hope you get answers soon. And the community deserves it, I think.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
