Court: Man still has to pay restitution in Monroe County case

MONROE — Michigan's Court of Appeals says its too late for a man to challenge a $70,000 restitution order after he violated probation in a 2014 Monroe County case.

A three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled that it does not have jurisdiction over the restitution order on Michael Winston Dulong because the time limit to appeal it has passed. In his appeal, Dulong argued that Monroe County Circuit Judge Michael S. White’s order in 2022 revoking and terminating his probation also canceled the restitution order.

Dulong, 34, originally pleaded no contest in 2014 in Monroe County Circuit Court to one count of breaking and entering a vehicle causing damage, according to the opinion issued Nov. 21. He was sentenced to one year in jail, placed on probation for five years and ordered to pay $70,493 in restitution for the value of stolen guns, jewelry, collectibles, tools and equipment, and household, electronic and automotive items. Then, in 2022, he pleaded guilty in Wayne County to one count of receiving or concealing stolen property. He also pleaded guilty in Monroe County to violating his probation in the 2014 case, according to online court records and the appellate opinion.

Over the years, Dulong made several small restitution payments and also served some short jail sentences for probation violations in the 2014 case, according to online court records.

After the probation violation, White sentenced Dulong to 20 to 60 months in prison and revoked and terminated probation “without full improvement or full settlement,” the Appeals Court’s ruling by Judges Christopher M. Murray, Thomas C. Cameron and Sima G. Patel said. White set a date for payment of fines, fines and court costs but did not mention restitution.

After Dulong was sentenced on the probation violation, he applied to the Court of Appeals to appeal the restitution order. A panel of Judges Noah P. Hood, Murray and Michael J. Riordan in a 2-1 ruling granted Dulong’s application to appeal. Riordan would have denied the application.

According to the ruling by Murray, Cameron and Patel, the time limit to challenge the restitution order ran out six months after entry of the circuit court’s order or within 42 days of the appointment or denial of appellate counsel if the defendant requested appellate counsel within six months of the order.

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“Defendant’s challenges in this appeal all pertain to the 2014 restitution order,” the opinion states. “Although this Court granted defendant’s November 7, 2022 application for leave to appeal, this Court did not have discretion to grant leave because the application was not timely filed.”

“Defendant argues that this Court has jurisdiction to consider his challenges to the 2014 restitution order because ‘the restitution order is a subordinate part of the underlying judgment of sentence.’ We disagree,” the opinion says. “Defendant’s new criminal conduct occasioned revisiting his status as a probationer or prisoner, but had no bearing on the issue of restitution. Defendant remains responsible to fulfill the order of restitution from his 2014 sentence; that facet of his sentence was not obviated or supplanted by the 2022 sentence for his probation violation.”

In the Wayne County case, Dulong was sentenced to two years on probation, according to online court records.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Court: Man still has to pay restitution in Monroe County case