Michigan Man Gets Prison Time in Dirty Socks Case

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A southeast Michigan man was ordered to prison for up to 7½ years Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraud charges for collecting $2,800 for a backpack stuffed with dirty socks he tried to pass off as a pound of marijuana.

Michael Rafael Suarez, 33, of Ypsilanti, pleaded guilty to a reduced felony fraud charge last month in the bizarre Lenawee County case. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed an unarmed robbery charge, the Adrian Daily Telegram reports.

Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone initially handed down a one-year county jail sentence, but Suarez said he wanted to go to prison instead. His court-appointed public defender, John Glaser, told the judge Suarez thinks he will have greater access to a rehabilitation program in prison than in the county jail.

Anzalone cautioned Suarez there was no guarantee he would be released after serving only the one-year minimum, but Suarez said he would take his chances.

“I’ve done a year in jail before, and when I get out I do the same things,” Suarez said. “Something’s got to change, and this is it.”

Suarez was arrested July 8 with a Ypsilanti couple he said he tricked into driving him to a mobile home park in Raisin Township after a friend had arranged for a drug deal, according to court records.

“I didn’t bring any weed,” Suarez said during his plea bargain hearing. “I brought a bag of dirty socks.”

After accepting the cash, Suarez and the couple sped away from the mobile home park, only to be stopped by Raisin Township police when they ran a stop sign. During the traffic stop, a man drove up and told the officer the three had just robbed his girlfriend of $2,800, according to court records.

On Aug. 5, the other two individuals in the car – Joshua Wayne Cope, 37, and Rebecca Sue Sharp, 34 – pleaded guilty to attempted possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

They are free on personal bond and are awaiting sentencing.

Trying to pass off the dirty socks as marijuana was enough to buy Suarez a fraud charge, his lawyer said.

It’s unclear if the woman who got stuck with the dirty socks was charged, but the $2,800 is subject to civil forfeiture, according Raisin Township Police Chief Kevin Grayer.

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Photo via Shutterstock