Jury finds undersheriff not guilty

By ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com

September 12, 2008 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- It took a jury about 45 minutes to find Kalkaska County Undersheriff Bruce Gualtiere not guilty of assaulting his teen stepson.

Gualtiere, 51, stood trial on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in front of 86th District Judge Thomas J. Phillips in Grand Traverse County on Thursday. A six-person jury delivered the verdict at about 3:30 p.m.

Authorities charged Gualtiere following a June 28 incident at his home in Grand Traverse County's Whitewater Township. Police said Gualtiere pushed his stepson, Keith Shepherd, into a garage door.

Gualtiere, a 28-year veteran of the sheriff's department, was on paid suspension since the day after the incident. Kalkaska Sheriff Bill Artress is happy with the verdict, and said Gualtiere is back to work effective immediately.

"My conclusion is the system did work ... they came to the right conclusion," Artress said.

Gualtiere declined comment.

Shepherd, 17, arrived at the home with Jan Gualtiere -- his mother and Gualtiere's wife -- minutes before the alleged assault. He apologized to Bruce Gualtiere for a January incident in which he took a knife to Kalkaska High School, he testified.

Jan Gualtiere is an administrative assistant at the sheriff's department. She and two other sheriff's employees were suspended from the department for their role in hiding the knife incident from their superiors.

Bruce Gualtiere rejected the apology and told Shepherd, who didn't live at the home, to leave. Shepherd stood in an attached garage, but didn't leave. Bruce Gualtiere told the jury Shepherd assumed a "rigid" posture with clenched fists, so he grabbed Shepherd by the shirt and pushed him toward the door.

Bruce Gualtiere said Shepherd resisted and swung at him as he moved him toward the door.

Shepherd was "sarcastic and antagonistic," as he spoke to Bruce Gualtiere during the encounter, Jan Gualtiere testified. She said Bruce Gualtiere isn't prone to violence, and Shepherd is "not well known for telling the truth."

Shepherd told police Gualtiere tried to knee him in the chest at one point during the scuffle, but Bruce Gualtiere denied that in testimony.