Admitted drug dealer convicted on resisting, battery charges
By Ruth Ann Krause Post-Tribune correspondent October 11, 2012 4:40PM
Updated: November 13, 2012 6:29AM
A Lake Superior Court jury convicted an admitted drug dealer of misdemeanor charges of resisting law enforcement and battery on law enforcement.
Jurors returned the verdict Thursday for Mark Kresich, who faces six months to three years on each charge.
In July, Kresich, 46, pleaded guilty without the benefit of a plea agreement to dealing in a controlled substance, a class B felony punishable by a sentence of six to 20 years. Those charges were from the same arrest.
Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. scheduled an Oct. 24 sentencing hearing.
Evidence presented at Kresich’s trial showed he grabbed onto the steering wheel and didn’t comply with an officer’s command to put up his hands on May 19, 2010.
Moments after Kresich sold 18 narcotic pills to a confidential informant, Lake Station police moved to arrest him as he and the informant sat in his car in a fast-food restaurant parking lot.
When another officer put his hand on Kresich’s arm to pull him from the car, Kresich grabbed the officer’s hand.
Deputy prosecutors Angela Mattozzi and Monica Rogina argued the officers acted properly and in accordance with their training for arrests in such situations.
Rogina said after Kresich was pulled from the car, he put his right arm underneath his body to avoid being handcuffed.
Mattozzi said Kresich is attempting to benefit financially from a civil lawsuit he has filed against Lake Station.
Defense attorney Samuel Cappas said officers involved in the case went too far and he argued his client was merely acting reflexively to what was being done by him.
After the arrest, Kresich was having trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital.
Cappas held up a photo of Kresich taken at the hospital that showed he had a black eye and other bruises on his shoulder, abdomen and arm.
