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March 26, 2005
Local figure a sex predator
Daniel Adam Thompson has played many roles in the Muskegon area: restaurant and hotel owner, convenience store manager, state-licensed foster parent.
Now local prosecutors have tagged him with a much darker label: sexual predator of children.
Thompson, 52, of 2532 Beech, in Cedar Creek Township's Timberline Estates Mobile Home Community, is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under age 13.
Facing the same charges is Gregory Alan Thompson, 32, of the same address. He's no blood relation to Daniel Thompson. He's his former foster child, who is now described as Daniel Thompson's domestic partner.
The Thompsons are accused of sexually assaulting a young boy who lived with them for more than a year.
The boy was left with the Thompsons not by the foster care system, but by his mother. She allowed her son, who had "behavioral issues," to live with the two men because she knew Daniel Thompson, and knew he was a former foster parent and mentor to troubled boys, according to police.
Authorities say Daniel and Gregory Thompson bought the then-12-year-old victim and his younger brother gifts, including bicycles and PlayStation games.
Both men allegedly molested the victim, including sexual intercourse, between May 2003 and September 2004 in Egelston Township, according to court papers.
The alleged sexual abuse is part of a pattern of "preying on emotionally disturbed or troubled children who are in their early teens," said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
Tague described Daniel Thompson as "a very aggressive pedophile who used and abused his trust relationships for his sexual gratification."
An investigation by the Muskegon County Sheriff's Department is ongoing and could turn up more victims, he said.
Warrants were issued for the Thompsons "to take them off the streets," Tague said, "but we expect we will interview a variety of people involved in past foster care, or any children they both had access to."
The prosecutor said he expected further charges would be filed.
Preliminary examination for Daniel Thompson is scheduled for Tuesday before 60th District Judge Harold F. Closz III. Bail was set at $200,000 cash or surety at his arraignment on March 15.
Gregory Thompson is currently jailed in Las Vegas, Nev., for a probation violation stemming from eight theft-related convictions connected to the gambling industry, prosecutors said.
Tague said he plans to extradite Gregory Thompson once Las Vegas authorities are finished with their prosecution.
The mother of the boy identified by police as the victim in the sexual assault case contacted authorities Feb. 11 after her son told her he was molested.
Since that time, the boy himself has been charged as a juvenile with a sex offense in Muskegon County's Family Court. The offense involves the alleged touching of a young girl, Tague said.
The boy's attorney, Michael G. Walsh, said his client "adamantly denies any impropriety, and we are prepared to take the matter in front of a jury."
Foster father
From November 1986 through May 13, 1992, Daniel Thompson and his then-wife, Brenda, were foster parents, licensed through the Michigan Department of Social Services, now known as the Michigan Department of Human Services, Tague said.
Gregory Thompson, whose last name formerly was Johnson, became the couple's foster child at age 15 on Nov. 24, 1987, according to Tague. A police report said that Daniel and Brenda Thompson divorced in 1993. That same year, Daniel and Gregory were in business together and Gregory at least by 1994 had changed his last name to Thompson.
Both defendants have told police in the past that their relationship did not begin until the younger man was "of age."
Both also referred to themselves as a "married couple," during past police interviews.
Those past interviews came about because of sexual abuse allegations made against the two men to Muskegon police in 1997 and 2001, records show.
In their case against the two men, prosecutors now are seeking to establish a pattern of sexual abuse that allegedly began during the time Daniel Thompson was a foster parent.
No criminal charges resulted from the 1997 complaint because the statute of limitations had run out by the time the alleged incident was reported, Tague said. Charges were not pursued in the 2001 complaint due to insufficient evidence.
Now, prosecutors hope to use the testimony of at least one former foster child, now in his late 20s, as well as two younger men, to bolster their case against the defendants.
In the current case, the sheriff's department has interviewed the victim's younger brother. He has alleged that he was molested when he visited the home of Daniel and Gregory Thompson, but at this time no criminal charges have been filed.
Daniel Thompson, who lists himself on court paperwork as being employed part-time, has been assigned a public defender, who could not be reached for comment. Daniel Thompson has a prior conviction for filing a false police report in Kalkaska County in 1996, but no history of convictions for sex crimes in Michigan, Tague said.
Gregory Thompson has a prior conviction in Muskegon County for writing three nonsufficient funds checks during a 10-day period.
Business operators
Daniel and Gregory Thompson have owned or managed several businesses in the Muskegon area. Daniel Thompson once managed the EZ Mart in Muskegon Township, and the two men also at one time managed the apartment building at 297 W. Clay in downtown Muskegon, according to prosecutors and police reports.
In 1993, they bought the former Airline and Bruce motels in Muskegon Heights, renaming their venture Willow Tree Inn. The motels were home to low-income tenants, many of whom were on disability. The buildings also had a problem with drugs and prostitution, which the Thompsons vowed to clean up. By Labor Day 1997, when both buildings burned down, the two men no longer owned them.
In 2002, the two men opened two restaurants, called Two Buckaroo's Cafe, on Lakeshore Drive and at Getty Street and Laketon Avenue. The restaurants later closed.
Posted by Nealus at March 26, 2005 03:36 PM
