Court Roundup: Suspects in Bloomfield Township Larceny and Retail Fraud Cases Move to Circuit Court

Bloomfield larceny suspect headed to trial

A Waterford man charged with stealing jewelry from a Bloomfield Township office building was bound over Tuesday for trial, court records show.

Kenneth Russell Karst, 54, will face one count of larceny from a building at a pretrial hearing Thursday in Oakland County Circuit Court. Judge Michael Warren ordered Karst to stand trial as charged following the preliminary hearing in 48th District Court in Bloomfield Township.

Karst is accused of taking the jewelry from an office in the 1700 block of Telegraph Road at about 3 p.m. June 27 and was arrested a short time later by officers who traced his vehicle to a residence in Pontiac, police reports said. Officers found the stolen property.

Emily Long, Karst's attorney, declined to discuss details of the case but indicated that the defense will contest the charges in court.

Karst has a separate criminal case pending on charges of malicious destruction of property, stemming from a Jan. 27 incident in Pontiac. Long also represents Karst in that case and declined comment, other than to say the case was remanded to District Court for further evidentiary hearings.

Karst was free on bond at the time of his most recent arrest. He remains in custody at the Oakland County Jail on $200,000 bond, jail records show.

Women face pretrial hearings stemming from shoplifting incident

Two women facing criminal charges in connection with a retail fraud incident, during which a Bloomfield Township shopper was injured, will face a judge in Oakland County Circuit Court this week.

Brenda Benton and Susan Bell, both of Pontiac, formally waived their rights to preliminary hearings last week in 48th District Court, records show. Each is scheduled to appear Tuesday before Circuit Judge Leo Bowman on charges stemming from the July 3 incident at .

Bell, 45, is charged with leaving the scene of an injury accident; driving with a suspended license; marijuana possession; and having open intoxicants in a motor vehicle, records show. She remains in custody at the Oakland County Jail on $10,000 bond.

Benton, 48, faces one count of felony retail fraud. She also remains in on $50,000 bond, jail records show.

Police reports said the pair tried to speed away from a parking lot as store security tried to confront Bell about shoplifting a television just before 5 p.m.

Benton left the television in a shopping cart and jumped into the vehicle, driven by Bell, which began to back out with the passenger side door still open, police reports said. The door struck a woman in the parking lot and knocked her to the ground, the reports said.

The woman suffered a broken wrist and multiple bruises and abrasions and was treated and released from a local hospital, reports said.

Officers responding to the scene located the suspect’s vehicle and arrested both women without incident a short time later, reports said. Public defenders were appointed.

For questions about this report, email Art.Aisner@Patch.com.