By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Orion Township Trustee Ronald Sliwinski pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault and battery charge on March 21.

Sliwinski entered the plea in Judge Julie Nicholson’s 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills.

While a no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, it is treated as so during sentencing.

Sliwinski’s sentencing date is April 17 before Judge Nicholson.

Township Supervisor Chris Barnett said he is aware of the plea and has contacted the township attorney to see what responsibility the board has in the matter and is awaiting that legal opinion.

Barnett said he believes the township board has little recourse because the plea is to a misdemeanor charge. “There’s nothing the township board can do,” he said.

Barnett added that the township has had only one person attend a board meeting and ask Sliwinski to resign his seat. The township also has not received phone calls, emails or other communications asking for Sliwinksi’s resignation, or for the board to take further action.

Sliwinski, 40, of Orion Township, was arrested and then booked at 1:17 p.m. Jan. 30. He was arraigned in the 52-3 District Court on one count of assault and battery before Magistrate Marie Soma and released on a $2,000 personal bond.

He could face up to 93 days in jail, up to $500 in fines, or both, according to Michigan Penal Code 750.81.

Sliwinski has remained silent on the matter, not addressing it publicly, even when Trustee Mike Flood asked him to resign.

“I feel that, Mr. Ron Sliwinski, the honorable thing to do would be to resign from your seat, to lift this burden off our township board as well as our community,” Flood said at the Feb. 5 board meeting.

Treasurer Donni Steele supported Flood’s request, while other board members chose not to comment on the issue.

“It is my opinion that it is long overdue for the chronically absent, since November of 2017, township board Trustee Ronald Sliwinski to do what he once stated he would do, and that is he should immediately resign from the township board for the greater good and interest of the community as a whole,” said Orion Twp. resident Mary MacMaster.

Sliwinski, a former special education teacher at Lake Orion High School, was accused by a fellow teacher in May 2017 of sexual harassment that reportedly included unwanted physical touching, vulgar gestures and degrading comments.

He resigned his teaching position June 6, 2017, according to Lake Orion Community Schools Superintendent Marion Ginopolis.

In November 2017, an unknown person sent 44 envelopes containing the accusations and email exchanges between Sliwinski and the female teacher to Orion Township Hall staff.

The township board did forward the information to the state attorney general’s office for an opinion and received a response stating that it was local matter and should be addressed by the county police and courts, Barnett said.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit, the Major Crimes and Professional Standards unit of the OCSO, investigated the complaint and turned its results over to the county prosecutor’s office, which then filed charges after review.