By Jim Newell

Review Editor

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

Sliwinski entered the plea on Wednesday 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.

(See the March 28 print edition of The Lake Orion Review for updates to this story.)

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

Barnett said he thinks the township board has little recourse because of the misdemeanor charge. “There’s nothing the township board can do,” he said.

Barnett added that only one person from the public has attended 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 action.

Sliwinski, 40, of Orion Township, was arrested and then booked at 1:17 p.m. Jan. 30. He was arraigned 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 step down from the board.

“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.

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. Sliwinski resigned from the district in June 2017.

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.