NILES — Three area men who resisted arrest after police were called were sentenced Monday at the Berrien County Circuit Courthouse on Front Street.

A fourth man was sentenced for identity fraud. A fifth was sentenced for home invasion and capturing and distributing a photo of someone unclothed.

Lowell Rodney Benson, 60, who is homeless, was arrested in Niles and charged with disturbing the peace and assaulting, resisting, obstructing and opposing a Niles police officer. Benson was sentenced to 12 to 24 months in a Michigan state prison.

An officer was called to downtown Niles on April 12 after the police department received calls about a man, Benson, creating disturbances. The officer removed him from the area near Fifth Third Bank on Broadway, advising him not to return.

Benson went on to cause disturbances at other downtown locations, Nuggett Downtown Grill and United Federal Credit Union. Swanson found Benson on the 200 block of N. Second Street and told him to leave again. Benson, whom the officer said seemed intoxicated, began to swear at the officer.

Swanson then arrested the man, but Benson resisted, going deadweight and fighting back. Even when officers successfully arrested him and brought him to be booked, Benson continued to swear.

At the sentencing, Benson apologized for his actions and claimed he had no recollection of the events.

Circuit court Judge Charles LaSata said he did not believe Lowell’s apology, noting that there were three warrants for his arrest in three other states.

“You demonstrate an inability to function and exist in this society,” he said.

In other sentencings:

• Nicholas Gerald Baldwin, 40, of Benton Harbor, was sentenced to 12 to 24 months in prison. He was charged with possession of methamphetamine and fleeing a police officer.

At 4:45 p.m. March 9, an officer in Buchanan Township noticed a vehicle in the private parking lot of Lake Chapin Bank. The officer, familiar with the organization’s staff and the cars there, was not familiar with the lone car parked just past two signs indicating private property.

When the officer approached the vehicle, Baldwin, who was in the passenger seat, ran into the woods around the bank, throwing out items from his pockets. The officer pursued him for about 100 yards until he tasered the man, subduing him.

When the officer ran the man’s license, he found Baldwin had a valid warrant. He was a habitual offender, having been charged with manslaughter, assault, escape, marijuana possession and breaking and entering.

When officers went back to the forest to see what the man dropped, they found a methamphetamine pipe with charring and suspected residue. Baldwin admitted to using methamphetamine and admitted to having some with him. He said he ran from police because of his meth possession and warrant.

“Prison is not the place for me,” said Baldwin at the sentencing.

“Then why do you keep committing crimes?” LaSata said. “If you don’t want to go to prison, don’t commit crimes.”

The driver of the vehicle Baldwin ran from was only given a 10-day citation because she cooperated with police.

• Michael Myers, 31, of Niles, was sentenced to 12 to 16 months in prison for identity theft and false certification.

Officers had pulled over Myers for traffic violations three times between December 2018 and March 2019.

It was after the third citation when police discovered that Myers’ license was fraudulently obtained at the Niles Secretary of State.

The driver’s license contained Myers’ photo but the information of resident Chad Michael Duncan. Duncan had given Myers permission to use the fake ID, providing Myers with his birth certificate and Social Security number to give to Secretary of State staff.

Myers had a suspended license due to unpaid citations from 2015.

Both Duncan and Myers’ wife, Heather, are considered co-conspirators in the case. Heather told police during a December 2018 traffic stop that her husband, who was driving, was Duncan.

• Anthony Jay Overman, 33, of Michigan City, Indiana, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for fleeing a police officer. He has already served 64 days.

On Jan. 14, the Niles Police department dispatched an officer to Rural King on S. 11th Street. Staff thought Overman was attempting to steal the tools and clothing he had placed in a shopping cart.

When the responding officer arrived, staff said that Overman had left his cart of items in the store and was in the parking lot. The officer found Overman and signaled him to pull over. Overman shook his head and sped off onto S. 11th Street without stopping.

Because Overman was driving southbound in the northbound lanes at a high speed without stopping at red lights, the officer did not follow. Instead, the department ran the man’s vehicle, found he was from Michigan City and alerted the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department, who apprehended Overman.

LaSata said that Overman had eight charges pending in Indiana. The judge said he thought Overman was moving from one state to another whenever a warrant for his arrest was released.

• Shantay Wade, of Niles, was sentenced to 12 to 16 months in prison for third-degree home invasion and capturing and distributing a photo of an unclothed person.

Wade broke into his former girlfriend’s home while she and her current boyfriend were sleeping. He took a photo of the two and then texted the photo to the woman after he had left. In the photo, the woman was partially undressed.

LaSata said it was one of the worst forms of domestic intimidation he had seen in his 15 years as a judge.

“It’s about as bad as an intimidation as I’ve seen,” he said.