NILES — A Niles woman with 20 prior convictions in Michigan and Indiana was sent back behind bars Monday.

Jodi Christine Kalin, 41, was sentenced by Berrien County Trial Court Judge Charles LaSata at the Niles Courthouse, 1205 Front St. She will serve 16 to 24 months in prison, with credit for no days served, and pay $198 in fines for two counts of resisting arrest. She will also serve 30 days in a penal institution and pay $68 in fines for tampering with an electronic device.

The device was Kalin’s GPS parole tether from the Michigan Department of Corrections. On Sept. 23, she cut off the bracelet and placed it in the trash.

Kalin could not be found until Oct. 13, when an officer stopped a vehicle with a broken light. Kalin was the passenger. 

Once in custody, she began bashing her head against the police car interior, according to a police report. After officers took her out, she began to yell and scream.

In jail, Kalin continued to be uncooperative, the report said. She kicked and grabbed at officers, and they had to carry her to her cell.

“You’re just difficult to work with on parole and probation,” LaSata said. “Combative, uncooperative.”

Robert Clifton Tucker, 41, of Buchanan, was also sentenced due to a parole violation.

He was sentenced to 12 to 24 months in prison with credit for no days served and $198 in fines for fleeing arrest and operating with a suspended license while on parole.

Tucker was pulled over by an officer off of S. 11th St. in Niles. He could not provide his vehicle’s insurance, and he admitted to having a suspended license.

When Tucker was asked to step out of the vehicle, he left instead, taking his vehicle at a high rate of speed down Bond Street to Bell Road. Shortly after, he stopped for the officers again, who then arrested him.

LaSata said he and court departments thought hard about Tucker’s eventual sentencing. While Tucker has prior convictions and absconded parole, the nature of the crimes ranked “three to four” on a scale of 10, LaSata said.

The judge noted that in the case of parole violations, most of the public expects the offender is sent to prison again.

Two other Berrien County residents were also sentenced Monday during trial court:

• Sherry Suzanne Dunn, 63, of Berrien Center, was sentenced to 120 days in jail, with three days credit; five years of probation; and $18,128 in restitution and fines for embezzlement involving a vulnerable adult.

The sentencing came after a jury found her guilty earlier this fall.

Dunn and her husband, George, wrote multiple checks totaling thousands of dollars to themselves on an 86-year-old man’s bank account. George was granted power of attorney prior by the man.

Adult Protective Services began approaching the Dunns and their victim in February, after the elderly man noticed his account began accumulating overdraft charges.

LaSata called Dunn and her husband “rotten,” “parasites” and “leeches” that “shattered” a man’s American Dream. The situation was made worse, he said, because Dunn had not worked in more than two decades, using Social Security checks and embezzlement to make ends meet.

As part of her probation, Dunn will need to work a 30-hour job, complete 200 hours of community service and be unable to contact any felons, including her husband.

• Chad Monroe Swank, 41, of New Buffalo, was sentenced to two years of probation and $1,130 in fines for a controlled substance violation.

On Oct. 13, Swank was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by an officer in Buchanan Township. The driver, Heather Dyres, told the officer she had a syringe in her purse.

Between her purse and the center console of the vehicle, seven syringes and two bottles that tested positive for methamphetamine were found.

Swank admitted to using amphetamine, and Dyres admitted to using meth.