Former Menominee County Sheriff’s Department deputy and school resource officer Brian Helfert, left, is shown at a previous court appearance. (Escanaba Daily Press file photo)

MENOMINEE — Former Menominee County police officer Brian William Helfert lost his appeal to the Menominee Circuit Court, in which he argued that his 9-15 year sentencing for second-degree criminal sexual misconduct should be lowered due to what was, in his view, an incorrect calculation of his Offense Variable score. He also argued that the trial court erred in departing from the minimum sentencing guidelines. Helfert was sentenced in 2024.

In the state of Michigan, an Offense Variable score is a point system used to determine a person’s minimum sentence range.

According to court documents from the State of Michigan Court of Appeals, Helfert was a police officer who worked in various Menominee County schools. During his time there, he sexually abused several teen-aged male students, often in his police uniform and while in possession of his holstered pistol. He would also offer these students gifts and money. One witness in the trial testified that Helfert had sexually abused him an estimated 40 times.

The jury in Helfert’s trial convicted him of Criminal Sexual Misconduct in the second degree, and his minimum sentencing guidelines were calculated at 29-57 months after determining his Offense Variable score at 175, which Helfert successfully argued down to 125. His minimum sentencing guidelines remained the same.

According to court documents, “the trial court then addressed defendant’s repeated and escalating conduct as well as defendant’s use of his police uniform, weapon, and car to cajole students into sexual conduct, and the trial court upwardly departed from the minimum sentencing guidelines range before sentencing defendant” to 9-15 years.

In his recent appeal, Helfert attempted to argue that Offense Variable 7 — aggravated physical abuse — was incorrectly assessed at 50 points. He also attempted to argue that the trial court “erred by departing upwards from the minimum sentencing guidelines range for improper reasons.”

According to court documents, the court of appeals found that the trial court did, in fact, correctly assess Helfert at 50 points under OV 7, under which “A victim was treated with sadism, torture, excessive brutality, or conduct designed to substantially increase the fear and anxiety a victim suffered during the offense.”

“We conclude that when a sworn law enforcement officer, who for years is assigned as a

school safety officer and school resource officer, regularly preys upon an adolescent for about two years when the victim is in high school, and commits multiple acts of sexual abuse, while on school property, in the school building in full uniform and armed with a weapon, in a private place, against the student, all under the guise of helping, mentoring and tutoring the student, this conduct was designed to substantially increase the fear and anxiety of the victim so as to allow this brutal and anxiety-causing conduct to continue,” reads the statement from the Court of Appeals.

“The trial court’s consideration of the facts and OV 7 at sentencing was appropriate, particularly where, as here, defendant’s ‘grooming’ of his victim continued during the offense conduct. Accordingly, we hold that OV 7 was correctly scored by the trial court in this matter.”

Helfert also lost his appeal relating to the trial court’s upward departure from minimum sentencing guidelines.

MCL 769.34(3) states that a sentence may depart from the appropriate sentencing guidelines range if such departure is reasonable and the court states the basis for the departure on the record.

“Defendant engaged in multiple instances of criminal sexual conduct that continued for years,” read the court documents. “The trial court reasonably felt that the offense variables did not give sufficient weight to defendant’s pattern of using his status as a police officer in a school to groom and manipulate students, or the extent of defendant’s abuse of the victims, which is a valid reason for a departure under MCL 769.34(3)(b). Overall, the departure sentence is proportional to the offense and the offender.”

Helfert’s sentencing, therefore, was unchanged.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.