Cousins Charged With Dueling ($30 Dispute)

[matcom]

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It is the new millennium, but in Michigan and Macomb County, 19th century law still applies.

Two Mount Clemens male cousins will be charged with the rarely implemented charge -- "dueling -- engaging in/issuing challenge" under state law -- for a fight Monday afternoon outside their home in which one of them suffered a stab wound to the stomach.

The offense, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, was penned in 1846.

"The 1800s are alive and well in Mount Clemens," quipped Dean Alan, chief of the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office warrants division, which approved the warrant Tuesday. "All we need are the mineral baths."

Alan said he believes it's the first time the charge has been rendered in Macomb, although Sheriff Mark Hackel said he vaguely recalls a possible dueling charge many years ago.

Prosecutor's OK'd the charge because the offenders' actions fit the elements of the crime, Alan said.

"They engaged in a fight with deadly weapons," he said.

The injured man, who is 19 years old and recovering from non-life threatening injuries in Mount Clemens General Hospital, is not cooperating with sheriff's investigators, Hackel said. The uninjured 31-year-old man fled on foot and was still at large late Tuesday afternoon and is on parole for a prior drug conviction, the sheriff said.

Hackel said he wholeheartedly supports the unusual charge. In the incident, the two men who reside in the same home on Walnut Street with other relatives disagreed over a $30 debt. Wielding a knife, the older cousin confronted the younger cousin, who retrieved a knife and accepted the challenge, the sheriff said.

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/092805/loc_duel001.shtml

[matcom]

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