Man pleads guilty in buggy crash that killed 3 children Ex-Missouri state trooper in drowning case sues for license

A 29-year-old central Michigan man has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the deaths of three children following a collision between their horse-drawn buggy and a pickup truck.

Brandon King pleaded guilty in a Montcalm County court on Tuesday — the same day he was charged — to misdemeanor moving violation charges.

He faces up to a year in jail for the most serious counts. Sentencing hasn’t been scheduled.

Prosecutor Andrea Krause tells The Grand Rapids Press the charging decision was based on evidence and conversations with the family.

Authorities say the children and their Mennonite family were going to worship services Oct. 29 when a truck crashed into their buggy near Sheridan. Three children were pronounced dead at the scene. The parents and four other children were injured

A former Missouri state trooper who was driving a boat when a handcuffed Iowa man fell out and drowned is suing to get his peace officers’ license back.

Anthony Piercy filed a lawsuit this week against the Missouri Department of Public Safety and the agency’s director. The Kansas City Star reports he’s asking for a reversal of the decision that revoked his license.

Piercy was sentenced in September for misdemeanor negligent operation of a vehicle after the drowning of 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson, of Clive, Iow. Clive died in 2014 at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Piercy lost his patrol job. But earlier this summer, a Cole County judge ruled that the patrol’s leader didn’t have the authority to fire Piercy.

Piercy cannot return to the patrol without his peace officer license.