An Allegan man admitted to a pair of burglaries Monday, March 19, in Allegan County Circuit Court.
Alexander Eddie Ruffing, 29, entered guilty pleas to breaking and entering and attempted breaking and entering in the case.
Ruffing admitted he’d tried breaking into an auto repair shop on Lincoln Road in Allegan Township Sept. 3 in one incident.
“I attempted to break into the shop to commit larceny,” he said.
He also admitted to breaking into a utility trailer on 26th Street, also in Allegan Township, Oct. 21.
As part of a plea agreement, Allegan County prosecutors agreed to drop two counts of breaking and entering against Ruffing and to recommend a pair of concurrent jail sentences and not prison to Judge Roberts Kengis.
Kengis, serving his first day on the bench, accepted the pleas.
Ruffing, his lawyer, Paul Klein, and Allegan County prosecutor Myrene Koch all agreed to waive their right to have Kengis disqualify himself from the case because he’d been Allegan County’s Prosecuting Attorney when it began.
During the Monday plea hearings in circuit court, one out of several defendants took advantage of that right and will have their cases heard by circuit Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker.
Kengis scheduled a sentencing hearing for April 25 in the case, because Ruffing already had a sentencing in a different case set for that day, but said he’d reschedule it if it was difficult for the probation department to complete reports by then.
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