Berrien County

BERRIEN COUNTY - The Berrien County prosecutor says it's dangerous for the public, but there's no other choice. So far this year, judges there have allowed more than 340 people to get out of jail early and let dozens of others off with no jail time at all. The reason? There simply isn't enough room in the jail. State law allows the county's chief judge to decide which prisoners should be let out early and which offenders get off without serving any jail time at all because of overcrowding.

STEVENSVILLE, Mich. - Police are naming the two teens who died when their car collided with a semi on I-94 in Berrien County. The Lincoln Charter Township Police Department say police and medics were called to I-94 near the 24-mile marker shortly after 4:30 p.m. Sunday after several 911 calls of a head-on collision. Witnesses said a passenger car traveling west apparently swerved to avoid a piece of tire in the highway and hit a box truck on the right heading in the same direction.

ST. JOSEPH - We still don't know who won Election Day races in Berrien County That's because of a problem after ballots were cast. Late Tuesday night, Berrien County's election computer server crashed in the county clerk's office. That means they have to count the ballots from all 62 precincts by hand. That's what they've been doing all night and into today. Crews have been trying to get another computer but so far haven't been successful. Canvas crews were scheduled to be in St. Joseph at 1 p.m. to pick up the totals, so they had to be done by then.

BERRIEN COUNTY - Berrien County dispatch confirmed that at least two people are injured in an accident on I-94. This occurred near the 17 mile marker around 2 p.m. on Thursday. Dispatch says they do not know the conditions of those who are injured. Stay with WSBT.com for updates as they become available.

BERRIEN COUNTY - The Berrien County law enforcement community is mourning a loss today. Deputy Mike Moore died Wednesday at home surrounded by family after a three-year battle with cancer. Moore worked as a sheriff's deputy for 13 years and was just 35-years-old. A memorial has been set up along Niles Avenue where Moore's visitation will be held and outside the jail where he also worked.   In 2009, he was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer.

BERRIEN COUNTY - A 70-year-old Berrien County masseur has been arrested after one of his clients complained he touched her inappropriately. According to investigators, Johan Albert Abrahams was operating a massage business out of his home in Berrien Springs when a 39-year-old client told police that he began touching her in inappropriate places against her will. She told police that she came forward because of what happened but also to make sure no one else became a victim.

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. - Teenage pregnancy rates in Berrien County are some of the highest in Michigan. And the county has the highest pregnancy rate for black teenagers in the state. That's according to the Berrien County Health Department. WSBT spoke with a local health official and a mother who had a child in her teens. Melissa Hartley will tell you that being a mom is hard enough. She says being a teen mom is even more difficult. “I'm not going to let it happen to my kids,” Hartley said.

UNION PIER, MI - A suspected drug house in Berrien County has been busted. Just before 6:30 Tuesday night, members of the county's Narcotics Unit raided a home in the 15900 block of Goodwin Ave. in Union Pier and found marijuana, prescription pills, suspected cocaine and heroin and other evidence of illegal drug activity. 30-year-old Nicole Buckler and 34-year-old Ronte Smothers were hauled to the Berrien County Jail and charged with maintaining a drug house and possession of marijuana, their second offense for each.

SAWYER, Mich. - A popular Berrien County garden shop and tourist stop was hit by fire on Wednesday, but fortunately, it wasn't big enough to close the business. Fire was spotted in the ceiling of the Sawyer Garden Center around 10:40 a.m., forcing Chikaming Township and Bridgman fire crews into action. Firefighters were able to make quick of the blaze. WSBT has learned it was an electrical fire with small flames and a lot of smoke. An employee says the entire center filled with smoke.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. - Good news on the job front in Berrien County. Whirlpool Corporation announced Monday plans to add at least 180 jobs to its Benton Harbor and St. Joseph facilities. It's part of the company's effort to centralize its refrigeration product development operations. In a news release, the company did not say when the local jobs would be available, although Whirlpool did tell employees at its Evansville, Ind. Refrigeration Product Development Center operations there will close by the end of 2014.

A typical sign of spring has been delayed because of our recent cool weather --- the sight of beautiful butterflies. The butterfly house at the Sarett Nature Center in northern Berrien County is quite a bit less active than normal. There were some butterflies flying around, but the cooler spring weather has slowed their cycle, so many of them haven't fully developed. With temperatures expected to be in the 70s over the next several days, that will change. “This year has been cold,” said Chuck Nelson of the Sarett Nature Center.

BERRIEN COUNTY - A heads up if your commute takes you through Berrien County. Road work began on a stretch of U.S.12, and it could cause some delays for the next few months. Crews will be repaving about a mile-and-a-half of U.S.12 from Red Arrow Highway to the south branch of the Galien River near New Buffalo. The improvements include a new culvert, guardrail and drainage upgrades. Be prepared for single-lane closings, temporary ramp closings and various detours.

Police in Berrien County need your help identifying a man who exposed himself to several people in Buchanan. The photo above is a police sketch of the suspect. Police say he exposed himself to a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old girl at McCoy Creek Park Sunday afternoon   The girls told nearby adults about the encounter.  And later that night, he exposed himself to a 33-year-old woman in downtown Buchanan. Police say he was driving a dark blue Mercury Cougar with a temporary Indiana registration.

STEVENSVILLE, Mich. - Police are naming the two teens who died when their car collided with a semi on I-94 in Berrien County. The Lincoln Charter Township Police Department say police and medics were called to I-94 near the 24-mile marker shortly after 4:30 p.m. Sunday after several 911 calls of a head-on collision. Witnesses said a passenger car traveling west apparently swerved to avoid a piece of tire in the highway and hit a box truck on the right heading in the same direction.

BERRIEN COUNTY - A Berrien County deputy is headed to court this week after she was arrested over the weekend accused of drunk driving. St. Joseph city police say Esther Harden hit a parked car very early Saturday morning and kept going.  An officer arrested her a short distance later. Her blood alcohol was later tested at .11 Harden has been with the Berrien County Sheriff's Department for two years. Sheriff Paul Bailey says she is on administrative leave until her case is handled in court.

Berrien County police say a man accused of shooting and killing a woman very early Friday morning in the 600 block of Madison Street in Benton Harbor has been caught. Isaiah Casnave was captured at the corner of Euclid and Red Arrow Hwy around 8 p.m. Saturday. Police say he was found hiding in the trunk of a vehicle, along with a handgun.   The driver was also taken into custody. Casnave and the victim, Tanita Broyles, had a one-year-old child together. Broyles had three children in total.

Most rivers in the region have flood warnings in place that don't expire until over the weekend or early next week. This means the rivers/creeks/streams/etc. will continue to rise and be higher than normal and flooding in those areas will still be an issue for a longer period of time. This is because all of the rain eventually filters into these basins. While the rain may have stopped, the water takes a while to drain from your yard and travel to these bodies of water. Click here for our Watches and Warnings page.

A new punishment for one of the five teenager convicted in the Niles "sextortion" case from almost two years ago. Martell Miller and four other Niles High School students were accused of secretly taping a girl having sex with one of them and threatening to post the video on Facebook if she didn't have sex with the others. Miller was the only teen in that case not sentenced to prison. He did serve some time in a local jail and was put on three year's probation.   This morning Miller was sentenced in Berrien County court to 100 hours community service for violating that probation.  He was accused of starting a new Facebook account, not staying in touch with his probation officer and not completing counseling.

A group claiming to be a subset of Anonymous hacked Berrien County's website, berriencounty.org. The hack was brought to WSBT's attention just before 9:30 a.m. Saturday. A check at 1:25 p.m. showed it was back to normal. “Hello visitors!” the message read in part. “We are Anonymous X-SecT V3.0, some basement skidz pretending to be l33t haxorz! We [expletive deleted] all day long and we are as ugly as a raccoon! We are the internet elite [expletive deleted] and we hacked the [expletive deleted]

Just how healthy is the county you live in? A new study breaks down nearly every county in the country. The Robert Wood Johnson report released Wednesday looked at 25 factors, including childhood poverty, obesity and smoking rates, as well as social and economic factors, like graduation and crime rates to rank counties. St. Joseph County, Indiana came in average, placing 43rd out of 92 counties. That's the same ranking the county received last year, which has some health providers concerned.