Roger A. Broadstone awaits sentencing on June 15, 2022.

STANDISH, MI — Afraid his former colleagues in law enforcement would take away his cherished guns, an ex-cop rigged his Arenac County home with a booby trap, hoping to kill five officers.

Severing a gas line to his house, he filled the structure with propane. With a bundle of matches tied via fishing line to an exterior door, the plan seemed to be for entering police to strike the matches and cause an explosion.

The plan failed, as the house did not detonate and no officers were killed or seriously injured.

His plan having backfired, the man is heading to prison — where he once worked as a corrections officer — and has forever forfeited his right to legally own guns.

Now contrite, the man said his brazen crime has cost him everything.

“I lost my wife. I lost my house of 29 years. I lost all my assets. I lost my family and my freedom, all in one night,” said 68-year-old Roger A. Broadstone at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, June 15.

Broadstone’s attack on police came just weeks after he attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that turned into an insurrection in which more than 100 police officers were injured as they defended the U.S. Capitol from violent crowds.

Having committed his crime on Jan. 20, 2021, Broadstone in April pleaded no contest to three of the 17 counts he faced, those being assault with intent to cause great bodily harm less than murder, felon in possession of ammunition, and assaulting resisting or obstructing police. The first charge is the most serious, being a 10-year felony.

In exchange, the prosecution dismissed the remaining 14 counts, including five counts of attempted murder, a life offense.

Arenac County District Judge David C. Riffel on Wednesday sentenced Broadstone to 41 months to 10 years in prison, plus concurrent counts of 23 months to five years and flat one-year. Riffel gave him credit for 511 days already served and ordered he pay $1,944 in fines and costs.

Before the judge handed down his sentence, defense attorney Duane L. Hadley said Broadstone is a hometown boy with a myriad of health issues.

“At the present time, he’s just kind of an old, whipped man. He’s tired,” Hadley said.

Given his chance to speak, the shackled Broadstone said he’s had time to reflect on his actions on Jan. 20, 2021.

“Certainly, I’m not proud,” he said. “I’m rather disgusted with myself about it. I think I could have handled things much differently.”

He apologized to the court and to the police he nearly killed.

Roger A. Broadstone sits with defense attorney Duane L. Hadley during a sentencing hearing in Arenac County Circuit Court on June 15, 2022.

“To those I put in harm’s way,” he continued, “I know what it is to be a police officer; I was one. Just to put those people in harm’s way, I’d like to apologize for that, your Honor. I’m sorry.”

Broadstone said at the time of his crime, many things were going wrong in his personal life. His wife of 49 years was divorcing him and medication he was taking was not working properly.

“I was confused,” he said. “I’m not a bad person. I just was making some very bad decisions that night. I’m a responsible adult. I’m a good citizen. I allowed my emotions from my personal circumstances to affect my judgment.”

He said that after he serves his time behind bars, he hopes to spend time with family and help feed the poor, saying he’s volunteered in the past and found it rewarding.

Arenac County Prosecutor Curtis G. Broughton said it’s fortunate no one was killed by Broadstone’s acts.

“That was a bad night and luckily he wasn’t hurt severely or [were] any of the officers that responded,” Broughton said. “Whether the booby trap or not would have worked, I don’t know. They discovered it beforehand, so we’ll never know.”

Judge Riffel said he was surprised to learn Broadstone had worked for the Michigan Department of Corrections and has a college education.

“It’s pretty clear that you have or had mental health issues,” Riffel told Broadstone. “It’s unfortunate that there was a combination of factors causing him to act in such a way.”

In a May preliminary examination, Michigan State Police troopers testified they went to Broadstone’s Twining home on Jan. 20, 2021, as part of an investigation into credit card fraud regarding purchases made from a West Branch Walmart.

Investigators developed Broadstone as a suspect and went to his home to question him.

Three troopers and two Arenac County Sheriff’s deputies tried serving a search warrant on Broadstone’s house after the suspect refused to come out. They forced their way in despite being blocked by a sofa Broadstone was using as a barricade.

As they entered the house, Trooper Adam Whited heard Broadstone say, “I could have taken you all out,” he testified.

Whited testified Broadstone was in his basement and appeared to be barricading the door to it.

Police exited the house and radioed for the MSP Emergency Support Team to respond. At some point, Broadstone exited through a basement window and was arrested after resisting officers, Whited said.

Officers detected an “overwhelming odor of propane gas coming from the residence,” Whited said. They also found a crossbow with its bolt ready to fire, .30-06 ammunition, and a booby trap set up at the basement door, Whited said.

“The way this was set up was a fishing line from the exterior door to a group of matches that had been secured together,” Whited said. “It appeared that the intention was that if the door was opened, the matches would strike. The box of matches was placed above that, so once the matches were struck it would then light the box of matches sitting above it on fire and this device was all placed above a gas line that had actually been cut, which is where the propane was coming from.”

Roger A. Broadstone at a Bay County Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 14, 2020.

“As I was making entry, I heard Mr. Broadstone yell to me, ‘Bang, you’re dead,’” added Trooper Brian Grezeszak. “As we were walking around the house … we could hear the propane rushing through the line into the house.”

After Broadstone crawled out of his basement window, he began fighting with police, prompting Grezeszak to try stunning him with his Taser. Broadstone grabbed the Taser and injured another trooper’s hand in the fracas, Grezeszak said.

MSP Trooper Richard C. Kearns, a member of the Third District Emergency Support Team, said he used his ballistic shield to push Broadstone to the ground as he fought.

“After I hit him with my shield, Mr. Broadstone was able to grab the backside of my helmet, which pulled my helmet down and pushed my chin to my chest, which was effectively choking me at that point,” Kearns said.

Kearns tossed his shield aside and repeatedly punched Broadstone in his head, he said.

Broadstone also attempted to grab a rifle Kearns had slung across his chest, the trooper testified.

The original credit card fraud case stemmed from a Merritt woman alleging her card information was used to buy $1,500 in merchandise from Walmart. Broadstone picked up the merchandise and was captured doing so by surveillance cameras, police have said. Broadstone did not know the woman whose card had been used.

Broadstone had been conversing online with a woman in Spain, who had obtained the Merritt woman’s card information and made the Walmart purchase, then asked Broadstone to pick up and ship the items to her, defense attorney Duane L. Hadley previously said.

In Ogemaw County, Broadstone ended up pleading no contest to illegal use of a financial device. A judge in May sentenced Broadstone to 12 months in jail with credit for 484 days already served and ordered he pay $2,081.47 in fines.

Broadstone in January 2020 attended a Bay County Board of Commissioners meeting, in which he voiced his support for Bay City becoming a “Second Amendment sanctuary city” and shared his fears of law enforcement coming to seize citizens’ firearms.

“Somebody tells me I’m crazy … but then they will come out to your house and they’re gonna come with a SWAT team,” Broadstone said at the meeting. “They’re not gonna come, knock on your door, and say, ‘Please, give me your gun.’ They are gonna come in force. … they go up against a normal citizen that is alone in the house that has no way of protecting himself at all and they will either take the gun or kill that person.”

Though Broadstone attended the Jan. 6 rally in support of insurrectionists’ bid to overthrow the 2020 election results and install incumbent Donald J. Trump as president, he did not participate in the riots, defense attorney Hadley has said.

Broadstone’s Facebook page features numerous links to pro-Trump and election fraud conspiracy theories, many of which carry disclaimers that fact-checkers have disputed the information therein.

A photo on Broadstone’s profile shows him standing before the Washington Monument with American and Trump flags raised. The account commented on the photo on Jan. 10, “I would do it all over again.”

Broadstone previously served as an Oscoda County Sheriff’s deputy from June 30, 1986, to Sept. 5 of the same year. He was also employed by the Michigan Department of Corrections in the 1980s and ‘90s, staff have confirmed.

He also has a criminal record that includes convictions of malicious destruction of property in 1997 and maintaining a drug vehicle, assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful imprisonment, carrying a concealed weapon, and delivering or manufacturing marijuana, all from 2011.

In September 2011, Broadstone was sentenced to 18 months’ probation on a concealed weapons conviction.

Ex-cop accused of rigging home with booby traps to kill Michigan police accepts plea deal

‘Bang, you’re dead,’ ex-cop told police when they came to his booby-trapped home, troopers testify

Ex-cop accused of trying to kill 5 Michigan State Police troopers with booby-trapped house fit for trial

Michigan man accused of trying to kill police is former cop, championed ‘2nd Amendment sanctuary cities’

Michigan man accused of trying to kill 5 state police by booby-trapping house

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