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April 8, 2005Judge refuses motion to dismiss in Unger trialCase still not ordered to circuit courtBY JOHN FLESHERThe Associated Press  Record-Eagle file photo Mark Unger, 44, of Huntington Woods, is accused of killing his wife in Benzie County. District Judge Brent Danielson rejected a defense motion Thursday to dismiss a first-degree murder charge against Mark Unger, 44, of Huntington Woods. The ruling was the latest twist in an on-and-off preliminary hearing that began last July to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a trial. Danielson acknowledged the case against Unger was "almost entirely circumstantial," but said the issues raised by defense attorney Robert Harrison were "for the jury to decide." Yet the judge's decision does not necessarily mean Unger will go to trial. Defense lawyers will have a chance to present witnesses before Danielson rules on whether to send the case to circuit court. No date was set for the hearing to resume. Unger's 37-year-old wife, Florence Unger, was found dead Oct. 25, 2003, at the Watervale resort in Benzie County, about 40 miles southwest of Traverse City. Investigators concluded she fell or was pushed from a boathouse roof to a concrete deck 12 feet below and was dragged into the shallow edge of Lower Herring Lake. Florence Unger had filed for divorce before accompanying her husband and two sons on a weekend trip to the resort. Unger insists he loved his wife and did not kill her. The Michigan attorney general's office, which is handling the prosecution, finished presenting evidence in December. On Thursday, Harrison argued the case against Unger was so weak it should proceed no further. "No one in this room or anywhere knows what happened to Florence Unger on that night in October," Harrison said. Prosecutors offered no proof that Mark Unger caused his wife's fall and no evidence he had planned to kill her - the standard for a first-degree murder conviction, Harrison said. They didn't show he acted with malice as required to prove second-degree murder, he said. Florence Unger could have tripped accidentally over the low railing on the boathouse roof, he said.
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