Criminal Cases in the Antrim County Courts
Antrim County court cases are split by jurisdiction. The county court directory identifies the 86th District Court and 13th Circuit Court as the key criminal courts. District Court handles state-code and local-ordinance misdemeanors, traffic matters, bonds, felony arraignments, and probable-cause or preliminary proceedings. After a felony is bound over, the 13th Circuit Court handles the higher criminal case, trial or plea, judgment, and sentence. Probate and Family Division records involving juvenile delinquency follow restricted rules and are not a substitute for an adult case search.
The Antrim County Clerk serves as clerk of the Circuit Court Criminal Division and keeps the felony file. District Court maintains its own lower-court file. An Antrim County felony can therefore have early entries under the district case and later entries under the circuit case. The official Antrim court page shown below helps readers route a request to the right court.
That local directory matters because a general multi-county court page can point toward another county office, while the Antrim file remains with the Bellaire counter.
Antrim Court Case Split
The most common false dead end comes from searching only one court. A misdemeanor usually stays in District Court, while a felony begins there and may move to Circuit Court. A search of the circuit location alone can omit arraignment or preliminary-examination events. A district-only search can stop before the plea, verdict, and sentence in the bound-over felony matter.
| Court | Antrim County criminal work | Record contact |
|---|---|---|
| 86th District Court | Misdemeanors, ordinance cases, traffic, bonds, and early felony stages | 205 E. Cayuga St.; 231-533-6441; 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays |
| 13th Circuit Court | Bound-over felonies, trials, pleas, judgments, sentences, and district appeals | County Clerk, 203 E. Cayuga St.; 231-533-6353; 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays |
| Probate/Family Division | Restricted juvenile delinquency records | Confirm the proper counter through the court office |
Municipal-ordinance cases do not create a separate Antrim municipal court. Michigan routes them through District Court. Search by both the court and case number when one is known.
How to Search Case Records
MiCOURT Case Search is the public gateway for participating Michigan trial courts. It offers a free index, not a certified file or a guarantee that every document is online. Its terms note that some information is nonpublic, bulk downloads are barred, and some courts apply a seven-year criminal-sentence display filter. Older or missing Antrim County case records require direct contact with the trial court.
- Accept the MiCOURT terms, then choose the Antrim location of the 86th District Court or 13th Circuit Court.
- Search by first and last name, or use the court case number when it is known.
- Repeat the search in the other Antrim court when a felony may have moved from district to circuit.
- Open the result and compare the court, case ID, filed date, parties, charges, status, and register of actions.
- Call the correct clerk for pleadings, judgments, attachments, archived material, or a plain or certified copy.
| Field label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Court | Selector | Yes | Choose the relevant 86th District or 13th Circuit Antrim location |
| First Name | Text | Conditional | Used with a party-name search |
| Last Name | Text | Conditional | Used with a party-name search |
| Case Number | Text | Alternative | Best when the exact court number is known |
| Continue | Terms button | Yes | Accept the terms before entering the search |
The official MiCOURT interface pictured here shows why the court choice comes before the name or number fields.
Selecting the correct location prevents a blank result from being mistaken for proof that no Antrim County court case exists.
Antrim Clerk Case Records
A MiCOURT result is a route into the record. The Antrim County Clerk supplies the authoritative Circuit Court file and can explain whether an older file needs advance retrieval. District Court Antrim handles its own lower-court records. Ask whether a document is open to inspection and whether the request is for a plain or certified copy. The official pages inspected do not publish a criminal-copy fee schedule, so the current charge must come from the clerk.
Antrim County Clerk
203 E. Cayuga Street
P.O. Box 520
Bellaire, MI 49615
231-533-6353
Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
86th District Court
205 E. Cayuga Street
P.O. Box 597
Bellaire, MI 49615
231-533-6441
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The county clerk page pictured below carries the Antrim County contact and the Circuit Court record-search route.
The clerk remains the right source when an online entry lacks the pleading, signed judgment, or certification a reader actually needs.
What the Case File Shows
An Antrim County criminal case file is organized by court and case number. MiCOURT may expose an index and register of actions, while the clerk holds filed pleadings, orders, attachments, and judgments. Read the whole sequence. A booking charge can change when the prosecutor authorizes a complaint, and an information filed in Circuit Court can differ from the first district-stage allegation.
| Case number and court | Identifies the Antrim court, case ID, and location that owns the file. |
|---|---|
| Caption and parties | Shows the case title, party type, attorneys, alternate names, and judge where supplied. |
| Charging document | States the complaint or information and the charges formally filed at that stage. |
| Register of actions | Lists filings, hearings, motions, pleas, orders, and other docket events by date. |
| Status and hearings | Shows pending or closed status, the next hearing, and calendar data when available. |
| Disposition and sentence | Records dismissal, acquittal, plea or verdict, judgment, sentence, and exposed financial balance. |
MiCOURT warns that the displayed charge level for some attempt offenses under MCL 750.92 can be wrong. Confirm the actual subsection and filed document with the court instead of relying on the screen label alone.
Antrim Filed Charges Can Change
The charge named at booking is the arresting agency’s allegation at that point. The Antrim County Prosecuting Attorney reviews the investigation and authorizes the complaint. Later filings may amend or reduce a count, and a plea may resolve a different offense than the first one shown. The court file is the right place to follow those changes because each filed charge and event is tied to the case number.
A MiCOURT label should be checked against the complaint, information, plea, and judgment. If an entry shows a dismissal, identify whether it applies to one count or the whole case. If a plea appears, read the resulting count and sentence rather than quoting only the first accusation. This distinction keeps an Antrim County court search focused on the judicial record instead of freezing the case at its earliest stage.
Read Antrim Court Outcomes
Docket terms describe different points in the case. “Pending” or “open” means no final disposition is recorded yet. “Bound over” means District Court sent a felony matter to Circuit Court after waiver or a probable-cause finding. It is not a conviction. “Closed” is an administrative status and must be read with the final disposition.
- Dismissed
- The count or case ended without a conviction on that count, though the filing may still remain visible.
- Acquitted or not guilty
- The judge or jury did not convict after the contested proceeding.
- Convicted
- The court accepted a guilty or no-contest plea, or entered a guilty verdict.
- Amended count
- The conviction may rest on a reduced or changed charge rather than the first allegation.
- Set aside
- A qualifying Michigan conviction was suppressed from ordinary public products after legal relief.
For a full view of the event before charges were filed, compare the case with the county’s arrest history channels. Keep the court disposition as the source for the judicial result.
Stages of a Criminal Case
The Antrim County prosecutor authorizes charges, and the court creates the judicial file as papers and events arrive. District Court handles arraignment and the probable-cause stage in a felony. Circuit Court receives the case after bindover. A misdemeanor generally remains in District Court through disposition and sentence.
Case flow: Charges Filed › Arraignment › Pretrial › Plea or Trial › Disposition › Sentencing
Each step can add an entry without deciding guilt. A hearing date is not an outcome, and a prosecutor charge is not a conviction. The signed judgment and register of actions show how the Antrim County criminal court case ended.
Antrim Federal Criminal Cases
Federal criminal cases arising in Antrim County do not appear in ICHAT and are not held by the county clerk. Antrim lies in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Use that court for local federal procedure and PACER for federal dockets and filed documents. PACER requires registration and uses the federal judiciary’s current fee rules.
The Western District of Michigan site identifies the federal court that covers Antrim County.
This separate court layer explains why a complete Antrim County case search cannot stop at a Michigan trial-court index.
The official PACER service is the federal judiciary’s docket and document channel.
PACER does not replace the Antrim County Clerk for state cases, just as MiCOURT does not supply the federal docket.
Access & Restrictions
Michigan Court Rule 8.119, not ordinary county FOIA, governs access to Antrim County court records. The County Clerk is outside the county FOIA process when acting as clerk of the Circuit Court. Use the court-record request route for a felony file. Sheriff reports and other executive-branch records follow Michigan FOIA instead.
Court access rule: Michigan court-record guidance allows access to public court material while protecting nonpublic files and personal identifying information.
Sealed material, protected identifiers, juvenile matters, victim-sensitive facts, and other nonpublic data can be absent or masked. Online omissions do not always mean the file is gone. Ask the Antrim clerk whether the case is older than the display range, archived, restricted, or listed under another court stage. A set-aside can also suppress qualifying history from ordinary public products.
Note: A public search result is informational; the clerk’s certified copy is the authoritative Antrim County court record.