Lawyer for man accused of providing heroin in fatal overdose granted up to $1,500 to hire expert

By Kyle Feldscher Crime and courts reporter

Posted on Sat, Aug 25, 2012 : 2:26 p.m.

The defense attorney for the man accused of providing the heroin that killed a former Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard hockey coach will receive up to $1,500 to hire an expert witness to decipher hospital records, according to court records.

Brendan Lathrop

Courtesy of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office

Brendan Lathrop, 23, is charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance causing death and one count of delivery of a controlled substance less than 50 grams. Daniel Geherin, Lathrop’s attorney, successfully argued for the release of Nicholas Belanger’s medical records last month.

Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Donald Shelton granted Geherin up to $1,500 to hire an expert to decipher the medical records on Aug. 14, according to court records.

Lathrop will return to court on Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. He’s currently lodged in the Washtenaw County Jail. If convicted, he faces a maximum of life in prison for the delivery of a controlled substance causing death charge.

Belanger was found dead in his car on Jan. 22 outside of Lathrop’s Ann Arbor apartment. He was 26 years old.

The former Gabriel Richard hockey coach was a 2004 graduate of Saline High School. He helped Gabriel Richard win its first ever Catholic League Championship.

In late July, Shelton ruled that Belanger’s medical records from his Brighton Hospital stay from Oct. 23, 2011 to Nov. 3, 2011 should be made available to Geherin. The motion had been filed in an attempt to show Belanger had a history of drug abuse that may have contributed to his death, according to court records.

Lathrop was arraigned on the charges on April 13 and originally was given a 10 percent of $5,000 bond. While free, he tested positive for drugs and had his bond revoked.

According to investigators, Lathrop left the area following Belanger’s death, which partly caused a three-month delay between the morning Belanger was found and when Lathrop eventually was arraigned.

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