By Ed White
Associated Press
DETROIT — The state of Michigan has acquired a life ring that washed ashore 50 years ago from the Edmund Fitzgerald, a rare artifact that strangely became part of a settlement in a lawsuit that had nothing to do with the famous shipwreck.
Taxpayers are paying $600,000 to settle the lawsuit by Larry Orr, who accused a state police officer of violating his rights during a sexual abuse investigation that was discredited, court records show.
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Orr, in turn, agreed to give up the life ring, which he owned. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand said it was an “unusual settlement conference” when lawyers appeared in court on Oct. 8 and put the deal on the record.
The Associated Press reached out to the state police this week to try to learn why it wanted the life ring and who had authorized Lt. David Busacca’s attorney to bargain for it.
“Upon learning the details of the settlement, we are not comfortable with the life preserver being included and will be reaching out to Mr. Orr’s attorney,” spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email Thursday.
Banner wouldn’t answer follow-up questions. The Michigan attorney general’s office said it had no role in the case. The state now has the orange ring.
Orr found it on the Lake Superior shore after the Fitzgerald sank during an incredible storm in November 1975. All 29 men on the ore vessel died. Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the disaster with an iconic ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Orr had planned to auction the ring, figuring it might attract more attention around the 50th anniversary in a few weeks, said his attorney Shannon Smith.
Busacca apparently knew that Orr had one, and it was suddenly brought up during talks to settle Orr’s lawsuit against him, Smith said.
She said it probably represented half the value of the $600,000 deal reached over allegations of police misconduct.
“Are we at a mediation for a wrongful prosecution or an estate sale?” Smith said she wondered.
Busacca’s lawyer, Audrey Forbush, declined to comment when reached by AP. Orr, who is in his 70s, also declined to comment.
The life ring had been on loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula until Orr retrieved it this year.
“They’re pretty unusual,” museum director Bruce Lynn said. “I don’t honestly have any idea how many are out there.”
