Trial in drunk driving death case postponed.

Joseph Auger appears in 27th Circuit Monday, June 21, via Zoom video conferencing.

Trial in drunk driving death case postponed.

Editor’s note: A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

HART — The trial in a drunk driving causing death case in 27th Circuit Court against a Fremont man is has been postponed.

Judge Bradley G. Lambrix said during a status conference Monday, June 21, that the trial against Joseph Ramiro Auger has been adjourned due to a pathologist — who is critical to the case — is unavailable at that time.

Auger faces felony charges of operating under the influence or while impaired causing death and driving while license suspended (DWLS) causing death in connection to the death of Geneva Mae Shivley, 39, of Fremont. Shivley was a passenger in the vehicle that Auger was driving the night of Nov. 17, 2020 on Wilke Road in Greenwood Township, said Bizon.

Shively was critically injured and transported by ambulance to Mercy Health in Muskegon, where she died Nov. 21.

Auger crashed into a tree shortly before 9 p.m., said Oceana County Prosecutor Joseph Bizon, and he was not injured. The crash was investigated by the Michigan State Police. 

The case was scheduled for trial Aug. 12 and 13, and a new date has not been scheduled yet.

Auger is currently free on bond.

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