Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Michigan

Re: police keeping stolen property

You may not get your gun back until the crime has been solved and the case in which the gun would be used as evidence is completely over (it may involve an appeal, so make sure you follow through on it).

If the case has not been solved, you're unlikely to get the gun back anytime soon. You can, however, make a formal request with a judge to have the gun returned pending trial, but I doubt that would work: you have no way, realistically, to guarantee that the evidence would be preserved for trial. Try it anyway, but don't rely on a phone call: go down there and ask which forms you need and who will know.

If that fails, go to the office of the chief judge for your circuit and ask his secretary how the judges are likely to handle that sort of request. Better yet, get all the paperwork together and pay an area lawyer $50 to do it for you. You might get a better/quicker response.

ALSO, if the gun was insured, you should call your insurance company and ask them what they suggest. They should have someone knowledgeable about getting insured property back from the police, since they would monitor trials involving high ticket thefts, for example.

Good luck!