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Michigan 'Batman' Pleads Not Guilty, Says He Has Good Intentions

By Deanne Katz, Esq. on October 19, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Batman, in the form of his lesser known alter-ego Mark Wayne Williams, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge of resisting and obstructing police.

No one doubts that Williams was attempting to emulate the caped crusader, but that isn't necessarily an excuse for his behavior. But many things Batman did were against the law but he had the good sense to keep his identity secret and not interfere with police.

Williams wasn't so suave when he attempted to 'do justice' while police were looking for a driver who fled the scene of an accident. His excuse for his behavior won't hold water either.

Police were trying to find the driver using a canine unit to track the suspect. The problem was that Williams kept interfering with the scent, reports Petosky's WWJ-TV.

When Williams refused to leave the officers alone they arrested him. In his defense, Williams told a Michigan district court that he had good intentions.

Too bad that doesn't change whether or not he was breaking the law.

Obstructing police is a fairly easy crime to avoid since you generally get a warning from police that you need to leave a scene before you are arrested. Officers have an important job to do and getting in the way can endanger public safety.

But Williams doesn't believe police officers should have all the fun.

He's been dressing up as Batman several times a week and goes out on patrol on weekend evenings. He calls it a public service and believes "it's not up to the government to save us," reports the Petosky News-Review.

That's a nice sentiment but vigilante justice is frowned upon these days. We do, after all, have a fairly reliable system of laws and law enforcement agencies set up in America.

Williams should know this by now. This is not his first brush with the law. He's gotten in trouble before for his amateur crime fighting. In May 2011 he pleaded guilty to attempted resisting and obstructing a police officer.

As part of his six-month probation Williams was prohibited from wearing costumes - a time period which included Halloween we might add. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. But since then he appears to have re-embraced his inner-Batman.

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