MUSKEGON, MI - In a highly unusual twist to an already-unusual case, the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office has subpoenaed the attorney of accused bank teller-thief Michelle Renee Crouch to testify for the prosecution.

For that reason, Crouch's probable-cause hearing was postponed from Monday morning, May 9, to May 16 to give Crouch and attorney Matthew Kacel time to decide whether he can continue to represent her.

The issue came up in the second of three felony cases filed against Crouch. In this case, she's charged with uttering and publishing a forged document, a 14-year felony; identity theft, a five-year felony; and using a computer to commit a crime, a seven-year felony.

The case stems from actions Crouch took to try to clear herself in the first case against her, in which she's charged with larceny of more than $20,000, a 10-year felony, and identity theft for allegedly draining more than $100,000 from the savings account of a customer of PNC Bank in Muskegon Township, where she was a teller, without authorization. She nearly emptied the account of Kevin J. Bolema days after he died in June 2015 while on a hunting trip in the Upper Peninsula.

Crouch's defense in that case is that Bolema was a friend of hers and, just before he left on the hunting trip, authorized an interest-free loan to her to help her pay her mortgage.

That first case is pending trial in Muskegon County Circuit Court, with trial currently set to start May 17 before Chief Judge William C. Marietti.

The second case stems from Crouch's alleged creation of what prosecutors contend was a forged loan document on her home computer, with Bolema's purported signature on it.

Crouch allegedly gave that document to Kacel in February 2016, after she had been charged in the first larceny case, and the lawyer handed it on to the prosecutor's office.

Prosecutors do not accuse Kacel of doing anything wrong.

"There is no indication that Mr. Kacel knowingly participated in the (alleged) fraud," Chief Trial Attorney Matt J. Roberts of the prosecutor's office said outside court.

But, because Kacel is the person who actually delivered the document to the prosecutor's office, prosecutors want his testimony on the record in regard to the most serious charge against Crouch - uttering and publishing.

The hearing postponement came after Kacel and Roberts met behind closed doors for at least 20 minutes with Muskegon County District Judge Maria Ladas Hoopes. The judge agreed to both lawyers' request for a one-week adjournment.

"I will do whatever is in (Crouch's) best interest, not my own interest," Kacel said outside court afterward. "If that means me no longer being her attorney, if that's what's in her best interests, we will do that."

In a third case, Crouch, 52, of Norton Shores has been charged with larceny of between $1,000 and $20,000, a five-year felony, for allegedly stealing more than $10,000 from the account of a customer starting in December 2015 at First General Credit Union in Norton Shores, which hired her after she left the PNC job last year, unaware of the earlier larceny case against her. She was free on bond at the time.

Kacel represents her in that case as well.

John S. Hausman is a reporter for MLive. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.