Josh Kuiper.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- After being denied a pair of appeal requests, former Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Josh Kuiper is likely heading to trial.

Kuiper's trial was set for Oct. 1 during a status conference Monday, May 14, in Kent County Circuit Court.

The prosecution and defense met privately Monday, and they didn't discuss the case publicly in Judge J. Joseph Rossi's courtroom.

Kuiper is charged with reckless driving causing serious impairment and a moving violation causing serious impairment in connection to a Nov. 19, 2016 crash. He is accused of drunkenly driving the wrong way on a one-way road on Nov. 19, 2016, and injuring a man when he crashed into a parked vehicle.

The former prosecutor appealed his case to the Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court, but was denied by both courts. The Michigan Supreme Court's March 5 ruling sent the case back to Kent County Circuit Court.

Kuiper was driving his 2014 Toyota Tacoma around 12:30 a.m. Nov. 19 on Union Avenue, south of Fulton Street, when he crashed into a parked PT Cruiser. He told police he had previously been drinking at a retirement party for the then-outgoing prosecutor, William Forsyth.

Forsyth confirmed that he saw Kuiper earlier that evening and thought he may have consumed too much alcohol. He advised Kuiper not to drive.

At the time of the crash, Daniel Empson was retrieving his coat from his vehicle, which was struck by Kuiper's vehicle. Empson said he was thrown 60 feet, and suffered three broken bones in his back, a severe shoulder injury, laceration to his scalp and a possible concussion.

Empson sued Kuiper for negligence, and three local bars -- McFadden's Restaurant & Saloon, Luna, and J. Gardella's -- for over-serving the then-prosecutor. The parties reached a settlement in February, according to court records.

Police responding to the crash noticed Kuiper as an assistant prosecutor and attempted to not arrest him despite his apparent intoxication. Kuiper was cited for going the wrong way on a one-way street, and an officer gave Kuiper a ride to a relative's house in the area.

Former Lt. Matt Janiskee, the shift commander on duty at the time, was fired for his role in the cover-up. He told an officer on scene, "Let's pass him if we can. I'd like to pass him on sobriety just because."

A veteran police sergeant at the time concluded that Kuiper was intoxicated when he caused the wrong-way crash. Grand Rapids' police chief requested the additional investigation by the sergeant after the crash.

Officers Thomas Warwick and Adam Ickes were suspended and demoted. They are still employed by the Grand Rapids Police Department.

Evidence of the attempted cover-up was captured in voice recordings from a police department phone that was believed by many in the department to be the "non-recorded line."

MLive/The Grand Rapids Press filed a lawsuit against the city of Grand Rapids after officials refused to release the recorded phone calls tied to the crash. The state Court of Appeals sided with MLive in September 2017 and ordered that the city turn over the recordings.

Shortly after the crash, Kuiper resigned from the Kent County Prosecutor's Office. He is still a practicing attorney in Grand Rapids.

Kalamazoo Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting, who acted as special prosecutor in the case, chose not to charge Kuiper with operating while intoxicated causing serious injury because it carries the same penalty as the reckless driving charge.

Getting said it would have been difficult to prove the OWI charge in court because police didn't test Kuiper's blood or breathe after the crash.

Before the Oct. 1 trial, Kuiper is expected back in court for miscellaneous motions scheduled for June 8, according to court staff.