Update: Jenison home builder Richard Bloem pleads no contest to invading ex-girlfriend's home; urination charge dismissed



GRAND RAPIDS — A local home-builder who police say was upset his younger girlfriend had broken up with him is accused of taking his displeasure to the extreme.

Trial continues today in Kent County Circuit Court for Richard Ted Bloem of Jenison. He is charged with second-degree home invasion and placing harmful objects in food, criminal actions that authorities say capped a long romantic entanglement.

According to opening statements made in court, Bloem, 46, went into the apartment of a 32-year-old Grandville woman with a key he’d had made without her knowledge.

After spending some time crying in several rooms, he allegedly tore up some of her clothes and then returned later to urinate in her wine bottle, in some Land O’ Lakes half-and-half creamer and in a pitcher of Crystal Light in the refrigerator.

The victim said she drank some of the Crystal Light and noticed it tasted funny so she threw it out.

Later, she got a large mug of coffee ready to take to work and flavored it with some creamer. After drinking it, she said she started feeling queasy.

She also noticed a wine bottle she had cracked open and drank from was now refilled.

Grandville Detective Andrew Measell said he got a call from the victim asking how to test for poison.

He said the half-and-half was sent to the Michigan State Police lab for testing.

Before the results came back — where the lab determined there was indications the creamer had been urinated in — Measell said he talked to Bloem.

“I asked if he put anything in the cream,” Measell said. “He said ‘I p----- in it.’”

The two met in 2006 when Bloem was working on a home in Wyoming and she was there as an interior designer. Both were married to other people.

Over the next four years, the two entered into an intimate relationship, sharing keys to each other’s homes — including her Grandville apartment and his in Saugatuck, according to court statements.

Over time, he loaned or gave her money and they spent lots of time together.

Their time together included explosive conflicts, according to testimony. She said he never physically abused her and she admits she once gave him a black eye.

But she said she also felt lied to. He promised her a job with his company, which never came to fruition, and he also told her he was joining her in getting divorced, but he didn't file until last year.

By the end of June, she was ready to move on. He was not, authorities said.

She told him it was over, and over the July 4 weekend, she made plans with a male friend to go to Pickeral Lake in Newaygo County.

The victim said Bloem followed them to the lake and also called her parents, stalked her and left a series of sexually explicit, demeaning phone messages on her voice mail prior to her discovery of the alleged food tampering.

“I was afraid of what he might do to the male friend,” she said.

The victim said she was shocked and disgusted by what she believes he did to her food and she has since filed a restraining order against Bloem.

Defense attorney David Dodge said there is no direct evidence that what Bloem did was intended to harm. He wants to put Spectrum Health toxicologist Ben Kuslikis on the stand, who Dodge says would testify no harm comes from drinking urine and, in some cultures, urine drinking is common and considered healthful.

Dodge said he also plans to dispute the state police lab findings, calling the testing incomplete.

Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Blair Lachman said all the testimony would do is mislead and confuse the jury.

Lachman said there is no reason to enter someone’s house and urinate in their food other than to do harm.

“It certainly wasn’t to make her feel better about herself,” Lachman said.

Judge George Buth will decide what, if any, of Kuslikis’ testimony will be allowed to be heard by the jury.

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton