Homeless Angels founder Mike Karl faces felony charge

ST. JOHNS - Mike Karl, the face and founder of Homeless Angels, announced his resignation from the group the same day a Clinton County magistrate issued a felony complaint against him, court records show.

"Sadly today I must step away from The Homeless Angels," read Karl's Sept. 7 Facebook post. "The direction has changed and is not inline with the vision God gave me so many years ago. I am so thankful for the opportunity, and blessings but I must follow my heart."

Karl, who had been president of the Homeless Angels board of directors, also announced his intention to start Cardboard Prophets, a new organization with similar goals.

Clinton County prosecutors authorized a complaint against Karl for one count of unlawfully driving away an automobile, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The incident that led to the charge took place Aug. 17, court records show. Karl is free after posting 10% of a $10,000 bond.

His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in Clinton County District Court. When contacted Tuesday, Karl referred all questions to Andrew Abood, his attorney.

Karl's voicemail refers questions to his mother, Linda Karl, who is also involved in Cardboard Prophets.

Andrew Abood, Karl's attorney, said he is "in the process of reviewing the file and investigating the facts... We believe there are two sides to every story." He declined to comment further.

Clinton County Prosecutor Charles Sherman declined to comment because Karl has not yet been arraigned.

The alleged theft happened at the Apex Motel on the 15000 block of S. U.S. Highway 27 in DeWitt Township and involved Karl and a female co-defendant, a detective told a magistrate during a Sept. 7 warrant hearing in Clinton County District Court.

The owner of the vehicle, a woman, was arrested at the motel on Aug. 17 and asked that her car keys be left beneath a floor mat and her vehicle left unlocked, DeWitt Township police Det. Derreck Schaberg testified. When she got out of jail, she returned to the motel to find her vehicle missing.

Surveillance video showed a man and a woman leave a room at the motel on Aug. 17, walk to the vehicle in question and drive away in it, Schaberg said. Through motel and Michigan Secretary of State driving records, police identified the suspects as Karl and Latisha Ann Alidani, he said.

The vehicle was later recovered from a grocery store parking lot in East Lansing, Schaberg testified.

Based on that testimony, the magistrate signed arrest warrants for both Karl and Alidani, 33, of Lansing.

Linda Karl said Tuesday morning she wasn't aware of the felony complaint against her son but said "it will be rectified" and "he will be cleared." She also said her son's departure from Homeless Angels wasn't related to any criminal matter.

"It had nothing to do with anything else other than (the two organizations) had two different visions," she said.

Mike Karl said in September that the administrative tasks associated with managing the nonprofit's homelessness outreach program made him "ineffective."

His decision to leave was one he had been wrestling with for weeks, he said. "I had to make a hard decision," Karl said at the time. "I didn't want to leave Homeless Angels but I had to, because you can't end homelessness behind a desk."

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Karl, 40, founded Homeless Angels in 2013, more than a decade after he was homeless himself.

The nonprofit provides temporary housing for individuals and families who are homeless at the Burkewood Inn, a hotel it owns and operates in Lansing Township.

Homeless Angels purchased the hotel in November just days after the Magnuson Hotel, a privately-owned Lansing hotel where the organization was housing people who were homeless, closed.

Timothy Baise, a Homeless Angels board member, said Tuesday afternoon in an email to the Lansing State Journal the organization "recently became aware of the unfortunate issues" involving Karl.

Baise added Homeless Angels is "a healthy and successful organization" that won't comment further on Karl's situation because he's no longer with it.

"We will openly and completely cooperate with all investigating authorities," Baise said.

Linda Karl said Cardboard Prophets will "move forward" and continue to feed up to 100 people a week at a Lansing park who identify as homeless. The organization had plans Tuesday morning to feed people at Lansing's Reutter Park.

Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.