Students tear apart an Ohio State flag in the streets of Cedar Village after an MSU victory in the Big Ten Championship game on Dec. 8, 2013. The police and fire department responded to multiple fires across East Lansing.
East Lansing police have only awarded $2,000 in reward money so far to informants with information regarding December’s “civil disturbance” in Cedar Village, officials said Monday.
It’s a comparatively small amount of the $20,000 allocated to rewarding those who came forward and assisted police with identifying key players in the chaos following the MSU football team’s win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game.
Police responded to a minimum of 57 fires throughout the city and made at least 15 arrests after the game, and DTN Vice President Colin Cronin previously told The State News that the revelries in Cedar Village caused between $5,000 and $10,000 in property damage.
Investigators continued to make arrests and solicit information about potential suspects in the following weeks. The pretrial hearings for many of those arrested are scheduled for early February.
If those who were arrested are found guilty because of information provided by a tip, police will attempt to convince court officials to reward further restitution money for the informant, East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy said.
So far, all informants have remained anonymous. Murphy said interest in moving the case forward has mostly gone stale among the public since winter break.
“We want to hold as many people accountable for their actions as possible,” Murphy said.
Murphy said half of the $20,000 fund came from the university, and the other half was put forward by the department itself.
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