KENOSHA, Wis. — Michael William Joseph Sindelar, 31, formerly of Kenosha, was charged last year with felony physical abuse of an elder person after police said he punched his elderly mother in the head. Sindelar ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and received 18 months of probation with no jail by liberal activist judge Jodi Meier (D).

When Kenosha County Eye covered Sindelar’s case, KCE Editor Kevin Mathewson personally photographed him in court. KCE also obtained Sindelar’s booking photograph from the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office. Both photographs were used in the story.

More than a year later, on August 25, 2026, Sindelar demanded that KCE remove the article, writing, “you have 1 day to remove this article, my photos and videos are protected by dmca and any unauthorized use of my photos and videos will result in a lawsuit.”

Mathewson responded: “Sorry bud. Nothing is coming down.”

Hours later, a copyright complaint was filed with Google targeting the article. Google’s notice describes the supposedly copyrighted material simply as “My photos.” If successful, the complaint would remove the KCE article from Google Search results, not remove the article itself.

There is one glaring problem: Sindelar doesn’t own either photograph.

Mathewson personally took the courtroom photograph and owns its copyright. The other is a booking photograph produced by and obtained from the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office. Sindelar does not obtain copyright ownership of either photograph simply because he is the person pictured in them.

Google’s copyright complaint process requires the person filing the complaint to certify under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and that the complainant owns the copyright or is authorized to act for the copyright owner. If Sindelar certified that he owned copyrights he knew he did not own, he may have exposed himself to serious legal consequences, potentially including a felony depending on the precise declaration he made and which criminal statute applies.

KCE immediately appealed Google’s decision, explaining that Mathewson is the photographer and copyright owner of the courtroom photograph and that the second photograph was obtained from the Sheriff’s Office. KCE expects the appeal to be successful.

So, KCE will chalk this one up to a dumb criminal trying to make an unfavorable news story disappear and potentially creating a much bigger problem for himself in the process.

And since Sindelar apparently doesn’t understand who owns photographs taken by a photographer, here is another photograph KCE took of him in court that day.