Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 10:57:12 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: Who Said Crime Doesn't Pay...Prosecutors? To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
[Note from Matthew Gaylor: This will drive the nail into the coffin of American justice if this idea gets enacted nationwide. Talk about not working in the public interest.]
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 07:50:17 -0400 From: "Walter Sams" <SamsW@dime.com> To: "<Matthew Gaylor"<freematt@coil.com>
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/seize9_20010509.htm
Sex, crime, fines: It pays to prosecute
Prostitution stings fund county raises
May 9, 2001
BY COREY DADE FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Prostitution is paying off for some Wayne County prosecutors.
Forty assistant prosecutors are expected to receive a combined $500,000 in raises paid for by fines on vehicles seized this year, mainly in prostitution stings. The rewards, a maverick move by Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan, have provoked criticism in the legal community about a forfeiture operation expected to generate $2 million in revenue this year.
"The motive for acquiring that money should not be promotion," said Charles Marr, a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor who ran the forfeiture unit in the early 1990s. He lectured nationally on proper uses of forfeiture proceeds. "It raises a real issue," Marr said. "Is there a financial incentive to these cases?"
The prosecutor's office collects the money in $900 fines from people who reclaim vehicles impounde in solicitation arrests. Two-thirds of each fine goes to police departments that arrest the customers, and the county gets the other third. Duggan wrested control of the county's portion of the money last month after lobbying the Wayne County Commission for the authority.
Previously, money from fines helped offset budget deficits in various county departments. Last year, more than $200,000 went to cover cost overruns in the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. "Obviously, you'd like to see more" money, sai Sheriff Robert Ficano. "We're one criminal justice system. One arm can't survive without the other."
Duggan, in an internal memo obtained by the Free Press, called the promotions and raises "long-overdue," particularly for assistant prosecutors who had been passed over. "All of these promotions are possible only because of the extraordinary performance of the forfeiture unit," Duggan wrote to employees April 20. "Some of you are probably going to owe them lunch." Those who are eligible for promotions are spread throughout the office of 153 attorneys, from entry-level prosecutors to principal attorneys.
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Contact COREY DADE at 313-223-4461 or dade@freepress.com.
All content copyright 2001 Detroit Free Press
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