Letter to Wayne County’s next prosecuting attorney (I hope!)

To Victoria Burton-Harris, greetings:

If a citizen were denied access to public records and requested that you enforce Michigan’s 1931 Penal Code provision that government officials be prosecuted for withholding public records, and if you were Wayne County prosecutor, what would you do?

Let me tell you how the current Wayne County prosecutor responded.

Oh, excuse me. My error. Kym Worthy did not respond to my request that she enforce the Penal Code when her fellow Democrat and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan lied about records and refused to release them to Wayne State University students in my Spring 2015 Investigative Reporting class.

I have lived in Wayne County for 35 years. I have owned a house and paid taxes in Wayne County for that amount of time. The prosecuting attorney could not spare postage to respond to my emails and letter asking her to investigate the matter.

The students were investigating a land swap deal between the city engineered by Mayor Duggan and billionaire Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun. Duggan or people in his office sought to stymie the reporters. My hope was that Prosecutor Worthy would make sure the mayor followed the law by disclosing the description of the deal.