By Ryan Stanton | ryanstanton@mlive.com
ANN ARBOR, MI — Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit has rolled out two new policies regarding how to handle cases involving alleged police violence and cases where civilians are accused of resisting and obstructing police.
The first new policy directive Savit announced Friday, Jan. 8, requires the prosecutor’s office to recuse itself and seek the appointment of an outside special prosecutor in all cases in which charges might be sought against police officers who engaged in violence against civilians.
There is growing consensus that’s best practice, said Savit, who took office Jan. 1, replacing Prosecutor Brian Mackie.
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Savit maintains Mackie should have recused himself and referred the high-profile case of the Aura Rosser shooting in 2014 to the attorney general to be assigned to another county prosecutor.
Rosser, a 40-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by an Ann Arbor police officer during a response to a domestic dispute on the city’s west side in November 2014.
Mackie determined Officer David Ried’s lethal use of force was justified since Rosser reportedly approached officers with a knife “raised in an attack position” and ignored commands to drop it.
Rosser’s death inspired Black Lives Matter demonstrations and calls for police reform, leading to Ann Arbor’s formation of a police oversight commission, as well as more police training around dealing with people in mental health crises.
Savit highlighted the Rosser case in his new policy directive, noting Mackie’s decision to not charge the officer has led to pronounced and sustained community backlash.
“Today, over six years later, there are still marches and rallies in our community protesting the handling of Aura Rosser’s death,” Savit noted.
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Savit said on the campaign trial he hadn’t reviewed all the evidence in the Rosser case, so he didn’t know whether charges were warranted, but he thinks any officer-involved shooting should be handled by a special outside prosecutor since there’s a close relationship between the local prosecutor’s office and local police, raising questions about impartiality.
“Officer-involved violence is wrenching to the greater community,” his new policy states. “In such circumstances, the community deserves assurance that the prosecutor evaluating charges is unbiased — and has not been influenced by the close personal and professional relationships between prosecutors and police.”
Lamentably, local prosecutor’s offices across the nation have not engendered confidence in their ability to fairly evaluate officer-involved violence, Savit said, mentioning several cases in which Black people across America lost their lives at the hands of police in recent years.
“The ACLU, the NAACP, Campaign Zero and multiple scholars and practitioners have all called for the appointment of special prosecutors in cases of alleged police violence. The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office agrees with these voices,” Savit’s policy directive states.
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Savit emphasized his new policy is to ensure fair and impartial justice for all parties, including police.
Police officers put their lives on the line in the name of public safety and they deserve fair and impartial justice when accused of a crime, Savit said.
“Under this policy, officers who are facing criminal charges will know that their case will be evaluated by an independent prosecutor, not a locally elected prosecuting attorney who might be influenced by community pressure,” he wrote.
The second policy directive Savit rolled out Friday requires prosecutors to review all relevant evidence, including videos, and consider the “totality of the circumstances” prior to filing resisting-and-obstructing charges against civilians, bringing charges only when there’s sufficient evidence and the charges are in the interests of justice.
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Resisting and obstructing police is a serious crime with serious penalties, Savit said.
“The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office will, after reviewing all available evidence, continue to vigorously pursue such charges where appropriate, especially where a person assaults a law enforcement officer,” his directive states.
At the same time, the directive emphasizes the prosecutor’s office can’t ignore the spate of high-profile incidents across the country involving police who abused their authority, inflicting lethal force on Black civilians, assaulting civilians and in some cases trying to cover up their actions.
The directive instructs prosecutors to review “all relevant materials — including body-camera, dashboard cameras, and any other photographic, video, or audio materials that exist — prior to authorizing a resisting-and-obstructing charge.”
