Former Macomb County Prosecutor Bound over for Trial

[Lowell]

Is it just me or does it seem to anyone else that Macomb County has become a continual source of Metro Detroit scandal news? Now we have a former prosecutor and his assistant being bound over for trial for allegedly dipping their fingers in to drug forfeiture funds--those honeypots that seem to lead astray so many in law enforcement.

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith and one of his top assistants ended Friday with both being bound over to circuit court on all charges.

The cases against Smith and assistant prosecutor Derek Miller, Smith's former chief of operations who once served as county treasurer, are headed to Macomb County Circuit Court after about a dozen witnesses testified in the exam, which began in July.

Smith, 55, who served more than 15 years as prosecutor, is accused of embezzling $600,000 from drug and forfeiture funds for personal and unauthorized business expenses since 2012.

https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com?publ...15f149_1348351

[Cincinnati_Kid]

And all the Macomb County power brokers use to say, all the corruption was in Wayne County. Yeah, right...

[Richard]

The gov does not like it when you steal their stolen money.

Smith is accused of using forfeiture funds for a variety of expenses, including a security system at his Macomb Township home; church donations; mini iPads for a school one of his children attended; holiday parties for staff; and items for employees who retired or who lost a relative, such as flowers, a bench, a plaque, gift cards and more.

I think it was when he started to dip into it personally is where they are drawing the line,the rest is understandable.

It brings up the bigger picture and the pot of forfeiture funds,when you go to court,you are obligated to pay a fine that goes towards a victims fund,that is the same thing they say about the forfeiture funds,it is millions but you never hear how those funds are spent.

[Henry Whalley]

The gov does not like it when you steal their stolen money.

They have that in common with Cosa Nostra.

[Richard]

They have that in common with Cosa Nostra.

One cannot compete with them anymore,they took over the rackets,sports betting/gambling,loan sharking,the drug business,they want to legalize prostitution,with all of the cameras around it is probably hard to even Jack a truck anymore.

Still a lot of white collar stuff possibilities, but then you have to compete with politicians and big corporations,they got greedy and were not happy with a simple little payoff they had to eliminate the middle man.

All we are left with is a bunch of un-organized crime running rampant.

I guess now about the only thing left is to pull a coup in a crap-hole country and hook up with the state department and wash money for a fee,or arms with all of the proxy wars going on,that is still pretty lucrative,I hear anyways.

I guess it is tough for some to make a decent living anymore.

[Henry Whalley]

I guess now about the only thing left is to pull a coup in a crap-hole country and hook up with the state department and wash money for a fee,or arms with all of the proxy wars going on,that is still pretty lucrative,I hear anyways...

That was done previously so often that it would be exhausting to list every incident, but a few examples are Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And in 1855, the mercenary William Walker became Cornelius Vanderbilt's puppet president of Nicaragua.