Come and listen, my children, to a tawdry little tale about Michigan politics. A tale that will curl your hair. And a tale that will, by contrast, make you all the more appreciative of the prosecutorial fairness of Patrick Fitzgerald.
Where to begin? Some background on Michigan politics for the international audience at the Booman Tribune. Geoffrey Feiger is a bombastic trial attorney in our fair state. He rose to fame defending Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian, when the old right-to-death doctor was charged with murder by a Republican leaning Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office. (Oakland County is northern, suburban Detroit — where all the white people fled to before, and mostly after the ’67 riots). Dr. Jack went to prison for performing assisted suicide. Fieger got really famous and really rich, winning many multi-million dollar personal injury verdicts.
He is a helluva trial attorney. Absolutely dominating in the courtroom. I’ve met him in my haunts through Michigan courthouses. While many despise him, I tend to like him. He is a loudmouth for the left. And Republicans, and most Democrats, absolutely hate anyone who takes on “the man” the way Fieger has.
Fieger ran as the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1998 against Michigan’s own version of George Bush, John Engler. Imagine a rube like Bush, only fatter and uglier and not as polished. Engler was a complete tool. But Fieger was so alienating to most mainstream Michiganders, and was so painted by the insurance lobby as an “evil trial attorney,” that Engler won the 1998 election hands down.
In addition to his gubernatorial antics, Fieger has also been embroiled in political battles with the Michigan Supreme Court. Our highest Court is an elected body, dominated by right-wing nuts, supported mostly by the religious right and the insurance lobby. Not surprisingly, Michigan law as it has developed in the last couple of decades under this Supreme Court tends to be very friendly toward the insurance defense bar and prosecutors, and openly hostile toward personal injury attorneys and criminal defense lawyers. It is so slanted, it is kind of ridiculous, in my humble assessment. But, since I am a member of the uber-left, my thoughts on the matter count for a grain of sand in the desert.
So the Supreme Court has taken it upon itself to routinely reverse the largest trial verdicts that Fieger wins. I saw the trial on one of the cases our Supreme Court reversed. A young guy goes into the hospital with coronary symptoms, possibly drug related if you believe the insurance guys. And the doctors and nurses pretty much mishandle the case completely. And the guy loses circulation for a sufficient time to become a quadruple amputee, when it didn’t need to happen had they taken proper care of the man. Fieger filed his appearance for a lesser personal injury attorney on the day of trial (a complete shock to the insurance defense lawyers who didn’t know what they were going to be up against). And he simply killed them. I will never forget his constant refrain in court with the hospital witnesses. “When in the history of the world, Nurse Ratchet, has a patient come in for a rather routine coronary matter, and ended up a quadruple amputee?” He won something like $23 million if memory serves. Overturned on appeal.
So Fieger is not a big fan of our Supreme Court. In an election last year, Fieger apparently contributed a shitload of money to defeat our far-right Chief Justice Stephen Markman. I know nothing about that matter. But it is being investigated by our Republican Attorney General, Mike Cox. It seems as if Cox is doing what he can to bring charges against Fieger for campaign finance allegations surrounding Fieger’s contributions to defeat Markman. Fieger has countered with a federal suit to try to stop the investigation (I’m a little fuzzy on the details here). Fieger also has suggested that he is going to enter the Attorney General’s race next year against Cox.
And that brings us up to the little controversy that exploded here last week.
Mike Cox, the chief prosecuting official in the State of Michigan, a Republican who edged his way into office on the backs of the religious right in rural and western Michigan, and with the assistance of Reagan Republicans in Macomb and Oakland counties, held a hurried press conference last Wednesday. At the press conference, holding the hand of his wife, and tearing-up according to some accounts I’ve heard, he quietly announced that he had recently been unfaithful to his wife. The good news. The two of them were going to be just fine because they were working everything out (apparently there, at the public press conference, as well as in private counseling with their pastor no doubt). The reason for this strange public confession. Egad! Because Fieger was threatening to blackmail Cox with the illicit affair. According to Cox, Fieger, through his agent, had threatened someone in Cox’s office. The basics of the threat: Back off the campaign finance investigation or the affair becomes public knowledge.
Cox, in a fit of ethical self-righteousness, would not let his personal failings impact his duties to his job (I’m betting his wife wishes he wouldn’t have let his personal failings impact his duties to her). He confessed publically, and announced he had turned over the extortion investigation to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.
Point #1 where you can appreciate Patrick Fitzgerald: It is nice to have a prosecutor who can take on the most powerful enemies without fear that his personal failings might be used to blackmail him, isn’t it. Sorry Mike, you are no Pat.
But there is more, of course.
The Oakland County Prosecutor, a Republican who was the chief assistant at the time of the “Dr. Death” prosecutions, if memory serves, said it would take him until this week to determine if there would be criminal charges against Fieger. So for a week, the story hasn’t been so much focused on Mike Cox’s illicit affair, which seriously questions his judgment to hold the highest prosecutorial office in the state, and of course, did open him to potential blackmail threats. It has been more focused on whether Fieger would be charged.
Today, we learn that Fieger will not be charged. Not enough evidence to charge the crime. That said, the Republican Prosecutor has no trouble further smearing Fieger. Here is his quote:
“Neither Mr. Fieger or Mr. O’Brien should claim victory, act virtuous or gloat,” Gorcyca said. “Far from it. In my opinion – and based upon my review of the fact [sic] – the evidence soundly convinces me that a severe and reprehensible ethical violation or violations were committed by both Mr. Fieger and Mr. O’Brien.”
There is an Attorney Grievance Committee that will handle the ethics charges thank you very much, Mr. Gorcyca. The only thing surprising about Gorcyca’s handling of the case is that he didn’t charge Fieger, given that the local right-leaning paper ran and editorial that asked Gorcyca to recuse himself from the matter to avoid the appearance of political bias. So his swipe at Fieger is not too surprising, unless of course you use the Texas standard for recusal in political cases, or the Fitzgerald standard for being a really great prosecutor.
Point #2 where you can appreciate Patrick Fitzgerald: Aren’t prosecutors with tight lips really great. Say the kind of prosecutor who investigates someone, finds no crime, but finds mounds of evidence of really horrendous shit, but doesn’t smear the investigatee in the press. You know, the kind of prosecutor who says I’m only talking about the people where I have evidence to charge them with a crime. And then says no comment when asked about others. Guys like that are great.
Here is one final piece of information in the whole Fieger-Cox-Markman battle. Seems that Cox has hired Markman’s wife, along with the wife of another Supreme Court justice, to become members of his staff. Doesn’t sound like a politically cozy relationship to me.
Point #3 where you can appreciate Patrick Fitzgerald: Prosecutors shouldn’t be politician hacks. And even if they are political hacks, they shouldn’t adopt the crony-hiring practices of George W. Bush.
This story will probably never show up on your national radar. But I’m sure it will keep the locals talking for the next year or so. Right up to the Fieger-Cox election battle. Fucking better than Desperate Housewives, I think. And above all else, I am so happy that the eithically conscious Dr. Jack Kevorkain, who seriously considered the pain of others above his own freedom, is sitting in prison in Marquette, Michigan, convicted of murder, while these ethically challenged tools are running our state. I’ll sleep good tonight.
