Case may influence race for prosecutor

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Like the economy in the presidential election, this year’s race for the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office could be defined by one issue: The handling of Claude McCollum’s wrongful murder conviction last year.

McCollum spent more than a year in jail for the 2005 murder of Lansing Community College professor Carolyn Kronenberg before evidence that proved his innocence was revealed.

The discovery led to an investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office. Following the attorney general’s report, Assistant Prosecutor Eric Matwiejczyk was fired in August for his role in the case.

Incumbent Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings said his swiftness in granting McCollum freedom after uncovering the error shows efficiency.

“Was there a mistake? Yes,” he said. “When I found out about it in September ’07, I got Mr. McCollum out of prison in record time.”

But Dunnings’ opponent, Nicholas Bostic, said the error never should have occurred in the first place.

“Cases that are potentially winnable are being allowed into the system before the investigation is complete,” he said.

Their differing opinions on the McCollum case are not the only issues Bostic and Dunnings disagree on.

Bostic said the office is currently understaffed and inefficient, which leaves overworked assistant prosecutors spending too much time doing paperwork and too little time focusing on cases.

“It doesn’t allow (assistant prosecutors) to properly prepare for and think for what they need to do as lawyers, because they’re spending 90 percent of their time being clerks,” he said. “It’s a huge efficiency thing.”

He said he would like to hire more semiprofessional workers to lessen the clerical burden on assistant prosecutors.

But Dunnings said Bostic’s plan is not possible under the current budget. He said his solution to the problem is not to add workers, but to digitize files to get rid of paperwork.

“We’re just not going to get more people, given the budget constraints,” he said.

“We’re facing budget deficits every year.”

Dunnings said a major point of pride for him is the ability to be fiscally responsible.

He has created child support and bad-check enforcement programs, which have returned more than $1.5 million to families and merchants in Ingham County and he has only been over budget one time in his 11 years in office, he said.

Lisa McCormick, who was hired as an assistant prosecuting attorney soon after Dunnings was elected in 1997, said Dunnings’ greatest trait is his openness to his staff and the community.

“That is one of the most important things that he does for the citizens,” she said. “If they have questions or concerns, he’s available.”

Friends of Bostic describe him as an intelligent, hardworking, meticulous person with great knowledge of the legal system.

Bostic has spent time as a law enforcement officer, a lawyer and four and a half years as an assistant prosecutor under Dunnings before he left the office last year.

“The guy works down the corner from where I live. He’s in there from 6 a.m. to 9 or 10 at night, seven days a week,” said Terry Chapman, a friend and former client of Bostic’s. “I’ve never seen anybody that works so hard.”

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