Ex-Macomb County prosecutor Eric Smith at sentencing: 'There's no excuse. I was the boss.'

Former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith stood 27 miles away from where he and his team spent years authorizing warrants, trying bad guys, addressing the news media in high-profile cases and raising campaign funds to get reelected as the chief law enforcement officer.

In a different county. In an unfamiliar courtroom. Before a judge with whom he didn't once hobnob.

Sentenced for misusing money from an elected office to which he once took an oath to uphold Michigan laws.

This was the end of the legal road for Smith, who previously resigned his longtime elected position, was disbarred from practicing law in Michigan and served seven months in federal prison for an unrelated offense after he was convicted of charges he stole just under $75,000 from his campaign fund. He will spend no more time in jail and was assessed $25,000 in restitution and an $8,000 fine.

"I apologize for spending these drunk driving forfeiture funds as I did and is well documented. There's no excuse. I was the boss. I should have ensured that proper spending was done and should not have committed these crimes," Smith, 56, said Wednesday. He was sentenced in an Oakland County Circuit courtroom in Pontiac six weeks after he pleaded guilty in the state case alleging he, for years, embezzled thousands of dollars from his former office's drug and forfeiture funds.

Smith: 'Never any money went to me'

Smith apologized to Macomb County residents, employees of his former office and his family, speaking for less than one minute in court.

But after he walked out of the courtroom, Smith spoke for more than eight minutes answering reporters' questions in the courthouse hallway — harkening back to his media interviews as prosecutor — speaking on the accusations for the first time since state police raided his former office in 2019.

"I'm really happy that this five-year nightmare is finally over," he said. "I think the people of Macomb County should know that never was money missing. That never any money went to me. That this is a disagreement about how money should be spent and furtherance of law enforcement is what it's about."

He said, "I got prosecuted" for giving money to churches to fight drug abuse, homelessness and domestic violence as well as a child advocacy center. He said he was prosecutor from 2005 to 2012 and had hundreds of threats before he put a security system at his home — with money from the funds — after a criminal defendant was on his front lawn at 2 a.m. and he received a call from a sheriff. Smith said "everyone knew" it was for his house and verified it was "in furtherance of law enforcement" to protect the sitting prosecutor, adding the state attorney general "has state troopers that drive with her constantly, 24-7, to protect her."

So why take a plea?

"This has been hanging over my head and my family's head for five years. Five years we've been struggling with this. Five years. And you could say, well, so what? Go to trial. Well, guess what? They've cut off my main source of funding for the last two years, my pension, and then how much does a trial cost? Hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what happens today? I walk out a courtroom paying $25,000, which is more than I should pay because no money was taken. But then I'm free. This is all behind me," Smith said, adding he is sparing his family and children from a trial and "media circus."

Smith said "there's plenty of things I could have done better. Plenty of things my office could have done better. But none of this was done by me in a closed door ... There was five or six of us that decided on everything, decided on how things would be done. But I'm the boss, so I take the responsibility for it. No doubt about it. But most importantly, once again, no money was ever missing. No money ever went to me. No money was ever given to anyone other than where it should go."

Smith was sentenced to four years of probation; one day of jail, with one day of jail credit; $25,000 in restitution; an $8,000 fine on one of the three charges to which he pleaded guilty, and 750 hours of community service, among other requirements, as well as no contact with three other defendants in the case.

The Attorney General's Office said this is in addition to the plea agreement, which stated Smith would be sentenced to 12 months of incarceration in jail, but served concurrently with his federal sentence.

The judge also signed an order of forfeiture of retirement benefits for Smith. Last year, the state court froze Smith's pension of nearly $6,900 a month that he had been receiving since 2020, at the request of prosecutors. The assistant attorney general Wednesday said the order asked that Smith's pension be reduced by $25,600 per year.

"The reason people say the things that they do about politicians is just for this reason," Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant, who was assigned the case, said during sentencing. "Those of us who are doing everything possible to abide by the law, be ethical, be moral, it just takes one person to taint us all."

An audit, a raid and charges

Smith was first elected prosecutor in 2004 and had been an assistant prosecutor in the office since 1993. The journey into his political downfall began five years ago.

County Treasurer Larry Rocca, a Republican, raised questions about the forfeiture accounts in 2018, and the funds were handed back to be held by the county. Critics also filed lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act to get information from the accounts, including how the money was spent.

In early 2019, Smith faced scrutiny over the funds and the county Board of Commissioners approved an audit of them. In February 2019, County Executive Mark Hackel, a Democrat who had been friends and political allies with Smith for years, asked the state Attorney General's Office to launch a criminal investigation.

Michigan State Police began investigating Smith's office over its handling of the forfeiture funds, and in April 2019 it raided the prosecutor's office in the county administration building in Mount Clemens, seizing records. A month later, police searched Smith's home and removed exterior security cameras.

Ten charges were filed against Smith in March 2020. He resigned as prosecutor less than a week later, saying he would defend himself against the allegations.

The embezzlement case took three years to wind its way through the court system and didn't go to trial. Per a plea agreement Smith signed in July, he would plead guilty to one count of official misconduct in office, a five-year felony; tampering with evidence, a four-year felony, and conspiracy to commit forgery of a false receipt, a 14-year felony.

Prosecutors accused Smith of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the drug and forfeiture funds in his former office for personal and unauthorized business expenses over many years. The plea agreement dates the first act to March 24, 2014, but prosecutors previously said they believed the crimes dated back to 2012.

'A serious breach of public trust'

Expenses included purchases for 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, authorities said.

"He engaged in a serious breach of public trust. He misused public funds that were designated for law enforcement purposes. ... He obstructed justice by tampering with evidence. ... He conspired to forge documents. Again, another dishonest action. He treated the forfeiture accounts kind of like a personal slush fund. Instead of using his own personal money, his PAC money, his campaign money, used public money," Assistant Attorney General Michael Frezza said during sentencing.

The case is officially in the Macomb County Circuit Court, but it never had hearings inside the Mount Clemens courthouse where Smith and his assistant prosecutors tried cases.

All the Macomb County judges recused themselves, and the case was assigned to Grant. Proceedings were held by Zoom, except for Smith's sentencing, which was scheduled to be in a circuit courtroom in Macomb County, but was relocated to Grant's courtroom in Oakland County.

Other assistant prosecutors ensnared in scheme

The former longtime Democratic office-holder's face once appeared on billboards and websites in Macomb County, including one urging people to call 911 if they saw a driver who appeared to be drunk. Smith marketed himself as "One Tough Prosecutor" and gained national attention just three years into his career when he prosecuted the case of Stephen Grant, who killed and dismembered his wife, Tara.

Now, Smith is a convicted criminal in Macomb County like many of the people he prosecuted for nearly three decades.

'It's how it's always been': Macomb County's culture of corruption

Other former assistant prosecutors in his former office also got ensnared in Smith's schemes.

Three other people were charged in the state embezzlement investigation, including former assistant prosecutors Benjamin Liston and Derek Miller, and businessman William Weber, who operated a security company. They previously entered pleas in their cases, agreeing to testify against Smith, and are to be sentenced after Smith.

Miller, who served as Smith's former chief of operations and was a former county treasurer, pleaded guilty to the 90-day misdemeanor charge of a public official refusing/neglecting to account for county money. He is accused of saying to Smith and others in June 2018 that Employer Identification Numbers on two of the accounts could be changed to numbers that were not associated with the county. His sentencing is set for Oct. 25 in the circuit court.

Liston, a former chief assistant prosecutor who is married to Warren's 37th District Judge Suzanne Faunce, pleaded guilty in 2020 to three misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty by a public officer holding public trust. He is accused of spending forfeiture funds for personal laptops, travel expenses to his Arizona residence and a piece of sound equipment.

As part of his plea agreement, Liston is to be sentenced to 60 days in the county jail, will relinquish his law license in Michigan and will pay nearly $16,000 in restitution to the county.

Weber, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit a legal act in an illegal manner, admitted to falsifying an invoice at Smith's request for a security system installation at Smith's home to make it appear that it was installed at the prosecutor's office.

M.L. Elrick: Eric Smith, Tracy Green got big breaks instead of justice we deserve

Weber and Liston are to be sentenced in 41B District Court in Clinton Township, though no dates have been set.

During Smith's sentencing, Frezza said Smith "tainted and corrupted" Miller and Weber, brought them down and subjected them to criminal convictions.

In the kickback scheme that landed Smith in federal court, Smith wrote a check for $20,000 from his campaign fund to then-assistant prosecutor Paul Bukowski for consulting work. Bukowski cashed the check and gave $15,000 in cash to Smith for personal expenses, keeping $5,000 for the purported consulting fee.

Bukowski was not charged with a crime, but was put on paid administrative leave from the prosecutor's office. The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board in February ordered his law license suspended for 179 days and that he pay more than $2,400 in costs. He was reinstated to practice law last month, according to the discipline board's website.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Macomb County prosecutor Eric Smith sentenced in Michigan case