Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon to step down midway into second term

LANSING − Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, whose efforts to enact criminal justice reforms have sometimes drawn loud criticism, plans to leave her post at the end of the year.

Siemon, 66, announced Wednesday she will retire on Dec. 31 after 17 years with the county, the last six as its chief law enforcement officer.

"I now plan to move on to the next stage of my life, although the memories of these career experiences make this a bittersweet occasion," the Democrat said in a letter to Chief Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk.

"Since taking office in 2017, it has been a pleasure to support and develop my outstanding co-workers who do the vital day-to-day work of this office. They have been subject to many extraordinary stressors over the past few years and have constantly risen to every challenge. My pride in their efforts cannot be overstated."

Siemon was an assistant county prosecutor for 11 years, including four years as chief of the juvenile division, before being elected prosecutor in 2016. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2020. The county's circuit judges will likely appoint someone to serve the remaining two years of her current term.

Siemon was the first woman to be elected Ingham County prosecutor, although now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had been appointed to serve the last six months of Stuart Dunnings III's term after he resigned after being charged with prostitution-related crimes.

Siemon said she tried to address the issues of violence against women and racial disparities in the justice system, as well as crime- and courts-related problems brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Through it all, we have been fortunate for the great work and support that's made these efforts possible, working not only with our office's staff, county leaders and those in partner agencies, but also with advocates and activists who have sought to create change," she said in her letter to Draganchuk.

In recent years, at least, Siemon has drawn criticism for her charging and plea-bargain policies.

In 2020, she offered to let a man accused of bludgeoning two women to death who police also said had a plan to kill two others and was on parole for domestic assault plead guilty to second-degree murder, with a minimum sentence range of 30 to 50 years. Siemon said she doesn't believe in life-without-parole sentences, which are automatic with a first-degree murder conviction. Even if rehabilitation is unlikely, the man deserved the chance to change, she explained.

In that case, police said Kiernan Brown set out on a plan to kill four women after trying to get inside his ex-girlfriend's house. He managed to kill two of them before being caught.

The victims' parents objected to the plea deal, and Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth asked state Attorney General Dana Nessel to take over the case. Nessel, also a Democrat, declined.

"Everybody that's involved in this case, in these cases, thinks this plea offer is ridiculous," Wriggelsworth said at the time.

Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina rejected the plea deal and allowed Brown to withdraw his guilty pleas, saying Siemon was trying "to be creative to get around the judge and the Legislature, and quite frankly, the law" in what the judge described as "textbook first-degree, premeditated" murder cases.

Brown later pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 70 to 100 years in prison. While sentencing Brown in early November, Aquilina called for Siemon to step down.

"I will not sit here and thank Carol Siemon ever," the judge said.

In response, Siemon said her heart "has always been with the victims and their loved ones."

"As the elected prosecutor, I have a responsibility for making the tough calls, and I stand by all of the work that I've done," she said in the statement. "My responsibility is to do my best to hold people responsible for the harm they cause others while also ensuring that the criminal legal system is fair, ethical and just."

In August of 2021, Wriggelsworth and a group of police chiefs held a news conference to criticize Siemon's decision to limit the use of felony firearm possession charges, calling her actions “misguided.” Siemon said her office would limit using that charge as her office implemented reforms to decrease racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Some police chiefs called for Simon to resign.

In response, Siemon said the chiefs’ “emotional and inaccurate statements” about the policy change played on fears about the rise of gun violence. She said increases in homicides and violent crimes have occurred nationwide in places that have enacted justice reform and those that haven’t.

In at least two cases, victims' families complained when Siemon's decided to charge teenage murder defendants in juvenile court rather than as adults.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon to step down midway into second term