by P.D. Lesko

Public records from Ann Arbor’s 15th District Court show that on January 13, 2021 former Michigan State Senator Mitchell Irwin was arraigned before the Honorable Miriam A. Perry on a charge of domestic violence. Irwin is the father of Democratic Michigan State Senator Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor), and the husband of Ann Arbor City Council member Jen Strayer Eyer Irwin (D-Ward 4). 

Mitchell Irwin, a Democrat, served in the Michigan State Senate from 1979 to 1991. He represented the eastern Upper Peninsula and northern lower Michigan. Between 1986 and 1990, Irwin served as Democratic Floor Leader. Irwin also served as director of Michigan’s Department of Management and Budget from 2003 to 2005 and director of the state of Michigan’s Department of Agriculture from 2005 to 2007. Both jobs were appointments from then-governor Jennifer Granholm.

Michigan business registration records show Irwin is owner and president of The Irwin Group, a business development, investment and consulting firm with a mailing address listed as a P.O. Box in East Lansing, Mich. The business’s registered office is listed in a 2021 Annual Statement filed with the State of Michigan as an address in Ann Arbor: 716 Braeside Place. City Assessor records show that the Braeside Place home listed as Irwin’s registered office was purchased for $500,000 in December of 2019 by Jennifer Rebecca Eyer and Mitch Irwin. 

Ward 4 City Council member Jen Eyer Irwin, the former Jen Strayer Eyer, was formerly the Director of engagement at MLive. Her Vanguard bio. states that while at MLive she worked “coaching reporters in producing hard-hitting local journalism.” The mother of two teens is presently a partner at Vanguard Public Affairs, a privately-owned firm based in Lansing. Both Eyer and Mitchell Irwin joined Vanguard in 2016. According to a 2016 press release issued by Vanguard PR when they hired him, Michell Irwin, “participates in numerous limited liability companies that have developed a number of Marriott hotels and other small businesses around the state.” 

The Vanguard website no longer lists Mitchell Irwin as having the “of counsel” role for which he was hired in 2016. 

Twenty-Second Circuit Court records show Jen Eyer sued her husband Kevin Eyer for divorce in May 2018, and when the divorce was granted in August 2018, she subsequently married Mitchell Irwin, 20 years her senior. 

In November 2020, Eyer was elected to represent Ward 4 on Ann Arbor City Council. She defeated three-term incumbent Jack Eaton. Eyer’s step-son, Sen. Jeff Irwin, publicly endorsed his step-mother’s campaign without acknowledging the family connection. Instead, he touted their long-time “professional relationship” in an endorsement Eyer used in her campaign literature. Jeff Irwin was criticized for what some saw as a dishonest use of his office. Likewise, Eyer was sharply criticized. As a result, in the closing weeks of the primary election, after the majority of voters had cast their ballots by mail, Jeff Irwin admitted in a Facebook post that Jen Eyer was indeed married to his father, Mitchell Irwin.

On January 13, 2021 Mitchell Irwin appeared before Ann Arbor 15th District Court Judge Miriam A. Perry for arraignment on a charge of domestic violence. Irwin is charged with a misdemeanor. It’s not known who the victim of the domestic assault is, or the extent or type of battery with which Irwin was charged. Police records related to the complaint, investigation, charge and prosecution have been requested, but not yet released. The 15th District Court records posted online, however, show details concerning the name of the defendant, the case number, charge, the dates of 11 courtroom hearings/motions, and the date of sentencing.

According to Michigan Incident Crime Reporting, in Michigan in 2018, there were 48,264 reported victims of domestic violence. SafeHouse Center in Pittsfield Township near Ann Arbor is one of the main shelters in Washtenaw County. The non-profit offers counseling, legal services and emergency shelter through its help line at 734-995-5444. Sarah Prout Rennie is the executive director of the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. She said that we are seeing “a pandemic of increased violence.” She went on to say, “Perpetrators have little reason to fear accountability for using violence in the home. In addition to people being isolated, the systems we rely on aren’t operating in the same way.”

“For such a long time, we considered family violence a private matter so there are a lot of misconceptions about what it looks like,” says Sojie Tate, communications manager for Women’s Habitat, a United Way-funded shelter and resource center. “Violence rarely comes out of nowhere, and typically there’s a slow progression.” Research shows that, on average, women will make seven attempts to leave an abuser before ending the relationship permanently.

It’s extremely common for individuals in an unhealthy relationship to doubt their experience of abuse—either minimizing it, trying to keep it secret, or even taking on responsibility for their own mistreatment, Tate says. Also common is the perpetrator’s explicit blaming of a victim, often in the form of “If you didn’t do X, I wouldn’t have to do Y.”

Michigan law does not recognize degrees of domestic violence, but rather classifies domestic violence as either aggravated domestic violence or domestic violence. A first-time domestic violence offender will be charged with a misdemeanor and can be sentenced to as many as 93 days in jail and fined $500. A third-time offender will be charged with a felony and can be sentenced under Michigan law to five years in prison, a penalty enhanced in 2013. 

The enhanced penalty for repeat domestic assault perpetrators was instituted in 2011 via Michigan Senate Bill 0847, which went into effect on April 1, 2013. Mitchell Irwin’s son Jeff, then a Michigan Representative elected in 2010 to represent the 53rd District (Ann Arbor), voted in favor of the Bill to enhance prison terms, fines and penalties for repeat domestic violence perpetrators. 

In July 2020, Sen. Jeff Irwin introduced Senate Bill 1047. That Bill, which passed the Michigan Senate 35-2, would require prosecutors to seek a court summons rather than an arrest warrant for certain assault and domestic violence crimes. 

On his office’s website, County Prosecutor Eli Savit describes himself as “a fighter who is unafraid to take on powerful interests.” In the weeks since Mitchell Irwin’s January 13, 2021 arraignment, the new County Prosecutor has released no statement and made no public announcement or comment about the domestic violence prosecution and sentencing of the father of a sitting Michigan Senator. 

Prosecutor Savit has been asked to comment about why he kept the high profile Mitchell Irwin prosecution quiet. He has yet to respond. Senator Jeff Irwin has been asked about the prosecution of his father and whether he was aware of the man’s arraignment for domestic violence.

On March 23, 2021 Ward 4 Council member Jen Eyer Irwin’s husband, former Michigan State Senator Mitchell Irwin, will be sentenced by Judge Miriam A. Perry on one misdemeanor count of domestic violence. The 9:30 a.m. hearing is public. For information about how to obtain the Meeting ID to view the sentencing via Zoom, contact Judge Perry’s clerk Sandy Dixon: sdixon@a2gov.org.