Corruption On Display: The Ann Arbor City Attorney, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor, and the Irwin/Eyer DV Case

by Patricia Lesko

The majority of domestic abusers are poorly-educated, white men. In the case of Mitchell Irwin, the abuser is a 1 Percenter Poster Boy, an educated, rich, 68-year-old white man, a former Michigan State Senator, Granholm appointee, former Democratic Leader in the Michigan State Senate, and the father of Ann Arbor’s current Michigan State Senator, Jeff Irwin. His victim is a 45-year-old white woman, an Ann Arbor City Council member and a former campaign staffer for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, when she ran in 2018. The County Prosecutor is a white man. He agreed to allow Mitch Irwin to plead no contest, to receive a suspended jail sentence and probation. A trifecta of privilege that, a local attorney pointed out, doesn’t appear to be allowed under the applicable Michigan domestic violence sentencing statute.

A local Ann Arbor attorney with 25 years of experience, and who handles domestic violence cases, told me that “Nolo [pleading no contest], receiving a suspended sentence and probation is not common and doesn’t appear to be allowed under the Michigan statute.” To receive a suspended sentence and probation, first-time domestic violence offenders are required to plead guilty, to take public, legal responsibility for their crime.

The only Person of Color in this sad saga is Judge Miriam Perry. She was appointed to fill a vacancy, and will have to run in 2022, if she intends to hold on to her seat on the 15th District Court bench.

The sentencing agreement offered to Irwin by the County Prosecutor and accepted by Judge Perry isn’t the only example of special treatment extended to the husband of Ann Arbor Council member Jen Eyer Irwin.

That the Ann Arbor City Attorney, another white man, withheld the Ann Arbor Police record of a domestic violence call to the home of Council member Eyer Irwin and her husband is also an abuse of governmental power. Why did he do it? It’s not rocket science: Eyer Irwin is Postema’s boss. She evaluates his job performance annually and votes on his pay and benefits, as a member of Council. Eyer Irwin is a part of a lock-step majority that could form a block of votes and fire Stephen Postema at the next Council meeting. The better question is who asked him to do it, and who decided that the decision should be kept from the City Administrator. City Hall staffers say Crawford was kept completely in the dark about what Postema did to MLive until a trio of FOIA appeals crossed Crawford’s desk. On April 7, Crawford over-ruled Postema and decided that the Irwin/Eyer Irwin police report would be released to MLive as well as another requester.

That the public record request for the Eyer/Irwin police record by MLive on January 27, 2021 was treated differently by the City Attorney than a similar public records request by The Michigan Daily for a domestic violence 911 call to the home of former Michigan football player (and Dallas Cowboy) Jourdan Lewis and his then girlfriend, is more evidence that the City Attorney abused governmental power and privilege to benefit himself, as well as one of his bosses and her politically-connected husband. Whereas the City Attorney withheld the Eyer/Irwin police record in its entirety from the requester without notifying the requester of the missing record, the City turned over the Jourdan Lewis file in its entirety to The Michigan Daily days after the 911 call. It was turned over to The Ann Arbor Independent in four days at no charge and lightly redacted.

Why does the one public record involving Postema’s boss and her husband require the need for absolute secrecy, while the public record documenting the domestic violence report involving Jourdan Lewis require no secrecy and minimal redaction?

Mitchell Irwin and Jen Eyer Irwin are white and politically-connected. Eyer Irwin evaluates Postema and votes to set his pay and benefits. Jourdan Lewis is Black. While he was certainly a public person as a UM football starter, he was also a student. Mitchell Irwin was allowed, contrary to state statute, to enter a plea of no contest. He was sentenced to a suspended jail term, probation, mental health treatment, restrictions that forbid alcohol consumption, told not to assault his wife or anyone else, and has no access to firearms. Jourdan Lewis was found innocent of all charges by a jury two months after the Postema released his AAPD report to the media.

The abuse of governmental power and privilege to benefit government employees, elected officials and their families is the definition of corruption.

Stephen Postema has repeatedly been accused of representing the interests of the Mayor—doing his bidding— as opposed to representing Council as a body. In 2018, Council members spoke openly of wanting to fire him. Yet, Postema sails on. However, the City Attorney’s professional schooner has hit an immense iceberg in the form of Council member Jen Eyer Irwin (D-Ward 4). To protect Eyer Irwin and possibly himself, Postema allegedly broke Michigan law by illegally withholding from MLive an AAPD police report (in its entirety) pertaining to Eyer Irwin and her husband. The City’s response to MLive included a disclaimer that the FOIA had been granted in part and denied in part. In the letter of explanation, the requester was told that “police report information” had been withheld. The disclaimer did not inform the requester that an entire police report had been withheld, but rather that some “information” had been omitted. It was a clear deception.

Why does Postema’s deception of MLive’s reporter matter? The City Attorney’s actions almost allowed a serious crime committed by the husband of a sitting Ann Arbor Council member to be concealed.

Worse, Postema’s actions allowed the victim, abuser, Prosecutor and Judge to implement one particularly horrifying Motion in secret. Court records show that on January 27, the victim petitioned Judge Miriam A. Perry to permit the abuser to have contact with her and her children. The request to give Mitchell Irwin access to Eyer’s teen children was supported by Prosecutor Eli Savit and granted by the judge without restrictions. A study published by the American Medical Association in 2019 concluded that, “witnessing domestic abuse carries the same risk of harm to children’s mental health and learning as being abused directly.” It is for this reason, that psychologists who specialize in the treatment of domestic violence victims and their children, routinely recommend to Courts that prior to treatment for the entire family, abusers should never be given access to children who have witnessed the violence or reported it.

On March 23, 2021, Mitch Irwin’s Court records were sealed, thanks to a Michigan law that governs the sentencing of first-time domestic violence offenders. After successfully completing probation, the charge of domestic violence is dismissed. The only record that remains is private, viewable by law enforcement. Had The Ann Arbor Independent and Michigan Advance not reported on March 22/23 about Irwin’s crime and obtained the Court file, there would have been no public trace of his crime, arrest, arraignment and sentencing. A politically-connected, rich, white man, the husband of a City Council member and the father of a Michigan State Senator, would have successfully hidden a serious crime with the collaboration of the County Prosecutor and the Ann Arbor City Attorney.

Eyer’s supporters on Council and on social media have howled about the MLive and A2 Indy public records requests and coverage. The Mayor recently referred to Council member Ali Ramlawi’s public call to investigate the City Attorney’s handling of the Irwin/Eyer Irwin police record FOIA scandal “repulsive,” an effort to shame the victim. It was a predictable display of self-serving theatrics from Taylor. University of Michigan Professor and Ward 1 Council member Dr. Lisa Disch dipped back into what must have been her fantasies of the 50s, Mamie Eisenhower and dark sunglasses as evening wear for abused women when she responded to Ramlawi. Disch said domestic violence is “between those members of that household.” The CDC classifies domestic violence as a public health crisis.

The media should stop reporting, stop asking questions and stop “victim-shaming” so bellow Eyer Irwin’s social media “supporters” who are primarily white, well-to-do men. Like Disch and Taylor, theirs is a pathologically ghoulish tactic that pushes silence and shaming. In reality, these pompous white men and women have no concern for justice, Eyer or her children. If they did, they would be screaming bloody murder about the cover-up of the crime against her family, as well as the January 27 Motion filed by Eyer Irwin. They would be protesting the Prosecutor’s ignorance of domestic violence best practices where access to children is concerned. They would be slamming the Judge’s misguided ruling to allow the abuser access to a teen who not only witnessed the violence, but whose 911 call resulted in him being hauled off to jail. Instead, Council members, with the exception of Ramlawi and Hayner, have been mute. It is a sickening display of cowardice and a spectacular lack of leadership.

Mitchell Irwin refused to plead guilty, and he showed up to his March 23 sentencing from a darkened room in his house in disguise, wearing a mask and glasses to hide his face. Watching Irwin at his sentencing was like watching a 3-year-old play the game whereby they cover their faces, and magically become invisible to all. When the judge asked him if he had anything to say, he thanked her for generosity in sentencing him. His post-sentencing “statement” released to the media through his lawyer was written in the third person.

When confronted by MLive in a March 26 article titled, “City withheld police records about Ann Arbor official and ex-senator, citing privacy,” Postema said in a written statement, “Domestic violence matters require particular sensitivity and need for privacy.”

That’s why the Michigan FOIA statute allows redaction of public records in very limited instances, when the need for redaction outweighs the public’s right to know about the functioning of government. It’s why Jourdan Lewis’s 24-page police report was lightly redacted. It’s why that report was turned over to The Ann Arbor Independent in four days, at no charge and turned over the The Michigan Daily.

Stephen Postema’s abuse of governmental power and privilege to benefit Mitchell Irwin and Jennifer Eyer Irwin, and potentially himself, is classic corruption. It must be investigated, and all involved held accountable.