Stuart Dunning III, a prosecutor known to be a hard-line defender of the downtrodden; fighting human trafficking, throwing sex traffickers in jail, and taking a hard stand against prostitution, has been found out.
The 63-year-old, who has had a distinguished career as top prosecutor for Ingham County, also has a ferocious habit – he pays prostitutes and anyone else he sets his heart on for sex. It is confirmed, though, that he didn’t just begin hiring prostitutes for sex recently.
His favorite escort websites – Escort Vault and Backpage.com, attest to this.
According to police, prosecutor Dunning would meet the sex workers at motels, occasionally at a pimp’s house, and he’s known to have spent hundreds of dollars three or four times a week for bouts with the sex workers, many of whom are almost always high on heroin.
As at the time of arrest at a coffeehouse Lansing, Michigan, the prosecutor had been involved in hundreds of illegal encounters in three Michigan counties between 2010 and 2015, according to an arrest affidavit.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says:
“’For the past 20 years, he’s been the top prosecutor for Ingham County, a man who put sex traffickers in jail and built a reputation as an outspoken advocate for ending human trafficking and prostitution.
This is not a going into Barnes and Noble and buying something as a client or a customer, this is an instance where an officer of the law, an officer of the court, the prosecutor in the capital city of Michigan has a responsibility to enforce the law, report crimes, but he did just the opposite. He was a participant in commercial sex activity.'”
Dunning was hit with 15 criminal charges across three counties, which include willful neglect of duty and pandering. According to the affidavit, the pandering charge was due to the prosecutor paying for sex with a woman who was seeking help to resolve a child custody dispute.
He also faces 10 counts of engaging in the services of prostitutes, a misdemeanor, in Ingham, Clinton, and Ionia counties. While he’s been arraigned and released on bond, neither Dunning nor his attorney has made any comments about the case.
His arrest came on the heels of a year-long investigation by the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the FBI and the state attorney general’s office, authorities said. If convicted, he could spend up to 20 years behind bars, and evidence abounds that Dunning may not be able to escape all these charges.
Attorney General Schuette has called on Prosecutor Dunning to resign.
“We live in a time where people wonder if government actually works,” the attorney general said. “People wonder if the system is rigged. People wonder whether we have a ‘wink and a nod’ justice system where the chosen few skate and escape punishment because of who they know or because they hold an important position in government.”
“Well, let me be very direct and crystal clear,” he added. “The system in Michigan is not rigged. Not on my watch.”
Featured Image Credit: Michigan Municipal League Via Flickr Under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivs 2.0 Generic
