Democratic activist Mark Brewer has filed campaign violation complaints against Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido with the state in addition to prior complaints with the county Ethics Board about different but related issues.
“Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido is a serial violator of” a state law that prohibits public officials from using public resources for a political campaign,” Brewer says in the complaint. “The evidence is overwhelming that Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido has repeatedly violated (state law) by using Macomb County funds, personnel, office space, computers, email lists, property, equipment, supplies, and other public resources to engage in political campaign activities. He has illegally treated the Prosecutor’s Office as an arm of his reelection campaign.”
Brewer, a former longtime chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, alleges in a complaint filed Friday with the Secretary of State’s Bureau of Elections that Lucido has used a county email to send a newsletter to county employees at their county email addresses that includes a heading with a link to his campaign web site, used an intern to perform campaign work in the office, sold campaign items at a county-sponsored senior event last fall and used county employees and resources for personal and campaign activities.
Brewer said he wants to hold Lucido accountable.
“He’s subject to the law like everyone else,” he said. “He should obey the. He should stop violating the law.”
Lucido, a Republican, responded Friday by accusing Brewer of conducting a “political attack” and “grasping at straws,” and touting the accomplishments of his office.
“He is grasping at straws because he knows the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office is much better off than it was four years ago,” Lucido said in a written statement.
He indicates he has not seen the new allegations and repeats a prior attack on Brewer by noting the $500,000 fine levied against Michigan Democrats in 2017 for bingo games that operated under his leadership as party chair.
“This is a political attack by a political consultant involved in campaign finance violations that resulted in a $500,000 fine,” Lucido said. “He complained he was denied due process. But he is now doing exactly the same thing by sending out a political attack to the press before I have even seen a copy. I’ll address it when I see it.”
Lucido pointed to achievements in increasing child-support collections, forming a Hate Crimes Unit and Conviction Integrity Unit, and requesting mental health assessments for new defendants in gun crimes.
Brewer, who is a lawyer, in February filed complaints about Lucido with the county Ethics Board accusing him of improperly allowing then Sterling Heights political candidate Paul Manni to use a photograph of the candidate and Lucido in the prosecutor’s office at the county Administration Building in Mount Clemens. He also alleged a photograph of Lucido on his campaign web site was taken at the same office.
Those complaints will be subject of an April 16 Ethics Board meeting at which time it will determine whether it will investigate.
Regarding the recent complaint about Lucido’s newsletters, Brewer says the prosecutor had his communications director, Dawn Fraylick, send the newsletters from a county email to employees’ county email.
Brewer also provides a 2021 allegation from an intern employee by Lucido that she was performing campaign-related work and quit.
In an email Brewer said he obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, Wayne State University student Adrianna Biggens tells Prosecutor’s Office employee Jennifer Putney (who now works in the Sheriff’s Office) in a July 19, 2021 email that she is quitting.
“I accepted the internship opportunity to determine if I should invest in law school or pursue another career,” she wrote. “Thus far my experience has consisted of organizing and assisting in campaigning efforts. Consequently, I have made the painful decision to pursue other opportunities that will provide real-world experience, post-graduation. I will … submit my badge tomorrow morning.”
In another alleged violation, Lucido has distributed tote bags that feature the web address of his campaign at at least one county-sponsored senior event. Brewer includes photos that he says he retrieved from Facebook that show the bags at Lucido’s table and him distributing them.
Brewer also revives campaign-violation complaints that were included in a 2022 report by Butzel Long law firm commissioned by County Executive Mark Hackel due to excessive workplace complaints against Lucido.
The report alleges four employees said Lucido conducted myriad of campaign activities on county time and with county resources. The report recommended complaints be filed with the state and county Ethics Board. It was unclear whether any were filed.
Lucido allegedly used county employees to review newspapers and clip newspaper “to identify potential recipients of campaign- style notes for those individuals/entities (these were referred to as ‘Happy Notes’ and ‘Tributes’),” the report says, according to Brewer. Happy Notes and Tributes were drafted and sent at county expense to people by county employees, the report says.
Lucido had employees send certificates congratulation graduating high school seniors, used county personnel and resources to write press releases and print campaign invoices, and used county employees and resources to “work on non- Prosecutor Office business, such as work on Trustee documents and/or obtaining access for Prosecutor Lucido as Trustee to a Trust,” according to the report.
Brewer also added an argument to his Ethics Board complaint noting photos of Lucido and Manni in his office and the photo of Lucido at his desk are similar to an allegation several years ago against then-county public works commissioner Anthony Marrocco, who was fined $125 by the board. Morocco filmed a campaign TV commercial at the the Chapaton pump station in St. Clair Shores, a county facility.
