I thought Eliot Spitzer set a high bar for hypocritical prosecutors, but Ingham County (Michigan) Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings makes him look like a piker.
Dunnings, a well-respected prosecutor since 1997 and an outspoken advocate for ending human trafficking and prostitution, is facing fifteen criminal charges in Ingham, Clinton and Ionia counties, including ten counts of prostitution, pandering and four counts of willful neglect of duty.
Investigators connected to a 2015 federal investigation into a Michigan-based human trafficking ring determined that between 2010 and 2015, Dunnings paid for sex hundreds of times with many women whom he contacted using escort websites. Dunnings also allegedly induced one woman to become a prostitute,leading to the pandering charge, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years. The prosecutor’s brother, Lansing attorney Steven Dunnings, was also charged with two counts of prostitution.
Ethics Alarms frequently finds itself annoyed by mistaken, incorrect or unfair accusations of hypocrisy, and is grateful to Dunning, who claimed to be dedicated to wiping out human trafficking and prostitution while he was really supporting both with his patronage, for giving us a clear and unequivocal demonstration of what real hypocrisy looks like.
Do as I say and not as I do.
I’d say that hypocrisy is among the lesser sins of this Officer of the Court and his equally lowdown brother.