GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Michigan’s attorney general is making changes after an “oversight” in her office delayed criminal charges in a car crash that killed a woman and baby.
“We are reviewing every step of this to determine what the breakdown was to ensure it never happens again,” said AG Communications Director Kelly Rossman-McKinney when the error was first discovered.
“Attorney General Dana Nessel and Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud have both been made aware of this situation and are deeply troubled by it.”
Ultimately, it took one year for charges to be filed against the driver who allegedly rear-ended a car carrying a family returning home from Sunday church.
The Michigan State Police say Brian Wayne Johnson, 27, of Cedar Springs, slammed into the back of the car, which was stopped on M-46, waiting to turn left onto Amble Road.
The accident killed two people in the stopped car — Samantha Baker, 18, of Winfield Township, and her nine-month-old niece, Annalee Baker.
CASE OVERLOOKED FOR THREE MONTHS IN AG’S OFFICE
The oversight at the office of Attorney General occurred after the Montcalm County Prosecutor’s Office requested a special prosecutor due to a conflict — one of its assistant prosecutors is distantly related to the victims’ family.
Montcalm County Prosecutor Andrea Krause told Target 8 her office received the case following the Michigan State Police investigation in March 2019 and requested a special prosecutor in July.
“The conflict was not discovered until July … While ideally, it would have been nice to discover the conflict sooner, that did not happen in this case due to the volume of cases that my office prosecuted last year and the lack of resources and staff,” Krause said.
But there was yet another delay when Montcalm’s request reached the Attorney General’s office, which is responsible for assigning such cases to outside prosecutors when a conflict exists in the county where the incident occurred.
While Krause submitted the special prosecutor request via email to the AG on July 17, Nessel’s office still had not assigned the case when a reporter for the Greenville Daily News called to get an update on October 22.
REQUEST WENT TO GENERAL EMAIL MONITORED BY STUDENTS
Rossman-McKinney told the Daily News reporter that Krause’s request sat in “a general AG email that students handle and was not forwarded to the appropriate division,” until the Daily News called to check on the case, three months after the initial request.
“Unfortunately, the request was overlooked,” Ryan Jarvi, an AG Press Secretary, wrote in an email exchange with Target 8 this week.
Jarvi said when the request was discovered, it was expedited so a special prosecutor could be assigned promptly.
On October 28, nine months after the crash happened, the AG assigned the Montcalm County case to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who filed a charge against Johnson in December 2019.
Press Secretary Jarvi told Target 8 that as a result of the error, the Attorney General’s office has initiated a new policy to ensure such an oversight never occurs again.
NEW, DEDICATED EMAIL ONLY FOR SPECIAL PROSECUTOR REQUESTS
“A new email mailbox was established and dedicated exclusively to handle special prosecutor requests,” Jarvi explained in an email.
“The new address was publicized with county prosecutors, and AG staffers were reminded of the importance of monitoring the email. County prosecutors were also told to call the division chief directly if they have not heard back about their request after a reasonable amount of time has passed.”
When Johnson goes to court on April 3, 15 months after the deadly crash police say he caused, he’ll face a charge of misdemeanor moving violation causing death.
If convicted, he’ll lose his license for a year and could get up to one year in jail.
Becker said state law prohibits him from filing any harsher charge because Johnson had no drugs nor alcohol in his system, and his phone showed he was not calling nor texting at the time of the accident.
Johnson told troopers he did not see brake lights on the vehicle he hit, which he said he tried to avoid by swerving.