|
|
Thursday, October 13, 2016
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Michael J. Nichols
(East Tawas, MI) - In a scathing ruling that repudiates the judgment of the county prosecutor in bringing charges, an Iosco County Judge dismissed a criminal case filed by the Iosco County Prosecutor against a county employee. Mike Nichols, defense attorney for Deputy Treasurer Cathy Anderson, praised the ruling and blamed the prosecutor for “putting my client through hell” in order to gain publicity for her judicial campaign.
“What [Iosco Prosecutor] Nichol Palumbo tried to do here amounts to an abuse of power,” Nichols says. Nichols said that “the judge finding that no money was missing was a simple application of basic facts to the law. I made a 5 minute phone call with the county auditor to learn that no funds were missing. If prosecutor Palumbo had taken just a little bit of time to actually investigate the facts, this case would not have seen the light of day.”
Palumbo charged Cathy Anderson with a 10 year felony for Embezzlement by a Public Official. A preliminary examination was held on August 23rd and both sides submitted legal briefs shortly after. Iosco Judge Allen C. Yenior dismissed the case in a 4 page opinion issued October 12, 2016 that stated his finding that the charges should have never been brought. Specifically the judge questioned the statement filed by the prosecutor to seek a warrant against Ms. Anderson because it was “devoid of necessary information for a probable cause finding” and filled with “pure conclusion.” Ms. Anderson, a long-time employee of the treasurer’s office, who raised her kids in Iosco County says “I feel vindicated of criminal wrongdoing. I now am going to contemplate my next steps but first I need to put my life together again. This has been hard. It was hard to work in the office with the stress and tension. I am planning my next steps.”
Download Opinion
For Nichols, the prosecutor’s actions raise serious questions about her political motivations. “Prosecutor Palumbo put my client through hell for her own political gain and she should have to answer to why she decided to waste the taxpayers’ money on charging this case,” he said. In particular, Nichols wants answers on whether the prosecutor made any agreement with treasury department employee Jane Hackborn in exchange for Hackborn’s bizarre and incomprehensible testimony at the preliminary examination, which Judge Yenior considered to be biased and not credible in his opinion. Nichols added that “the timing of a meeting between Hackborn and Palumbo over this issue just a few days before Hackborn filed to run for the Treasurer’s job and Palumbo brought these unfounded charges speaks for itself.”
Nichols will be available to meet with the media Thursday October 13th and Friday October 14th in East Tawas.”