LANSING (WWJ) – Former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith has been sentenced to a year of incarceration for a public corruption scheme uncovered in 2020.
The sentence is to be served concurrently with the 21-month federal sentence Smith has been serving since February 2022. He previously pleaded guilty to federal charges of attempting to obstruct justice.
Last month Smith, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct in office, one count of tampering with evidence in a civil proceeding and one count of conspiracy to commit forgery.
He admitted to misusing public funds and “acting with corrupt intent in the exercise of his office,” according to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
Smith learned his sentence Wednesday, which also includes four years of probation, 750 hours of community service, forfeiture of his public pension, restitution in the amount of $25,000, an $8,000 fine for official misconduct and other various fines and costs.
Smith was released from jail last February due to health concerns and is spending the remainder of his sentence at home. The new sentence will expire before the end of his federal sentence.
Smith, who began working in the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office in 1993, was first elected as prosecutor in 2004. He resigned in March 2020 after Nessel filed criminal charges.
His $25,000 restitution payment will go to the county’s drug and OWI forfeiture accounts. A Michigan State Police investigation revealed Smith embezzled more than $600,000 in drug and forfeiture funds from the county and used it for personal use.
While the money was intended to be used for law enforcement, he instead bought gifts, threw parties and installed a home security system, among other uses. The owner of the security company that installed the system – as well as two other co-defendants – were previously convicted in the case.
“No one is above the law, regardless of what office they serve. The former Prosecutor severely abused his position of power,” Nessel said at the time of Smith’s plea. “Those charged with upholding the law should be held to the highest ethical standards.”
Under the Public Employee Retirement Benefits Forfeiture Act, Smith must only forfeit pension benefits “accrued after the first act that resulted in felony conviction,” according to Nessel’s office. The earliest act for which Smith admitted guilt occurred March 24, 2014, meaning the forfeiture act is triggered from this date.
“That Eric Smith is allowed to retain any portion of his pension after so egregiously violating the public trust for many years is striking evidence that the law on this matter is badly inadequate to address the scope of Smith’s crimes,” Nessel said, per a Wednesday press release. “I would encourage our legislative partners to revisit the statute that has limited our prosecutorial ability to remove the full pension benefits of such a prolific thief of public dollars and public trust.”
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