Appeals Court Won’t Stop Virgil Smith’s Detroit City Council Campaign

DETROIT, MI — The Michigan Court of Appeals said Tuesday it won’t stop former state senator Virgil Smith, who famously fired an assault weapon at his ex-wife’s car in 2015, from seeking election to the Detroit City Council. Denying Smith the right to campaign for office would violate his constitutional rights, the court said in a 2-1 decision.

The appeals court decision is a setback for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who argued the trial judge in Smith’s plea to a lesser charge erred when he threw out Smith’s agreement not to seek elective office for five years, saying it was unconstitutional.

The appeals court initially said Worthy’s appeal was moot because Smith resigned from the Senate, but agreed to hear the case after Smith finished second the Detroit City Council District 2 primary earlier this month, winning the right to advance to the November general election.

(For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, and click here to find your local Michigan Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Like the Detroit Patch Facebook page below, then continue reading the story.

Writing for the majority, Judges Deborah Servitto and Michael Kelly agreed with the trial judge, saying it’s unconstitutional for a prosecutor to try to negotiate a politician’s future as part of criminal plea deal.

“Not only was the offer unconstitutional, but it also carried with it the possibility of abuse by future prosecutors,” they wrote. “It is not hard to extend the prosecution’s actions in this case to reach a situation where a prosecutor in the future might go on a fishing expedition against a political opponent, threaten to charge them with serious felonies, and then provide a ‘voluntary’ outlet from that possibility by giving up their position in the legislature and agreeing to not run in the future.”

Worthy said in a statement Wednesday she will appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court. She didn’t elaborate, but has previously said Smith voluntarily agreed to the terms of the deal and wasn’t coerced.

In his dissent, Judge Michael Riordan said the trial judge, Wayne Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon erred when he refused to vacate Smith’s plea agreement, as Worthy requested after he stripped Smith’s agreement not to seek elective office.

Smith, 37, was initially charged in the May 2015 incident involving his ex wife with felonious assault, malicious destruction of personal property $20,000 or more, domestic violence assault and battery and felony firearm, but pleaded to the lesser charge. He resigned from the Senate and agreed not to hold public office during his five-year probationary period, but the trial judge tossed that out, ruling it was an unfair restriction on the public’s right to choose their elected officials.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)