Matt Mencarini

Lansing State Journal

LANSING — Stuart Dunnings III, Ingham County's prosecuting attorney for nearly two decades, paid for sex "hundreds of times" with multiple women between 2010 and 2015, according to information released this afternoon by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's office.

Dunnings is facing 15 criminal charges in Ingham, Clinton and Ionia counties. Ten are misdemeanors of engaging the services of a prostitute, according to court records, but one count is for pandering — enticing another person to become a prostitute — a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Court records also show a charges of willful neglect of duty and counts of engaging in the services of a prostitute.

Federal child porn charges added for former Macomb County PR rep

The charges stem from a federal investigation into a human trafficking ring based in Michigan, Schuette's office said in a news release.

Tyrone Smith, the leader of that trafficking ring, pleaded guilty in federal court in November to three counts of sex trafficking girls and women and transporting them across state lines as part of an interstate prostitution ring.

Smith admitted recruiting one woman in December 2012, providing her with heroin, marketing her for sex online and arranging for men to pay her for sex in Lansing, Chicago and other cities over a two-year period, according to the release. He admitted doing the same to a 17-year-old girl in December 2014. He is to be sentenced in April and faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison.

Lansing official who quit gets a $160K payout

Mike Dillon, court administrator for 55th District Court, said judges there have recused themselves and that Dunnings, 63, would be arraigned by Jackson County 12th District Court Judge Michael Klaeren.

Dunnings hasn't been arraigned yet, according to court records.

Dunnings, a Democrat, was first elected prosecutor in November 1996 and was most recently re-elected in 2012 to his fifth four-year term. He is a past president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

Schuette is asking anyone who may have been a victim of Dunnings to contact the Attorney General's Office at 517-241-6556.

Tom Thelan and Dave Wasinger contributed to this report.