Michigan AG moves to dismiss sexual assault cases after investigating prosecutor

Kathleen Gray | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel withdrawing from cases Since taking office on Jan. 1, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has withdrawn the state from 23 cases that were championed by Bill Schuette.

Sexual assault charges against an Oxford man and his stepson were tentatively dismissed Monday in the continuing fallout from a former assistant attorney general's mishandling of cases.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she filed a motion in Oakland County's district court in Rochester Hill to dismiss the charges against Larry Orr and his stepson Sean MacMaster, who now lives in Florida. They were charged in Oakland County with two counts each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under the age of 13.

The dismissal motions were the culmination of a two-month investigation done by the Attorney General's Office after it was revealed that former assistant Attorney General Brian Kolodziej had an inappropriate and intimate relationship with the victim of a sexual assault case that he was prosecuting in Isabella County.

The AG's office investigated all of the cases handled by Kolodziej, a 41-year-old Clinton Township resident who resigned after the relationship came to light. The cases against Orr and MacMaster were the two that rose to the level of further investigation and have been turned over to the Michigan State Police to see whether criminal charges can be brought against Kolodziej.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office had investigated the cases against Orr and MacMaster in 2015 and submitted its findings to the prosecutor's office, which ended up not charging the two men because it couldn't establish that the crime had occurred, said Undersheriff Mike McCabe. The Attorney General's Office, with Kolodziej as the lead prosecutor, took up the case earlier this year.

In a Sept. 13 letter to Nessel, McCabe wrote, "The defendants were thoroughly investigated on the same allegations in 2015 by the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, the Oakland County Proseuctor's Office, Child Protective Services and the FBI. After careful review, it was determined by all four agencies that the case lacked evidence and probably cause to justify actions by CPS or an arrest warrant for either Mr. Orr or Mr. McMaster."

McCabe also wrote that the two men were held for six months in the Oakland County Jail and that MacMaster, who had passed several polygraph exams, was held in an isolation cell because he is a police officer in Duval County, Florida.

Nessel did not give details of what led to Monday's motion to dismiss the charges. But Kolodziej resigned in September amid reports he was having a relationship with a victim in a separate case, leading to an investigation into his other cases.

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“I am compelled to dismiss the charges in this case following the information we received regarding Mr. Kolodziej’s prosecutorial conduct, which are tantamount to serious violations of our prosecutorial standards,” Nessel said in a statement.

MacMaster's attorney Alona Sharon said her client was "elated" by the news and looked forward to a district court hearing on Dec. 4 when a judge is expected to formalize the dismissal.

"My client is very happy with the outcome and that’s all we’re prepared to say about it," she said, declining to say whether a lawsuit against the state would be coming.

Chief Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Paul Walton said the "convoluted history" of the case made it impossible for him to issue a warrant back in 2015.

"Not based on the evidence we had," he said, "We had no evidence of sexual abuse and we had two forensic interviews of the child where there was no disclosure of criminal sexual assault."

Nessel spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney said Nessel wouldn't provide more specifics about the motion for dismissal because the internal investigation has been forwarded to the Michigan State Police and the Attorney Grievance Commission, and the office doesn't want to jeopardize any criminal charges that might be recommended by them.

In addition to dropping the charges, Nessel also offered to set aside the plea deal of Ian Elliott, a Central Michigan University student who had pleaded no contest to a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and was serving a sentence of 366 days at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in mid-Michigan.

The sexual assault case involved Elliott and two women during the summer of 2016. Kolodziej was allegedly involved in an intimate relationship with one of the women in the case.

He resigned following the discovery of the relationship. Immediately after Kolodziej’s resignation, the attorney general called for an internal investigation to review all of his criminal cases within the department.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to address the issues caused by Mr. Kolodziej’s employment as an assistant attorney general,” Nessel said. “We will submit all of our internal interviews to the Michigan State Police as well as the Attorney Grievance Commission so they may independently determine appropriate actions."

Nessel said the actions shouldn't be interpreted as the office not believing the victims in the case. The dismissals were made "without prejudice," which means that the charges can be reinstated if further investigation warrants such action.

“In the end, today does not reflect the truthfulness of the victims in these cases but rather the consequence of a prosecutor who failed in his sacred duty to properly administer justice in our legal system.

“As a strong advocate of transparency, I had every intention to release the conclusions of our internal investigation,” said Nessel. “But after receiving an opinion from our Ethics Officer related to a release of the report and after several discussions with the law enforcement agencies pursuing a criminal investigation into Mr. Kolodziej’s actions at our request, I ultimately but regretfully came to the conclusion that we simply cannot release this information at this time.”

Nessel said the investigation took nearly two months to complete and included interviews with 26 individuals.

Kolodziej was hired in September 2018 under former Attorney General Bill Schuette, The 41-year-old Clinton Township native was an actor before becoming a lawyer, appearing in minor television and movie roles, including “Creep Van,” “Flight of the Living Dead,” “The Girl Next Door” and “Malibu Spring Break.”

According to a 2013 profile of Kolodziej in the Legal News, he was a special assistant attorney general in Genesee County as well as an assistant prosecutor in Macomb County before he joined the state Attorney General's Office last year.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.