A Closer Look: Presque Isle Co. Prosecutor Claims Corruption in Local Law Enforcement

Continuing coverage tonight on corruption claims involving local law enforcement in several Northern Michigan counties.

It’s a story 9&10 News first broke on Thursday.

The Presque Isle County Prosecutor wants the agencies investigated

Prosecutor Richard Steiger believes Presque Isle County’s Sheriff’s Department and the Alpena State Police Post are rife with corruption and cover-ups.

Steiger submitted a request to the Department of Justice for review in early August.

In it, he asks them to come to Northern Michigan, reopen several cases, and investigate the corruption claims.

State Police and the Sheriffs Department tell us they welcome an investigation, saying they have nothing to hide.

“The fact there are some on law enforcement that portray themselves as above the law and yet hold the community folks to a different standard won’t be tolerated,” said Richard Steiger.

Prosecutor Richard Steiger starts his letter to the Justice Department claiming an officer out of Alpena used exceptional clearance when the officer’s son was investigated for sex crimes.

“I think this is a clear violation of his power, so I reported it to MSP and they did an investigation to check into the matter, and reviewing the matter they said they did nothing wrong because the girl did not want to prosecute. Well, that’s just not heard of. Whenever there’s a rape, even if the victim is reluctant to go forward, that report is sent up to the prosecutor for review.

Steiger says shortly after going to the FBI, he became the center of a drug abuse investigation, but the charges were dropped.

He feels that investigation may have been in retaliation.

State police provided a statement saying matters have been investigated, and that Steiger’s claims are not true.

But his letter calls out the Sheriff’s Department too.

Moving forward; These documents show complaints by inmates of sexual assault by corrections officer Richard Hanson…and possible tampering of surveillance video to cover up those crimes.

The Sheriff says if there were any corruption within the department, he would know.

“My personal attorney has advised not to talk about the Hanson case.”

“If there’s corruption here it would be directed at me since I’m the captain of this ship. If I knew of corruption here, I would take care of it and stop it,” said Sheriff Robert Paschke.

But Steiger claims the Sheriff hasn’t done his job, and says that the department turned a blind eye to drug smuggling into the jail.

“I requested then that the Sheriff’s Department do an investigation… it was not a very good one. They requested the arrest of only one person which was not an inmate, but a person they believed was putting drugs into the dumpster to be smuggled into the jail. I requested they provide more information so we could hold those accountable in jail and prosecute them. Nothing got done, so I contacted MSP and it got buried,” said Steiger.

“Somebody was arrested it was someone in jail who brought in the drugs and he was given more time. It’s been investigated we don’t need to re investigate that… he doesn’t like that answer,” said Sheriff Paschke.

Now, they wait to hear from the Department of Justice. Both hoping an investigation is in the future.

“I think there has been a past history of officers burying matters that may involve other officers family and friends. My hopes are the Department of Justice gets involved and look into it, and whatever their decision is, at least I’ve done my job,” said Steiger.

“To cover something up you have to have something to hide we’re not hiding anything, there’s no cover up. He does make a comment that this corruption has gone on for decades by those sworn to uphold law in Presque Isle County… well that’s a big slap to everybody that’s ever worn a uniform or robe or been a prosecutor,” said Paschke.

9&10 News is following a separate sex crime investigation involving Officer Hanson, where he’s charged with inappropriately touching a woman in her Rogers City home earlier this year.