In 2024, Mauriel Dashawn Hearn hog-tied a woman to a bed, briefly suffocated her with a plastic bag, and then threatened to sexually assault her. But luckily for Hearn, he committed his crime near Ann Arbor, Michigan, enabling him to get off with just two years’ probation — all thanks to the activist Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office led by left-wing wonderkid Eli Savit.
That kid-glove treatment left 25-year-old Hearn free last month to sit outside of a Panera in Oakland County, Michigan, and look for vulnerable victims to carjack. When he spotted a weak target, a mother coming out of an Old Navy with her young son, he acted quickly, shooting her in the hip and stealing her car, according to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. The mother, who was nearly hit in a major artery, bled profusely before being taken to a hospital and surviving her injuries.
That shooting has caused Savit to face denunciations from all around.
Bouchard didn’t hold back in condemning the fact that Hearn was on the streets. “Some of these prosecutors just have to do their damn job,” he said.
“It’s frustrating, it makes me mad, that we have a victim who didn’t have to be a victim,” he continued. “This person should have been behind bars, in my opinion, based on the charges he even pled to.”
Democrat Karen McDonald, the prosecuting attorney for Oakland County, didn’t hold back, either. “My priority is always public safety,” she said. “As prosecutors, we have a responsibility to protect the public from violent individuals like the defendant in this case. If we lose sight of that, bad things can happen to good people.”
Eli Savit, who is now running to be Michigan’s attorney general against Republican Doug Lloyd, took office in 2021, during the height of wokeness. He ran on a platform of “reform” and, upon taking office, immediately ended cash bail, announced he would not prosecute prostitution (which he deemed to be “sex work”), and said he would not prosecute the use or possession of psychedelic mushrooms. His profile at the University of Michigan Law School, where he is a lecturer, reveals that his goal as Washtenaw County prosecutor is to “ensure equitable justice for all county residents.” (READ MORE: Radical District Attorney Decriminalizes Prostitution)
Savit came to office with the perfect progressive pedigree. He had served as a law clerk to two Supreme Court justices: Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He had worked at the prestigious firm Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and held the role of senior legal counsel in the Detroit mayor’s office under Mike Duggan. He had also successfully worked to have the Michigan Civil Rights Commission declare that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited under Michigan civil rights law.
On his campaign website for attorney general, Savit pledges to “take on corporate polluters, protect workers and consumers from exploitation, and hold powerful interests accountable.” An image on the front page of his website features him wearing a shirt that reads “Protect safe, legal abortion.”
Savit’s response to the criticism over his treatment of Hearn has been to claim that Hearn was not treated leniently. Specifically, his office stated that Hearn had not received “meaningful leniency” for his crime of hog-tying and suffocating his female victim.
The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office told ClickonDetroit: “As to the 2024 case, it is incorrect to suggest that the suspect received any meaningful leniency from our office as a result of his plea. [Hearn] pleaded guilty, as charged, to one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and one count of assault and battery. No reduction in charges were given or offered by our office. His sentence of probation was consistent with Michigan’s sentencing guidelines.”
Lloyd, the Republican attorney general candidate in Michigan, is now campaigning on Savit’s treatment of Hearn.
“Michigan deserves an attorney general that will put public safety first and work to ensure that violent offenders face meaningful consequences,” he told the Michigan Enjoyer.
The story of an Oakland County mother victimized in broad daylight by an offender let free after an egregious crime will continue to haunt Savit until November.
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