• Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, a Democrat, is running to be Michigan’s next attorney general and replace Dana Nessel this fall
• Savit is widely seen as a progressive candidate. As a prosecutor, he’s supported limited cash bail and decriminalizing consensual sex work
• Republicans, and some centrist Democrats, contend he’d be ‘soft on crime’ if elected. Savit is pushing back 

---

When Eli Savit won the Democratic Party’s endorsement for attorney general earlier this year, he told reporters his focus was on running a campaign all Michiganders could support.

Now, the Washtenaw County prosecutor is trying to make good on that promise by distancing himself from his own local policies to limit the use of cash bail, decriminalize consensual sex work and psychedelic mushrooms. 

“If you agree or disagree with my policy, I’m not bringing those statewide,” he told Bridge Michigan in a late May interview. “…These are decisions that should be made by local prosecutors who are elected in their communities.”

As Republicans argue he is “soft on crime,” Savit is attempting to strike a more moderate tone ahead of the November general election, where he’ll face GOP Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd for a shot to become the state’s top cop.

His local and progressive policies on sex work, mushrooms and cash bail “aren’t big parts of my platform as attorney general,” Savit told Bridge. 

Related : 

• Michigan Dems back Garlin Gilchrist and Eli Savit
• Michigan Democrats push party left. Will voters follow?
• Ex-party leaders: Time to ditch nominating conventions

He’s touting his work prosecuting “serious crime” in Washtenaw County and, if elected, said he’ll continue to fight white-collar crimes related to consumer protection — such as wage theft and price gouging — and even dig into fraud perpetuated with the help of artificial intelligence. 

But his local push to limit cash bail — which he argues is unfair to lower-income residents who can’t afford to “buy their way out of jail” — 

has drawn scrutiny from Republicans, and even some Democrats, raising questions about whether they will turn off voters this fall. 

“Some of this is going to be in the eye of the beholder, in terms of peoples’ value judgments,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist with the bipartisan Grassroots Midwest firm in Lansing, “but … (Savit’s) positioning around criminal justice issues make it easier to attack him about this stuff than it is to attack (GOP nominee) Doug Lloyd.”

The Michigan Republican Party is already calling him “Soft-on-Crime Savit,” pointing to 2020 comments after he won the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s race as an avowed progressive who ran on a “decarceral platform” aiming to reduce the overall number of people held in prisons and jails.

“For decades in this country, the only way you could have won a county prosecutor race was to be tough on crime,” Savit said at the time. 

Michigan Democrats say falling crime rates in Washtenaw County show Savit is ready for the statewide role.

“Eli will bring his commitment to protecting public safety to the attorney general’s office and fight to protect working families just as he has done throughout his career,” state party spokesperson Leah Leszczynski said in a statement.

Shooting case sparks scrutiny

Republicans attacking Savit’s prosecutorial record point to a recent Oakland County carjacking case that left a mother shot and wounded in front of her 11-year-old son. 

The suspect in that incident, 25-year-old Ann Arbor resident Mauriel Dashawn Hearn, is currently undergoing a psychological evaluation to determine whether he’s competent to stand trial. 

Hearn had been arrested two years earlier in Washtenaw County for hog-tying, duct taping and suffocating a woman with a plastic bag. He pled guilty to a felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison but instead got two years probation.

GOP critics have blamed Savit for the relatively lenient sentence, which was decided by a local judge, and some have conflated it with his cash bail policy, which Savit insists played no role in the outcome of the case. 

“We’ve seen situations around the country and around this state where people are out, in my opinion, that shouldn’t be out, and I think we’ve got another tragic example of that,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a Republican, said during a press conference following the May carjacking. 

“Which brings me to the conclusion: Some of these prosecutors just have to do their damn job.” 

Savit told Bridge his office did not reduce charges “offered or given” in the original case. Hearn was held on a $100,000 bond prior to sentencing, and Savit said bail was never a factor in the case.

Washtenaw Circuit Judge Carol Kuhnke gave Hearn probation, with Savit calling the sentence a byproduct of state guidelines.

“If there’s a desire to see things changed, we should look at the sentencing guidelines,” Savit said. “The sentencing guidelines are the sort of presumptive sentence that judges are going to give.”

Cash bail controversy

Under Savit’s “no cash bail” policy in Washtenaw County, his office no longer asks judges to make cash payments a condition of pretrial release for defendants accused but not yet convicted of crimes.

The county does, however, seek other conditions and asks judges to block pretrial release in the case of violent crimes like murder, sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping. 

Despite political pushback, Savit told Bridge he still believes in the policy, even if he has no plans to take it statewide.

Calling cash bail a “dumb” practice, he argued it creates “a two-tiered system of justice” where “wealthy people can buy their way out of jail” for the same crime a poorer person cannot. 

Nationally, the median bail bond costs defendants $10,000, according to the nonpartisan Prison Policy Institute.

Michigan Republicans point to the Washtenaw County policy as evidence that Savit is not serious about fighting crime. But multiple critics who spoke to Bridge were unable to provide specific examples where they think it led to more crime.

Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad referred to the shooting of a 6-year-old boy in 2021 where the perpetrator was released after paying a $10,000 cash bond, sparking outrage among Ypsilanti residents. 

But in that case, Savit filed an emergency motion to cancel and raise the man’s bond to $100,000, which was later granted.

“To be clear: our office recommended significantly more restrictive bond conditions, and we disagree with the bond decision that was handed down by the court,” Savit explained at the time.

Progressive prosecutors across the country have moved to limit cash bail at the local level. Illinois has eliminated it statewide, while New York, Alaska, Arizona and Kentucky have also moved to limit its use.  

But some Democrats are skeptical of the policy, too. 

“I do think there’s a fine line between progressive and lackadaisical enforcement,” Washtenaw County Commissioner Caroline Sanders told Bridge.

Magic mushroom decriminalization

Upon taking office in 2021, Savit also swiftly moved to decriminalize the use, possession or small-scale distribution of some naturally occurring psychedelics, including magic mushrooms.

The decision followed a September 2020 resolution from the Ann Arbor City Council that declared the entheogenic plants should be “the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Ann Arbor.”

The Republican Attorneys General Association has criticized Savit’s mushroom policy as he runs for statewide office.

“The job of the attorney general is to promote public safety, not cater to career criminals,” Executive Director Adam Piper said in a statement.

In Michigan, Detroit, Hazel Park and most recently, Jackson, have also decriminalized entheogenic drugs. 

Oregon and Colorado have legalized supervised mushroom use and therapy at the state level, respectively, but both have faced at least some pushback from local governments and conservative leaders.

Poison center calls about magic mushroom use by adolescents and young adults have spiked in recent years amid local decriminalization, according to researchers. 

There’s a mixed research on whether psychedelics —  more specifically, the compound psilocybin — are beneficial for treating certain mental health issues. While evidence is emerging that psilocybin can benefit those struggling with depression, there’s less research on post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In April, President Donald Trump signed off on an executive order which requires several federal departments to accelerate access to treatments — specifically psychedelics — for patients with serious mental illness, including treatment-resistant conditions.

While Washtenaw County’s policy is not limited to medicinal use, Savit pointed to Trump’s order as proof Republicans don’t actually care about his push to decriminalize psychedelics, urging people who still have issues with it “to talk to some veterans who served this country.”

“Look — if you want to make this race about mushrooms and talk about psilocybin, I’m happy to have that conversation,” Savit said in May. 

“I think more people are concerned about the fact they’re paying $5 for gas, the fact that they feel like they’re being price gouged by corporations who are taking advantage of economic uncertainty … I think we should have a conversation about those.”

Sex work stance

Savit also quickly moved to stop prosecuting individuals for consensual sex work as prosecutor in Washtenaw County, a policy the Republican Attorneys General Association has also criticized. 

His office continues to prosecute related crimes — including sexual and physical assault, human trafficking and offenses involving minors — but he said the goal is to not victimize an already vulnerable population.

“I want to focus on the traffickers. I want to focus on the people that are harming sex workers, that are sexually assaulting them, that are physically abusing them, and get those people behind bars,” Savit told Bridge. 

“It’s about building trust, and it’s about ultimately getting the bad guys behind bars.”

It’s a similar approach taken in Democratic cities like New York and Baltimore and backed by groups like the ACLU, which advocates for decriminalization as a way to end violence against sex workers by making them less fearful to talk to law enforcement or prosecutors.  

No state has fully decriminalized sex work, although Nevada allows legal sex work within licensed brothels in specific counties, and Maine recently made selling sex legal.

Data from the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office shows the county has continued to prosecute other sex crimes. There were 41 such cases this year through May 31, which is the most recent data available. The majority of those charges stem from cases involving minors.

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under our Republication Guidelines. Questions? Email republishing@bridgemi.com