Michigan Supreme Court to hear retaliation case tied to Wayne County forfeiture program

The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to hear a man’s claim that Wayne County retaliated against him and stole his car.

The state’s high court agreed to hear Robert Reeves’s case against Wayne County over retaliatory criminal charges. Reeves argues that officials charged him after he sued the county over the allegedly unconstitutional forfeiture of his car.

In 2019, Wayne County seized Reeves’s 1991 Camaro using civil forfeiture. That allowed the county to seize and keep his car without charging him with a crime.

The Institute for Justice represents Reeves in both his case challenging the county’s forfeiture mechanism and his case alleging retaliation by county prosecutors.

“When a government official violates a Michigander’s constitutional rights, the harm is the same whether that official works for the state or a local government,” said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Kirby Thomas West. “We look forward to establishing that, in either case, victims deserve to be compensated for violation of their rights.”

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Last year, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that a Wayne County prosecutor must face Reeves’s lawsuit. The court said that Reeves could sue for monetary damages against Wayne County or its employees for violations of his rights under the Michigan Constitution.

A few years ago, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that individuals can bring suits and seek damages against state officers for violations of the Michigan Constitution, but that ruling did not speak to whether municipalities and local government employees may also be sued for similar violations.

The Michigan Supreme Court could answer that question in this case.

“I was punished for speaking out and defending my rights,” Reeves said. “I’m glad to be one step closer to making sure government officials will think twice before doing that to anyone else.”

Reeves noted that county prosecutors revived a long-dormant stolen-property investigation the day after he and Institute for Justice filed a federal class-action lawsuit aimed at Wayne County’s lucrative car-forfeiture policy in February 2020. Those charges were dismissed again on Feb. 8, 2021, according to a lawsuit.

“Finally, on February 8, 2021, Robert had a preliminary hearing before Judge Kenneth King of the 36th District Court. 47. Judge King dismissed the charges against Robert and against Javone Williams for insufficient evidence. 48. Attached as Exhibit 2 is a true and correct copy of the February 8, 2021 Order of Dismissal.”

Reeves and IJ responded in March 2023 by filing a second lawsuit alleging those prosecutions were a coordinated effort to derail his civil rights case.