LANSING — John Dewane has worked as a prosecutor in Ingham County for more than two decades, and he’s seen first-hand the controversies that have dogged the office in the past eight years.
The last two elected prosecutors left office under duress. One went to jail. The other retired midway into her second term amid calls from local police and a county judge to resign over her progressive policies.
Dewane, 53, was appointed on Dec. 31, 2022. He immediately directed his staff to resume use of two criminal charges his former boss, Carol Siemon, had been reluctant to use because of how they disproportionately impacted Black residents.
With shootings in Lansing and many major cities across Michigan at record highs since the pandemic, the 1998 Cooley Law School graduate told his assistant prosecutors he would enforce Michigan’s statutes on felons caught with firearms and charge habitual offenders as such.
“I think there was this disconnect between my office and (the) law enforcement community,” Dewane said, adding that another one of his first tasks on the job was meeting with every police chief in the county.