Five Democrats and two Republicans are vying to become the next Macomb County prosecutor. The candidates will face off in the August 4 primary election.
The final two candidates to file before the April 21 deadline were Republican Richard Goodman, who retired from the prosecutor’s office in 2014, after working as an assistant prosecutor for three decades, and Democrat Saima Khalil, a criminal defense attorney who is a first-generation Pakistani-American.
The candidates are seeking the office after the former prosecutor, Eric Smith, resigned in disgrace several weeks ago. Smith is accused of embezzling $600,000 from a forfeiture fund. He held the office for 16 years.
Goodman will oppose state Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Township), the first candidate to file for Smith’s seat. Earlier this year, Lucido faced multiple accusations of sexual harassment. An internal investigation found that he had engaged in inappropriate workplace behavior, but Lucido insists that he has never sexually harassed anyone.
Khalil, 39, is the fifth Democrat to enter the race. She works for Lakeshore Legal Aid in Mount Clemens, a nonprofit organization that provides pro bono legal services to clients who are indigent, senior citizens and/or survivors of sexual assault or domestic abuse.
The four Democrats that Khalil faces in the primary include two judges: former Macomb County Circuit Judge Mary Chrzanowski and former Waterford District Court Judge Jodi Switalski. Former State Bar president Tom Rombach and veteran criminal defense attorney Eva Tkaczyk are also contenders.
Goodman graduated from Clintondale High School in 1974 and Eastern Michigan University in 1978. He obtained his law degree from Detroit College of Law in 1982. Goodman was chief of the juvenile court division for the prosecutor's office from 1999 to 2004. He lives in Romeo.
Khalil graduated from Warren Woods Tower High School in 1998. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University in 2002 and later obtained a law degree from Thomas Cooley Law School. She is from Sterling Heights.
“I have learned how individuals at the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum lack adequate access to the legal system,” she said. “Effectively, people are being punished for being poor,” she told Macomb Daily.
In a statement, Goodman told Macomb Daily why he had decided to run.
"It pains me to think that the office of prosecuting attorney has been used for personal gain, and that the citizens have lost faith in the integrity and ability of the hardworking assistant prosecutors and staff that serve in the office," his statement said. "I believe I owe it to the citizens and the employees to use my 30 years of experience to right the ship of the prosecutor's office and restore public faith in the office and its staff."
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