What is the Common Law Crime of Misconduct in Office?
With all the press about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick being charged with misconduct in office (among numerous other felony counts, clients and friends have called and emailed to ask me: What, exactly, is the common law offense of misconduct in office, and what must the prosecutor prove in order to receive a guilty verdict? Common law, unlike legislative law, is law that is handed down from numerous previously decided court cases. Therefore, since we can’t look at the Michigan Consolidated Laws to find out what the crime is, we have to see what the court says. Luckily for us, there is a Michigan case that talks specifically about it. The most recent case on the question of criminal official misconduct in Michigan is People v. Perkins, decided in 2003 by the Michigan Supreme Court. In that case, the Court laid out what must be proved in order for a person to be found criminally responsible for misconduct in office: The person must, in fact, be a public official (not just someone preten
