Washtenaw County Prosecutor Has Some Interesting Past Tweets About Michigan State

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday announced it has filed criminal charges against seven suspended Michigan State football players involved in last month's tunnel fight at Michigan Stadium.

Here's a rundown of the players who have been charged:

• Khary Crump, one count of felony assault
• Itayvion Brown, one count of aggravated assault
• Angelo Grose, one count of aggravated assault
• Justin White, one count of aggravated assault
• Brandon Wright, one count of aggravated assault
• Zion Young, one count of aggravated assault
• Jacoby Windmon, one count of assault and battery

The only suspended MSU player not to be charged was Malcom Jones.

Get our free mobile app

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor is Eli Savit. He grew up in Ann Arbor and is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, according to his own biography on the county's website. Savit is also on the faculty at the U-M Law School, and his Twitter bio even reads "Go Blue."

Maybe that means nothing to you, but it's interesting to me given the enormous attention and caution taken against conflicts of interest in the legal realm. One might think the official with whom all legal authority to decide whether this very public, controversial Tunnelgate matter rises to the level of criminal misconduct would take care to eliminate even the slightest perception of a conflict of interest.

Not so in this case.

Take a look at some of Savit's past tweets about Michigan State.

The above tweets from Savit came right after one-time prized basketball recruit Emoni Bates had decommitted from MSU in favor of Memphis. I don't think this is anything other than good-natured sports banter, but I'm somewhat surprised Savit or his team hasn't scrubbed this from Twitter due to the mere specter of a conflict of interest.

Here are some more serious examples.

Both of these tweets from Savit came during the height of the Dr. Larry Nassar scandal at MSU. No reasonable person could disagree with Savit's takes here, given the unspeakable atrocities Nassar visited on hundreds of innocent girls and women, all while MSU was either enabling it, ignoring it, or both.

I'm a little surprised here, too, that these tweets haven't been deleted because of the extreme aversion to any hint of conflicts of interest in the legal community, especially since Savit holds an elected office.

I found this particularly interesting, though:

These are screenshots of search results of Savit's tweets about the Dr. Robert Anderson scandal at U-M. Correction — these are screenshots of the lack of search results of Savit's tweets about the Dr. Robert Anderson scandal at U-M.

As demonstrated in the tweets about MSU, it's clear Savit is deeply concerned about matters of widespread sexual assault on a college campus carried about by a monstrous serial abuser who was enabled by those in powerful positions at the university. That's why his lack of tweets containing the words "Anderson" or "Schembechler" are so conspicuous.

Twitter has been through a lot lately, so maybe its search function isn't yielding thorough results. Also, full disclosure, I'm not a forensic investigator, so it's certainly possible that I've missed some of Savit's Twitter content on the Anderson scandal at Michigan — that content would just not include two of the most salient names associated with the entire story.

Regardless, the point is that it's peculiar. It's peculiar that the Washtenaw County prosecutor was so concerned about the sexual assault travesty carried out over years at the expense of hundreds of innocents at MSU, but has been far less attentive and critical to one that was carried out even longer and at the expense of even more innocents at U-M.

It's peculiar that the chief legal officer for Michigan's sixth-largest county found it suitable to use the resources of his position and office to authorize criminal charges against football players from a rival team of his alma mater's, but has done far less with those same resources and that same office to deliver justice to hundreds of people who were sexually assaulted by a man who was employed, enabled, and protected by the biggest political and economic power in Washtenaw County for decades.

Savit's attention span was also conveniently short for last year's unforgettable incident where Michigan basketball coach struck an opposing coach, plain as day, on live, national TV. You'd think for such a conscientious, concerned arbiter of justice, Savit would at least have a fleeting thought or two about a grown man outright punching another person, especially with undeniable visual evidence.

It's almost as if politics are involved here...