Dearborn — A Grosse Pointe judge who appointed a special prosecutor to handle an involuntary manslaughter charge brought by the family of a teen who died in a car crash did not have the legal authority to do so, a Dearborn judge ruled Wednesday.
Dearborn District Court Judge Sam Salamey vacated the appointment of Paul Stablein as the special prosecutor in the case against Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, the mother of the teen who killed his friend in a crash, and sent authority for the prosecution back to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. Wayne County prosecutors previously declined to charge Puleo-Tague.
Grosse Pointe Farms District Judge Charles Berschback had authorized the involuntary manslaughter charge against Puleo-Tague in October and appointed a special prosecutor in the case for a fatal accident that killed one of his friends. Puleo-Tague’s son lost control of the BMW he was driving, causing the car to roll over multiple times and hit a utility pole and a tree, killing Flynn MacKrell.
Berschback was disqualified as the judge in the case in January, which sent the case to Salamey, who had to rule Wednesday on the several motions to remove the special prosecutor Berschback appointed when he authorized the charge, filed by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Assistant Attorney General Monica Wilson wrote in a motion to intervene in the case, filed Oct. 27, that Berschback did not have the power to appoint a special prosecutor, even in the context of a citizen’s complaint. Only the Attorney General’s Office can appoint a special prosecutor, she wrote.
Salamey said Wednesday he agreed and vacated the appointment. He sent the case back to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
“I don’t believe the appointment was legally sound under the statute,” Salamey said. “It’s not proper or lawful under the statute.”
Stablein argued that neither Nessel’s office nor the prosecutor’s office has an absolute right to intervene.
Puleo-Tague’s attorney, Gerald Evelyn, said he also filed a motion challenging the method of charging, which was a rare use of a law that dates back to the 1920s that allows citizens to present their own findings to a judge to ask them to approve charges.
Salamey said he believes the complaint is proper at this time, so the case will proceed.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams declined to comment after the hearing. Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said that because Stablein plans to appeal, it is premature to comment on what the prosecutor’s office will do with the case.
As Stablein indicated, he plans to appeal Salamey’s decision; the case is on hold until the Court of Appeals can make a ruling on it. The next court date is set for May 27.
Anne Vanker, MacKrell’s mother, maintains that Puleo-Tague knew her son was driving recklessly because she’d been using an app, Life 360, that lets parents track driving behavior like speeding, hard braking and cellphone use. Puleo-Tague had texted her son multiple times about his speeding before the November 2023 crash, Vanker said.
MacKrell was home from college and in the passenger seat of his friend’s car when he was killed. The then-16-year-old driver, who The News is not naming because he was tried as a juvenile, was sentenced to a blended juvenile and adult sentence of an undetermined amount of time in a juvenile facility and an adult sentence of 19 to 38 months in prison if he gets in trouble during the programming at the juvenile facility.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against Puleo-Tague, citing a lack of evidence, when Vanker asked them to look into the case and charge her under the legal precedent that was set after the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley were convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
kberg@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Judge yanks special prosecutor from Grosse Pointe manslaughter case
Reporting by Kara Berg, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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