About Carl

Carl’s career and the majority of his adult life have been dedicated to public service. For twenty years he served as the Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney, locking up violent offenders and career criminals. He created specialized units to concentrate limited public resources on the most serious offenses, including sexual assault, crimes against children, and domestic violence. He also created the first special unit to enforce the state’s environmental laws, and crafted a settlement with Oakland County to force its communities to stop dumping polluted water into the streams and rivers that feed into Lake St. Clair.

In his years as prosecutor, Carl testified often before Michigan State House and Senate Committees on various proposals for reform.  His ideas are now a part of our state’s legal system in such areas as: the rights of victims; increased penalties for domestic violence; better tracking of prescription drug sales; truth in sentencing; and enhanced investigative tools for police and prosecutors in rooting out major drug conspiracies.

As the county prosecutor, Carl was also instrumental in promoting social justice. His were the first appointments of African-American men and women to serve as Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys in the history of Macomb County. And during his years of service he brought gender equality to the office, so that at the end of his tenure, the office was equally balanced between men and women prosecutors.

Carl also served in the federal system as an Assistant United States Attorney and a Special Trial Attorney for the United States Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force.

As the son of first generation Polish immigrants, Carl has a special affection for John F. Kennedy’s observation that we are a nation of immigrants. This in turn has made him passionate about the promise and need for top quality public education. His parents overcame stifling poverty through years of hard work in the family store. Carl’s father made him promise to get the best education possible, leading Carl to graduate summa cum laude from the Honors Program at the University of Detroit followed by a law degree from the University of Michigan.

In private practice Carl has devoted much of his time on a pro bono basis to vindicate the rights of persons who have been wrongfully accused and convicted. He has volunteered his services to the Innocence Project at the University of Michigan to assist in those rare, but heart-breaking, tragedies where innocent people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes they truly did not commit.

Carl and his wife Barbara reside in Sterling Heights.

 

Awards & Achievements