Attorney General Cox, Top Cop Munoz Target New Crimes
By George Weeks

As they discussed last week, Michigan's two top lawmen are dealing with crimes that didn't exist when they started their careers decades ago.

Most notable are cyber crimes, a top priority of both Attorney General Mike Cox and Colonel Peter Munoz, new director of the Michigan State Police, who worked his way up the ranks of an elite a force as there is among the states.

After his appointment by Governor Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan Information and Research Service asked Munoz what would be his "job number one" upon taking over June 10 from retiring Director Tadarial Sturdivant. He replied:

"I plan to continue his lead in working to make the department more flexible, in terms of adjusting to trends in crime, such as computer crime, identity theft, and Internet porn, and the problems with meth [a drug] and the responsibilities of homeland security, as well as our continuing focus on traffic safety."

Other than traffic safety, those issues were not on the plate of most of Munoz's predecessors. Nor did most of Cox's 52 predecessors, other than 1999-2002 AG Granholm and to some extent 1961-98 AG Frank Kelley, deal with them.

After Munoz's appointment, the general invited the colonel to lunch, popping for salads at

Clara's, a popular Lansing eatery in a former train depot east of the Capitol.

Republican Cox, whose relations with Democrat Granholm are not chummy, should not, and apparently does not, have partisan qualms about working with a Granholm appointee on law enforcement. Said Cox: "He's just a guy who has been there doing the people's work. Pete seems like a solid guy."

Munoz joined the department in 1978, working himself up to a deputy director after serving in several posts in southern Michigan (alas, no Up North postings.)

Cox, whose career started with the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office in 1989 and included directing the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Unit, notes that his department and Munoz's are similar in that they both provide backup and "help fill gaps" for local law enforcement.

That was dramatically evident when then-Governor Bill Milliken dispatched the State Police to the Detroit freeways, where they still patrol. Most recently for Cox, there's the example of Assistant Attorney General Donna Pendergast leading the prosecutorial team that produced Mark Unger's first-degree murder verdict last week in Benzie County.

Cox has a cradle-to-thegrave emphasis on issues beyond traditional utility rates and other consumer protection issues. He's after deadbeat parents who don't pay child support, and after nursing home abuse, Medicaid fraud, and those who otherwise dupe seniors.

Cox has a "Senior Protection Brigade" led by Assistant Attorney General Angela Branch with part-time help from retired nurses, business executives, and others.

Cox is a have-grant-willtravel lawman. With money he has collected from settlements with corporate wrong-doers, he has been giving grants to organizations that help victims of domestic abuse - as he is expected to do next week in Traverse City.

Stupak Weighs In

Last week, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee), a former State Police trooper who is the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said it has released to Cox and other attorneys general information that could help identify as many as 500 individuals who may have purchased online child pornography. Eleven are in Michigan.

Stupak cited the case of a Detroit man who was arrested May 15 by Cox after an alleged victim who testified before the subcommittee in April identified him.

"These are horrific crimes," Cox said of online child pornography, now very much on the radar screens in Lansing and Washington.

George Weeks recently retired after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.