Friday, 1:40 p.m. update: An assistant Wayne County prosecutor quit after being disciplined for a Facebook message that advocated shooting violent participants in Baltimore's civil unrest.
“This afternoon Assistant Prosecutor Teana Walsh called Prosecutor Kym Worthy to announce that she is voluntarily resigning her position with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutor Worthy has accepted her resignation,” a spokeswoman says, The Detroit News reports.
Friday morning article:
We all know -- or should -- to watch what we post publicly on social media.
Now a 35-year-old Wayne County assistant prosecutor has an embarrassing reminder to be more prudent.
Teana Walsh, who's on maternity leave, spouted off Monday night (above) about what she saw on cable TV news from Baltimore, as Fox 2 and others report.
The white assistant prosecutor yanked her hot-button post the next morning after it earned at least 15 likes and began causing a buzz. Fox quotes Detroit defense attorney Cliff Woodards' reaction:
"I was appalled," he said. "I was stunned, I was shocked, I was outraged."
Pushback also comes from Rev. Charles E. Williams, II pastor of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. "How could ANYONE recommend 'just shoot 'em, period'? he posts on Facebook, WDIV reports.
"When a member of law enforcement seeks, not to enforce the law, but to execute its judgment without due process, they have become part of the animal kingdom themselves."When a PROSECUTOR, who is part of the law enforcement culture, possesses and publicly displays this type of mentality, AND she just happen to be white as well, is it any wonder why urban areas across this country have literally become powder kegs waiting to explode?"
Chief Prosecutor Kym Worthy defends Walsh as someone who is "known for her great work ethic and her compassion for victims of crime and their families."
"Her post was up on line briefly and she immediately took it down,” Worthy spokeswoman Maria Miller says in a Friday morning statement posted by WDIV, Fox 2 and Motor City Muckraker. “The post was completely out of character for her and certainly does not reflect the person that we know.”
Walsh became licensed to practice law in November 2006, a State Bar of Michigan database shows.
Read more:
The Detroit News
