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Mateen Cleaves
Sexual assault charges against ex-MSU star Mateen Cleaves, which were announced on Tuesday, were filed in Genesee County where the alleged incident took place last September.
But the Genesee County prosecutor asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office to handle the case out of concern about a potential conflict of interest with a witness.
So far, Worthy isn't too happy about how they do business in Genesee County.
A statement blasts an arrangement that let Cleaves be arraigned on short notice without an agreement from her office. The swift move gives the media less time to get to court and can spare defendants some embarrassment.
Worthy' handout says:
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office was informed today with short notice that instead of arraigning Cleaves tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. that 67th District Court Judge M. Kathy Dowd is allowing the defendant to be arraigned this morning. WCPO had the officer in charge of the case contact the defense attorney yesterday to inform him of the arraignment date and time.
This morning WCPO requested that the arraignment take place on March 17, 2016 at 9 a.m., but the court has decided to go forward with the arraignment this morning. The defendant has received a bond of $150,000 and will have his preliminary examination...
Prosecutor Worthy said, “I don't know how they do things in Genesee County but we try our best to be as transparent as possible when my office is involved. There was an agreement with all of the parties that the defendant would turn himself in and be arraigned in open court tomorrow -- not for him to have a back door arraignment.
"The public has a right to know and frankly, I am extremely disappointed that this was handled so clandestinely today. I hope this is not a precursor of things to come."
Kym Worthy, Wayne County prosecutor
Cleaves was released on $150,000 personal bond.
Cleaves’ attorney, Frank Manley said there was no agreement with anyone, according to Elisha Anderson of the Detroit Free Press.
“She (Worthy) doesn’t set the terms of this,” he said when reached by phone this afternoon, adding that a news release and charges were issued without calling him, saying that belies any sense of transparency.
“We think the charges are outrageous, and we think that they’ll be proven to be totally false in court,” Manley told the Free Press.
