After the Michigan GOP chose Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd for their attorney general candidate during the August primary election, concerns were raised about Lloyd’s endorsement from—and campaign photos with—a fellow prosecutor with a long line of sexual harassment accusations.
The role of a state attorney general is to serve as the state’s chief legal officer and chief law enforcement officer. As current Attorney General Dana Nessel finishes her eight-year run in the position, Michiganders are being asked to elect her successor from candidates Lloyd, a Republican, and Democrat Eli Savit—which means it’s up to voters to decide who will best uphold the laws and defend their rights.
Earlier this year, Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido endorsed Lloyd and has posed for campaign photos with him. In 2020, four women—including state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak)—accused Lucido of sexual harassment. A Senate Business Office investigation deemed the accusations credible. As a result, Lucido was removed from his position on the Senate Advice and Consent Committee.
The following year, 2021, Lucido found himself in the news again regarding a photo that depicted him grabbing a woman’s buttocks at a campaign fundraiser. And in 2022, a separate investigation into Lucido substantiated “allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior” by Lucido towards 16 of his employees, including nine who alleged sexually offensive treatment.
As voters ask themselves if Lloyd’s friends are an indication of his character, The ‘Gander looked into two career-defining cases Lloyd presided over to get a sense for how he approaches sexual predators in his courtroom.
A disturbing case ends in conspicuous silence
In March 2014, Higinio Rivera III of Charlotte was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and attempted murder after he allegedly raped and tried to strangle a 10-year-old girl.
Testimony given at the time consistently claimed Rivera broke into the girl’s room and assaulted her. Her parents, who were sleeping in their bedroom, were awakened by her screams.
The child told her parents that Rivera, who was living in the house at the time, had attacked her and that he had tried to choke her. Deputies arrived and the girl was taken to Sparrow Hospital, where she was examined by a doctor who found evidence of a sexual crime and of strangulation.
Rivera was jailed on $1 million bond, though CBS Detroit reported that his defense attorney noted in a motion to reduce the bond that no DNA evidence had tied Rivera to the incident.
Additional details did little to improve the picture of the child’s homelife, where Rivera lived with the family: The girl’s brother allegedly told investigators that he (the brother) had, in the past, had sex with her, and another report found her father’s semen on a robe in her bed.
The Eaton County Prosecutor was Doug Lloyd. And despite the girl’s repeated statements attesting that Rivera attacked her, Lloyd’s office dropped all charges the following March. The office filed a “motion of nolle prosequi,” which means the state chose not to prosecute the accused, on March 6, 2015. The ‘Gander requested and received a copy of the dismissal paper, which stated prosecutors wished to drop the charges since “This case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt at this time.”
A spokesperson for Lloyd’s campaign defended the decision in a statement to The ‘Gander, which said there was insufficient evidence to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Rivera committed the offense.
Although Lloyd claimed the investigation was ongoing, no developments have surfaced since then.
Attorney General Dana Nessel takes over Geddert case
In 2016, Michigan State University team physician and US women’s national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct against children, then indicted on federal charges related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Additional state charges followed, and Nassar was ultimately sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty on 13 felony counts.
In February 2018, the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office announced that one of Nassar’s associates, former Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert, was also under investigation for suspected criminal activity. Geddert, a close friend and colleague of Nassar’s for several decades, owned Twistars USA Gymnastics Club near Lansing, where many of Nassar’s victims said they were assaulted.
Initially, many of the gymnasts and their families complained that Geddert had gone far beyond being a tough coach, reporting broken bones and concussions suffered under his harsh training regimen. Allegations of criminal sexual misconduct followed.
A year later, Prosecutor Lloyd told accusers and their families that he still didn’t have enough evidence to charge Geddert with a crime, despite having received “three or four 4-inch-thick binders” of complaints about Geddert from the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office the previous November..
A week after Lloyd’s statement to the victims, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office launched its own investigation.
In a statement to The ‘Gander, a spokesperson for Lloyd claimed his office only had the case for three months, even though the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office announced its investigation 12 months before Lloyd told accusers he hadn’t found sufficient evidence to prosecute. The statement also said that since some of the victims in the Geddert case were the same as the Nassar case, and their relationships and trust with the Attorney General’s office had already been established, Lloyd “made the decision to allow the Attorney General’s Office to handle the case.”
Despite Lloyd’s defense of his office’s handling of the Geddert case, two attorneys familiar with the investigation expressed their enthusiasm in February 2019 that Lloyd was relinquishing control.
“I know that there are a lot of frustrated people who have attempted to come forward but the Eaton County prosecutor has been unwilling to act despite what I believe are sufficient facts to charge Geddert,” said David Mittleman, an attorney representing many of the victims, in a 2019 article published by the Lansing State Journal, adding that he was “delighted” that Nessel took over the case.
John Manly, an attorney representing several of Nassar’s victims, said that he and his clients were “pleased” with the change in the handling of the case.
“It is our expectation that the Attorney General’s investigation will be thorough and will hold Geddert accountable if any criminal conduct is uncovered,” Manly said.
In February 2021, Nessel’s office issued a statement announcing that it had filed 24 charges against Geddert, including 14 counts of human trafficking, forced labor causing injury, six counts of human trafficking of a minor for forced labor, and one count each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.
“Geddert also made false or misleading statements to authorities investigating Nassar for criminal sexual conduct,” the statement said.
Nessel offered a quote included in the statement.
“These allegations focus around multiple acts of verbal, physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by the defendant against multiple young women,” she said. “I am grateful for these survivors coming forward to cooperate with our investigation and for bravely sharing their stories.” Nessel later thanked Lloyd for his office’s cooperation with her investigation.
The same day the charges were filed and Geddert was set to be arraigned, Geddert died by suicide at a rest stop.
Allegations against Geddert date back to 1986, including an abuse allegation in 2013 by a gymnast who said Geddert “stepped on her foot, grabbed her arm and pushed her into a wall,” according to Michigan Public Radio. The article also said that Lloyd reviewed the gymnast’s complaint and, despite finding enough evidence to charge Geddert, allowed him to seek counseling and write an apology letter instead.
