Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he will decide today whether to reinstate an assistant prosecutor after she was suspended among allegations she obtained property by false pretenses.
Allie Phillips, who has worked in the prosecutor's office for about six years, was suspended Feb. 28 when county animal officials said she was involved in a scheme to illegally retrieve a cat that had been sold to an animal dealer. County animal control officials asked Dunnings to file the charges.
When an animal is turned over to the shelter, its owner has five days to retrieve it before it can be adopted or sold to a dealer. Dealers sometimes sell the animals for research.
Officials allege Phillips and two others were involved in a scheme where one person passed as the cat's owner and paid $295 to retrieve it from the dealer. After the shelter had sold the cat to the dealer, they got it back for the person who claimed to be its owner. It remains unclear what Phillips' motive was for retrieving the cat.
Phillips advises a group called Friends of the Ingham County Animal Shelter and is accused of trying to prevent the cat from being sold to a research facility.
"It wouldn't matter to me if it was a cat or a Coca-Cola," Dunnings said. "When we go into court, we go to represent the state of Michigan is integrity."
Dunnings said he needs more information before deciding the fate of Phillips, who works in the prosecutor's family division. Dunnings would not comment on the information he was waiting for.
Because the allegations involve one of Dunnings' employees, he forwarded the request for charges to the state Attorney General's office, which said last week it will not charge Phillips.
In a letter to Dunnings, the office said it's not clear that anyone tried to defraud the shelter or that the shelter believed the person was the cat's owner.
Dunnings said he has fired employees in the past, but would not say whether this situation could constitute such action.
"My opinion right off the bat was that there was no criminal conduct," said Phillips' attorney, Frank Reynolds. "Hopefully by the end of the day, she'll be reinstated."
Reynolds acknowledges Phillips was involved in rescuing the cat, but claims she did so legally.
