News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski and defense attorney Ron Bayot prepare for a court case in Alpena’s 88th District Court last week.

ALPENA — Three months into her first elected term as Alpena County Prosecutor, Cynthia Muszynski sat down to share her philosophies regarding the power and purpose of the prosecutor’s office.

The role is a balancing act, Muszynski said — a daily effort to figure out what’s going to deter crime and protect the community and, ultimately, result in justice.

DETERRENCE

A prosecutor’s job is to give people a reason to decide not to commit crime, Muszynski said.

The threat of punishment is one of the office’s tools to make people think twice before breaking the law — a tool that has lost some of its edge because of state criminal justice reforms in recent years.

It used to be, she said as an example, that a minor caught with alcohol had to appear in court and talk about their offense with a judge. The offense appeared on their record as a misdemeanor.

It was embarrassing. It was inconvenient. And it gave kids a reason to not drink, the prosecutor said.

Now, she said, a minor-in-possession citation is like a speeding ticket, with a fine that can be paid at the District Court counter, with no further repercussions being handed down by the court.

Nobody likes severe punishments. And that’s why they’re effective, Muszynski said.

“If everybody knows you can get drunk a million times, get caught once, and just have to come pay a fine, is that really much of a deterrent?” she wondered. “I think not.”

AUTHORIZING CHARGES

When deciding what charges to authorize at the time of someone’s arrest, Muszynski assumes every case will go to trial.

If a panel of jurors will give up their time to take the case seriously, she’d better care enough to do the same — and that means charging a defendant with the maximum applicable charges, she said.

She could decide to go easy on defendants, charging them with less than police say they have done.

But, she said, that’s not fair to the victim, nor to a potential future jury.

Maximum charges can, sometimes, lead to tough sentences down the road.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, she said.

She remembers a recent thank-you call from a woman who was glad she was sent to prison for more than two years.

Less of a punishment wouldn’t have done her any good, the woman told Muszynski.

PLEA DEALS

When 1,200 to 1,400 cases flow through the prosecutor’s office every year, plea deals are a must.

If every case went to trial, it would take four years to get through them all, Muszynski said.

Defense attorneys aren’t always happy with the deals she offers, she knows.

Then again, she said, if the defense is always happy, she isn’t doing her job.

Plea deals require acquiescing and bending and giving in — but not all the time, and not on all charges, Muszunsk said.

Plea agreements have to take into consideration the needs of victims, who sometimes need to fight for the person who harmed them to get the maximum penalty — and, sometimes, just need the case over with as quickly as possible, Muszynski said.

ALPENA’S MOST THREATENING CRIME

“Methamphetamines,” Muszynski said, without hesitation. “End of story.”

A half-dozen years ago, heroin was the big drug problem in the area, she said. Police crackdowns sent dealers away to prison, making the drug harder to come by — a gap quickly filled by people making meth in their garages.

An effective education campaign by police taught pharmacies to safeguard meth-making materials, so addicts turned elsewhere for their high. Now, the county is struggling with out-of-state dealers bringing the drug in from downstate and out-of-state to sell in Alpena, Muszynski said.

Illegal drug use, often brushed away as a victimless crime, impacts the user’s family, employers, and acquaintances. A high percentage of other crime is directly related to substance abuse, endangering people and property.

Often, it’s a user’s family that asks the prosecutor’s office to intervene.

“They’re looking to me to stop this cycle,” Muszynski said.

DEFENDANTS

Communities have — and need — defense attorneys to look out for the rights of the defendant.

But that’s not her job, Muszynski said.

Being the county’s prosecutor means, at least in part, setting aside the defendant’s best interest in favor of what’s best for the victim and the community, Muszynski said.

As prosecutor, it’s easy for her to keep in mind the community for whom she works. It’s harder, she said, to block out urgent voices saying, “What about the defendant?”

When defendants look at her, pleading, saying they don’t want to go to jail, she reminds herself of all the other people put in financial or physical danger because of their actions.

That doesn’t mean there’s no room for flexibility.

“There’s zero cookie cutter plan for any one case,” Muszynski said. “What I try to look for is what is going to make sure this is the defendant’s last time doing this.”

There’s no magic answer, no formula she or anyone else can follow to get people to change their minds and their ways. All she can do, Muszynski said, is keep trying to find the balance that steers as many people in the right direction as possible.

Having grown up in Alpena, Muszunski knows people who were in the criminal justice system in the past but have since turned their lives around.

“Whatever happened to them,” she said, “that was it. That was the perfect resolution to the case.”