OTTAWA COUNTY — Sarah Matwiejczyk wants Ottawa County voters to know that when they’re casting their vote for prosecutor in the upcoming election, with her, “what you see is what you get.”

“There’s nothing hidden here,” she said. “I truly am a dedicated public servant to this community.”

Matwiejczyk (that’s pronounced “Ma-toy-sic”) is the chief assistant county prosecutor in the county running as a Republican. She will face criminal defense attorney and fellow Republican Greg Todd in the Aug. 6 primary.

After current Prosecutor Lee Fisher announced he would not seek re-election after his term expires at the end of 2024, Matwiejczyk said she felt like it was her time.

“It was a very simple choice to me. I've been doing this for 23 years. I do not want to leave the office. This is where I plan to retire. And as soon as Lee Fisher told me he was going to retire, I knew that that was my calling and it was what I wanted to do,” she said.

Another driving factor? She is concerned about the current political climate in Ottawa County and having a potential prosecutor linked to Ottawa Impact, a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 over frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 mitigation measures.

The group won a controlling majority on the county board of commissioners in 2022 and now is supporting its incumbents as well as countywide candidates for prosecutor, sheriff and treasurer through the OI-dominated county GOP.

Matwiejczyk, 48, said there are “risks involved” with having an attorney who does not have any prior experience in a prosecutor’s office take over the top role.

“The prosecutor position is just too great,” she said. “I couldn't do that to the community or to the rest of our staff or to myself. I simply would not be able to be a chief assistant with somebody who didn’t agree with my values and have the experience needed to run a very well-run prosecutor’s office.”

She said one of the early warning signs that caused her great concern was in May 2023, when the OI majority on the county board pushed through a “constitutional county” resolution, a largely non-binding declaration that encourages the sheriff and county prosecutor not to enforce state and federal laws they deem unconstitutional.

Matwiejczyk said elected officials already swear allegiance when taking the oath of office.

“We are a constitutional county. I've taken two oaths — to the Michigan and United States Constitution. We've never, as an office, been told that we're not following the Constitution or violated constitutional rights. So when this came about, I think my first question is … why? Suddenly, is this a big issue?” she said.

Matwiejczyk noted that the resolution was revised from a previous version that originally mandated that the sheriff and prosecutor adhere to the language, but was later softened to “encourage” the law officials to comply — after critics noted that the board was over-reaching its legal authority.

Read more: Ottawa County becomes 'constitutional county' after 6 hours of divided public input

“When you read through that resolution at the time requiring that the prosecutor and the sheriff sign it, … you can't serve as a prosecutor or as a sheriff and agree to every single bit of those terms publicly,” she said. “You're going to ostracize some of the community that you have to serve, and then there were consequences to not doing it. … When have we ever had the position where we're going to say, yes, we're going to uphold the Constitution, but if a certain group of people don’t believe that you’ve done it correctly, very subjectively, you’re going to be held accountable?”

She said such policies put the county on potentially precarious legal ground.

“Whether you agree with that or don’t, as a prosecutor and a sheriff, you simply cannot publicly ostracize certain communities that you are there to represent,” she said. “It’s opening yourself up to lawsuits, and it’s opening us up as prosecutors, to appeal if we were to make a decision in a case where somebody did not meet what’s required in that resolution.”

Sentinel Leach is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Prosecutors are a specialized field of law, Matwiejczyk said, meaning not any lawyer can walk into the role with no prior experience, referring to Todd never having worked in a prosecutor’s office previously.

“If any attorney can do any legal job, then can any doctor do any doctor job? No, it’s a very specialized area of the law,” she said. “And not only is it specialized legally — civil versus criminal have different laws involved in different ways — but it’s a public service position. This is not something we go into to get our percentage of the settlement. We don't pick and choose what comes to us. We are to serve the public and serve those victims and have that passion.”

The Grand Rapids native has been in the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office for 23 years, starting in the role when she was just 25 years old. She said that experience matters in several ways.

First, it’s about being able to step into any court case her staff is overseeing.

“When I have a staff call in sick, I have to go in that morning and cover that entire docket. I can go in there and I can do that. I do a regular docket all the time,” she said. “It’s important to understand that the elected prosecutor has to be somebody who has been there, done that. Can be there and do that in that moment. Because we make those crucial decisions day-to-day and everything in between, and it requires decades of experience to make those decisions that are being thrown at us every single day.”

Secondly, she said the prosecutor is responsible for seeking justice for victims.

“Somebody who has never prosecuted a case is going to be the person that a family sees after being victimized, whether it’s sexual assault or homicides or other types of situations,” she said. “I’m going to have to sit on the other end of the table and trust that that person, that prosecutor, is going to be there and find justice for them and their family.”

If elected, Matwiejczyk said she would like to see the office modernized to adapt to current technologies and an evolving workforce.

“The changes that need to take place are just changes that come with life and the world around us — mostly technology and human beings, specifically with our staff. Our staff is ever growing, lots of different generations,” she said. “A lot of younger people are coming in, people who want a little bit more flexibility, who want better technology … dash cams and body cams are just coming at us like crazy. We have to adapt to all that technology, and we need to be able to make huge decisions about how we move forward with that.”

But with those adaptations, she doesn’t want to lose the crucial relationship between law enforcement, which investigates crime, and her office, which prosecutes crime.

“Because of all that technology, we've lost that connection with the people,” she said. “Our communication and involvement with our law enforcement, it’s all paper. They send us paper, we return paper right back. So we need to bring back that good communication like we used to have.”

She also would like to see better communication with the community about what the office does and services available to all residents.

“I was amazed when I started this campaign that people just didn't know what a prosecutor was. And I thought that was great because if you know what a prosecutor does that means you or someone you know has been charged with a crime or you've been a victim of crime,” she noted.

Matwiejczyk is a graduate of the Detroit College of Law, which is now within Michigan State University. She and her husband of 21 years share four children — two sets of twins.

She teaches courses at the Grand Valley State University Police Academy and basic training for new prosecutors.

As to the current political environment, Matwiejczyk said much of it is attributed to an electorate that was caught unaware in 2022.

“Politically, we just simply did not pay good enough attention. We're paying attention now,” she said. “We're going to be better as a result of all of this, or we’re going to be much worse. I mean … the dramatics of the results of this election are astounding.”

She worries about how negative things have become, but is hoping that will change after the election cycle.

“Politically, we just simply did not pay good enough attention. We're paying attention now. We're going to be better as a result of all of this, or we’re going to be much worse. I mean … the dramatics of the results of this election are astounding.” ~ Sarah Matwiejczyk

“One thing that I am very excited to go away is the negativity and the fear everywhere,” she said. “Neighbors are no longer on talking terms. People won’t go to businesses anymore because of a sign they have in their yard or don’t have. It is so faceted, not even just politically, but just humanly.”

Her constantly sunny outlook, however, carries her through.

“I’m a positive person. I think that if people really loved where Ottawa County was before, they’re going to love it that much better. Because there were a lot of things that we needed to be in check with — things we needed to be aware of, we needed to fix, we needed to listen to, and we’ll get back that way.”

For more information, visit sarahmforprosecutor.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/sarahmprosecutor.

— Contact Sarah Leach at SentinelLeach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach. Subscribe to her content at sentinelleach.substack.com.