On Friday, September 13, 2024, 81-year-old Susan Hammerton was attacked in the middle of the night in her home near the Ann Arbor-Saline Road Meijer. She died from injuries sustained during the attack.
It has been over a year, and her family has not gotten the answers about the crime or when and if justice will be dealt out. Hammerton’s daughters want to know what happened that night, when justice will be served, and what is being done to protect the community from the perpetrator.
Elana James, Hammerton’s daughter, said she and her sister have been stonewalled and hung up on by the Pittsfield Township police as well as the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office.
The main tension relates to a clear mistake in the investigation: No toxicology report was taken from the perpetrator, who was apprehended shortly after the crime while trying to enter another home in the neighborhood.
During a meeting, one of the prosecutors from Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit’s office told James and her sister Sarah Aptilon that there was nothing to undercut a critical finding by the Center for Forensic Psychiatry that the perpetrator was not competent at the time of the murder.
That finding is key to a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea. The attacker’s defense would be undermined or complicated if evidence of alcohol or drug use was present.
No blood work was taken, even though the alleged perpetrator was apprehended naked. The lack of a toxicology report is the central source of tension in the case. One of the victims reportedly observed that the perpetrator was intoxicated.
A detective also told James that drugs could be a factor in the murder. However, no toxicology report was done. And, to date, there has been no sufficient explanation for this oversight offered to either the family or to the public at large.
At one point, when the family pushed back on what had happened in the investigation, the prosecutor for the case accused the vicitim’s children of “turning this into a combative experience.”
The same prosecutor later confirmed that the lack of a toxicology report is significant to the outcome of the case. He also pointed out that he was not responsible for the early handling of the investigation, suggesting that he agreed with the concerns expressed by the victim’s family.
After over a year and coverage from Local 4 News, Savit personally reached out to one of the victim’s daughters. Savit is running for Michigan Attorney General.
Savit and his team, however, continue to leave specific questions from the family unanswered and requests for information unsatisfied. Crime victims might wonder if his campaigning for the state’s top law enforcer interferes with his day job.
Michigan Enjoyer asked Savit to comment on a statement from the Pittsfield Police Department, which said his office found it unnecessary to take a toxicology report.
That statement suggested the Prosecutor’s Office advised that the level of any intoxication was irrelevant to the case: “Our detectives, with advice from the prosecuting attorney, determined that the level of intoxicating substances, if any at all, present at the time of these offenses was not connected to the elements of the above crimes. This decision was made by our detectives and the prosecutor early in the investigation.”
Given Savit’s position on the non-enforcement of certain drug laws, it is worth asking the question: Did Savit’s own policy play some role in the failure to gather vital evidence in a murder case?
Savit’s policy states: “It is the policy of the Prosecutor’s Office not to charge certain cannabis-related offenses, including cannabis use or possession, small-scale distribution of cannabis, or cases that technically violate the parameters outlined in Proposal 1.”
“Cannabis is, in many ways, is (sic) safer than alcohol, and is legal in Michigan,” the policy continues. “It is therefore no more appropriate to charge someone with for (sic) having ‘too much’ marijuana than it is to charge someone for having ‘too many’ bottles of wine.”
As marijuana use increases, many experts are sounding the alarm. According to the Addictions, Drug and Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington: “Frequent cannabis use, early age of initiation, and high THC cannabis consumption are important risk factors in the development of lifelong psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.”
A pattern may be emerging regarding the handling of alleged drug crimes. At least one law enforcement agency was confused about Savit’s policy. In May last year, 700 pounds of processed, illicit marijana were found during a fire call in Ypsilanti Township.
Prosecutor Eli Savit has not answered questions about what took place in the aftermath of a discovery of illegal drugs.
Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer said her office has followed the relevant laws for the forfeiture of seized controlled substances, but the prosecutor’s office policy initially muddied their response.
Dyer told Enjoyer that “there was some confusion among law enforcement regarding whether the prosecutor’s office would pursue marijuana-related charges, given that marijuana has been legalized in Michigan.”
Until, and unless, there is more openness about what precisely happened, Enjoyer readers can reach their own conclusions about how law enforcement perceptions of drug enforcement in Washtenaw County might have played a role in the Hammerton murder investigation.
One local attorney sees a pattern. Doug Winters, who represents Ypsilanti Township, spoke with Enjoyer about the Township’s frustration with the prosecutor. Winters was pointed in his concerns about Savit’s office and expressed a belief that under Savit’s leadership perpetrators of crimes are being treated as gently as possible and given breaks while crime victims have become a secondary concern.
He pointed to specific charging decisions, including a firearms case involving threats of murder directed at an Ypsilanti Township employee.
This raises questions about whom the prosecutor’s office should serve. Its own bureaucratic desires to settle cases quickly and efficiently? The perpetrators of crimes? Victims and their families?
A duty to serve the public, victims, and their families might seem outdated to Ann Arbor elites who spend their time opining at $500-a-plate fundraising events. To most Michiganders, however, it is plain common sense.
If Eli Savit wants to be Michigan’s next attorney general, he should focus more on holding perpetrators accountable and less on lunching with celebrities, like Jane Fonda, during business hours.
Jake Altman is a former union official and the author of Socialism before Sanders: The 1930s Moment from Romance to Revisionism.
