New Assistant Prosecutor joins Emmet County Prosecutor’s staff

 

Emmet County Prosecutor Jim Linderman has announced the hiring of Michael Schuitema as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. Schuitema, 34, joined the staff on Monday, March 28. He moved to Petoskey from Grand Rapids after holding prosecuting and state investigative positions in Florida and Michigan.

“I knew I wanted to get back into prosecuting, and I was looking for a job in a smaller county. I was actually heading up north to ski at Boyne Highlands for a weekend when I saw the job posting for Emmet County,” Schuitema said. “It seemed like a great area to raise a family and to live.”

Schuitema is a Hudsonville, Mich., native. He attended Unity Christian High School and then Calvin College, from where he graduated in 2004 with degrees in business and political science. He attended law school at the University of Virginia, graduating in 2007. After graduation he spent five years as a prosecutor in the Lakeland, Florida area, serving the three-county 10th Judicial Circuit.

In 2009, he returned to Michigan as the prosecutor for Huron County, working from the county seat in Bad Axe. In 2011, he accepted the prosecutor’s position in Kent County where he served for a year before taking a job in Lansing to work in the State Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Health and Human Services, investigating Medicaid fraud by medical providers.

He worked for the state until accepting the position in Emmet County. As one of four Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys in the local office, Schuitema will focus on cases involving assaults, domestic violence and financial crimes, both misdemeanors and felonies.

“Mike comes to the Emmet County Prosecutor’s Office as an experienced prosecutor with a background in felony and misdemeanor trial experience after working in other larger and similarly sized prosecutors’ offices,” said Linderman. “Mike’s background and experience as a state fraud investigator will also be an asset our office can use to prosecute future fraud and elder fraud cases. I anticipate that Mike will well-represent the Emmet County Prosecutor’s Office in all three local courts as assigned, with an emphasis regarding the prosecution of domestic violence and fraud cases.”

Brand new to the area, Schuitema said he’s been impressed with the friendliness of the people he’s encountered at work and in the community and he especially enjoys the views of Little Traverse Bay. “I am really looking forward to golfing and getting out on the water this summer,” he added.

Schuitema’s wife, Andrea, is a school teacher and will be joining him in Petoskey after the school year ends in June. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Dylan.

 

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