Former Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Marrocco should be sent to prison as a message to other public officials for his years-long, behind-the-scenes demands of contractors’ acquiescence as a power play, according to federal prosecutors.
The government last week spelled out its case for asking U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland to hand down a 16-month prison term to Marrocco when he is sentenced Thursday in Port Huron for attempting to extort a developer into buying tickets to a campaign fundraiser and threatening to delay or withhold a county permits.
That was business as usual for him, prosecutors said.
“For Anthony Marrocco, it wasn’t about the money. He had that in spades,” U.S. Assistant Attorney Steven Cares wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“It was about power and respect. For over two decades, Marrocco had unchecked control of the Macomb County Public Works department. And he used it to do what he wanted. When he wanted it. So after a developer wouldn’t bend to his pressure, Marrocco sought to punish him—threatening to grind his construction projects to a halt.”
The sentencing comes about three years after Marrocco was charged in a widespread corruption scandal that saw dozens of the county’s elected leaders, contractors and others head off to prison.
Marrocco, 74, of Ray Township, is the last case to be resolved in the FBI corruption probe centered in Macomb County that resulted in convictions of two-dozen people on a range of…
