Prosecutor: No charges for Detroit fire union leader's social media posts

Detroit — The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office will not file charges against a Detroit Fire Department captain and union leader accused of publishing "identifying information" of witnesses to a fatal shooting, it announced Tuesday.

Detroit police had sought in December a warrant request for Mike Nevin, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. 

Police Chief James Craig announced the intent to seek charges against Nevin in early December; Worthy's office got the warrant request Dec. 18. 

In November, Nevin had sent the media a package, which he also reportedly posted on Facebook, that included audio files of police dispatches and a police report of a shooting that occurred Nov. 23 at Junction and Warren on Detroit’s west side. The report included the first name of a woman who told police about the shooting, along with her phone number and address.

"The Detroit Fire Fighters Association will continue to express professional factual concern publicly over Detroit Police / Fire and EMS mismanagement, manipulation and flat-out misrepresenting public safety response to the public," Nevin said at the time in a news release.

But at a press conference at the time, Craig said Nevin had removed the postings, which contained unredacted police reports that contained "confidential and sensitive" information about at least two potential witnesses to the crime.

"It not only undermines a criminal investigation, in this case a homicide, but it also can, and does, put a witness to a homicide in harm's way," Craig had said. 

Nevin's attorney, Mike Rataj, said at the time that "(Police) are trying to concoct some kind of criminal case against him. There's no crime. To use the criminal process to try to silence somebody who is trying to protect members and let the public know what’s going on, that’s criminal.

"The chief should be very careful and the mayor should be very careful if they are going to go down that road," Rataj added. "File that one under: Be careful what you ask for."

In declining to pursue charges, the Prosecutor's Office said "no crime has been committed" in posting the information.