By Sterling McGinn
Luce County has a new prosecutor following a two-month search after the resignation of former Prosecutor Cameron Harwell.
Since Harwell’s October 10, 2024 departure, the court has been relying on the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.
Tom Evans was sworn in to the position on Thursday, January 2 by Circuit Court Judge Brian Rahilly.
Evans has been an attorney for 28 years, spending about 16 years in prosecution. He was most recently the chief assistant prosecutor for Clare County, Michigan. He previously served as prosecutor for Barry and Montmorency counties.
“I am excited about this opportunity to come to Luce,” said Evans. “It looks like a great job and a great community.”
He was born in Detroit and graduated from Ferndale High School. Evans received his undergraduate degree from Wayne State University. He then graduated from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri.
His first circuit court hearings as Luce County Prosecutor took place on Monday, January 6.
“For immediate goals, I want to get our office back on track with all our constituencies—the public we serve, the police officers we work with, and all the other agencies.”
Evans also wants to develop relationships with other neighboring agencies.
“A lot of what we do is prosecute the offenders—making sure that crime victims are served, offenders are punished and rehabilitated,” said Evans. “You get a passing grade for a doing a good job prosecuting folks, but to the extent we can work with our other community actors, and from time to time stop a crime before it occurs is A+ material,” he said.
Evans says he had a good feeling after meeting everyone on his first visit and heard that Newberry was a close-knit community.
“I really appreciate the judge putting his faith in me and I hope to earn the trust of the community,” Evans said.
