State Rep. Betsy Coffia is calling for Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg to accept help from the state attorney general’s office with the investigation into past abuses at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Making the argument in a letter posted publicly today, Coffia said that Moeggenberg’s office is already overloaded with cases.
“You may recall I advocated for the commission to heed your [Moeggenberg’s] pleas for additional staff to manage and keep up with your caseload,” Coffia wrote. “...State standards say no prosecuting attorney should be handling more than 150 open felony cases at one time, but your chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Kyle Attwood, had 208 open felony cases.”
"Right now, it is imperative to secure timely justice as swiftly and comprehensively as possible,” the letter continued.
In late July, Interlochen released a report documenting 70 separate instances of sexual misconduct committed by 47 different adults. Incidents of abuse go back to the 1960s, with the most recent in the report happening in the 2010s.
In her letter, Coffia noted the Attorney General office’s strong track record of prosecuting institutional sexual abuse cases, including “the Larry Nassar conviction at Michigan State University, convictions of many Catholic clergy members, and convictions of many Boy Scouts of America personnel who engaged in criminal sexual conduct.”
There are wide ramifications for how authorities handle this situation, Coffia argued, citing the "ongoing failure to properly investigate the Epstein Files.” Epstein attended camp at Interlochen in the 1960s and was a donor from 1990 to 2003. The Interlochen report included allegations from two alumni reporting sexual contact with Epstein five years before his first conviction. One said it happened at Epstein’s lodge on campus.
