LAWYER IS ENSNARED IN WASHTENAW DRUG CASE

Girlfriend gave heroin to overdose victim; lawyer is being prosecuted
for paying for it

Ann Arbor -- Tracy Corson introduced a friend to heroin. Two weeks
later, after both shared the drug, the friend died of an overdose.

Corson was charged under a new state law that says a person who
"delivers" an illegal drug that results in death could be held
criminally responsible.

But prosecutors didn't stop there.

They also charged her boyfriend, Ron Plunkett, a prominent Brighton
lawyer. His offense: paying for the heroin.

Corson served two years in prison after the 2006 death. Plunkett, 53,
is facing life.

His trial, delayed by an appeal that marked the first significant
challenge to the new law, is now scheduled for November. His
supporters say a measure meant for drug dealers is being used unfairly
against someone marginally involved in a drug death.

"It was Corson who bought, carried, mixed and handed heroin to the
deceased," said one of Plunkett's attorneys, Kevin Gentry of Whitmore
Lake.

Corson reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in exchange for
testifying against Plunkett.

Although the case hasn't gone to trial, it already has divided several
courts.

An Ann Arbor district court found probable cause, but a Washtenaw
County Circuit Court reversed the decision.

A Michigan Court of Appeals panel upheld the reversal by a 2-1 vote
but the Michigan Supreme Court, in another split vote, affirmed the
district court's ruling by a 4-3 margin.

Even Corson seems ambivalent about the complicity of her former
boyfriend.

"Do I think he was a saint? No," she told The Detroit News. "Do I
think he was a monster? No."

Accused of financing deal

According to prosecutors, Tiffany Gregory would still be alive if not
for Plunkett.

He was the one who drove Corson to Detroit to buy the heroin that
killed Gregory, and he was the one who paid for it, according to testimony.

Corson, who stopped working as a prostitute after moving in with
Plunkett, never would have been able to afford the drugs on her own,
said prosecutors.

"Defendant utilized heroin-addicted prostitutes to make his frequent
purchases, providing the women with the money, the transportation and
the haven for drug use," said Joseph Burke, chief assistant
prosecuting attorney for Washtenaw County.

Six months before Gregory died in June 2006, Michigan enacted a state
law that established penalties for the distribution of drugs that
caused death.

Prior to that, people could be charged with possessing or selling
drugs, but no mechanism existed to charge them with contributing to a
person's death.

In signing the law, Gov. Jennifer Granholm lauded it as another way to
punish drug dealers.

But legal scholars say it may go much further than
that.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law was so broad
that anyone who buys drugs could be charged with the same offenses as
the seller, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor who now is
a law professor at Wayne State University.

"Any buyer could be charged with aiding and abetting the delivery," he
said. "That's a pretty radical step."

While people are split over Plunkett's culpability, many agree he had
a horrid drug addiction.

It led to the loss of his home, savings and law license, according to
public records.

His addiction was so severe that he continued using drugs seven months
after the woman's overdose, even as police contemplated charging him
in the death, said prosecutors.

"He went off the deep end," said Mike Edwards, Plunkett's former
father-in-law. "It's a shame."

It's unclear when his descent began. But by 2005, he was buying crack
and heroin nearly every night, said prosecutors.

The crack was for him. The heroin was for a succession of
drug-addicted women who lived with him, trading sex for drugs, they
said.

"Defendant was leading a double life," prosecutor Burke wrote in
pleadings. "By day he was doing his best to keep his law practice
going. Once the workday was done, his life was drugs and satisfying
his sexual urges."

Corson was a 20-year-old prostitute when she was introduced to
Plunkett by a mutual drug dealer in February 2006, she testified
during a preliminary examination for Plunkett. She moved into his
apartment in Ann Arbor three months later.

Each night, after Plunkett got off work, they drove to a parking lot
in northwest Detroit to meet a drug dealer named Boo, Corson said in
testimony.

Plunkett gave the money to Corson, who hopped into the dealer's car to
get the drugs.

They always bought the same thing: $100 worth of crack in a plastic
baggie and $100 worth of heroin wrapped in tin foil.

Once a workaholic, Plunkett turned into a no-show at his job, said
former clients.

He stopped returning calls. He kept clients waiting for hours. He
missed deadlines. He was unprepared for trials. Ten clients complained
he didn't work on their cases after being paid, according to the
Michigan Attorney Discipline Board, which suspended his license.

"There was a time in Ron's life I would have called him a great
attorney," said Bev Carr, 51, an Ypsilanti resident who has known
Plunkett for several years.

But when her daughter faced legal trouble, she said Plunkett ignored
letters and reports she produced for the case; she had to beg him to
visit her daughter in jail.

"His only concern was when the next payment was coming," she
said.

Childhood friend invited over

Plunkett's use of drugs went horribly awry in June
2006.

He and Corson were smoking crack in their apartment at 3 a.m. when
Corson invited Tiffany Gregory to join them, Corson testified.

The women were childhood friends who lost touch but had reunited two
weeks earlier.

Corson had told her friend about her addiction to heroin and shared
the drug with her.

A waitress at a Big Boy restaurant, Gregory belonged to the National
Guard and was fretting about her first deployment to Iraq later that
year.

She came to the apartment and, after smoking crack with Plunkett, the
two women retreated to the bedroom, said Corson. Plunkett, who didn't
use heroin, remained in the living room.

Corson retrieved drug paraphernalia from her underwear drawer and
prepared the heroin.

After Gregory injected it, she lost consciousness and turned
blue.

The heroin was three times the amount normally used by addicts, said
the Washtenaw County Medical Examiner's Office.

Hoping to revive Gregory, Corson began to fill the bathtub with cold
water.

She changed her mind and called 911.

As she hid the drug equipment, Plunkett dumped a plate of crack off
the fourthfloor balcony, said Corson.

Waiting for the police and emergency workers to appear, Plunkett
worried that police would recognize him.

After all, he told Corson, he was a prominent attorney.