Lucido’s first accuser doubtful prosecutor ‘learned lesson’
Peter Lucido’s first sexual-harassment accuser, Allison Donahue, said she had hoped at one time perhaps he would apologize or talk to her about his remark to her in January 2020. But she has realized that will never happen.
Donahue, 23, a writer at Michigan Advance news website, recently told The Macomb Daily Lucido, when he was a state senator, was quoted in a newspaper article shortly after the incident that he had learned his lesson.
But she discovered he had not done so because he later denied all the accusations by two other women last year as well as a recent fourth accuser, Judge Lisa McCormick of Ingham County Circuit Court in Lansing, who recently came forward about an incident in late January or early February 2020.
She said she is “a little disappointed.”
“I had hoped he had privately reflected on what happened,” she said. “But it’s clear he hasn’t because he’s calling another victim a liar.”
McCormick said Lucido gave her an “uncomfortable” and “inappropriate” hug after their first meeting over her nomination for a state ombudsman position, according to the article in the Advance. At the time, Lucido was a member of the state Senate and headed the committee that would approve or reject her nomination.
Two days after the article about McCormick was published in her publication penned by another writer, she realized she had been blocked by Lucido, now the Macomb County prosecutor, on Twitter.
“I was shocked and angry, but it proved to me more work needs to be done,” she said. “Whether there is a reckoning (by Lucido), I don’t think we’ll ever get there, and I’m not sure I need it.”
It was also the first time he had even acknowledged her since the incident, albeit in a negative way.
She still thinks about her encounter with Lucido.
“It was really traumatizing,” she said, adding in a Jan. 15, 2020 column she felt “objectified” and “humiliated” by Lucido’s comment the day before in front of a group of about 30 boys from De La Salle Collegiate who were touring the state Capitol. He said: “You should hang around! You could have a lot of fun with these boys, or they could have a lot of fun with you.”
She said in the column she complained to him about it a half hour afterward, and he gave rationalizations.
She said it is still difficult to deal due to conflicting emotions about her role as a journalist and her desire to go public.
“It was hard. It still is hard,” she said. “As a journalist, you’re not supposed to be the subject of your own writing. There was a push and pull within me. I was dealing with emotions you’re trying to separate yourself as a journalist. I wanted to be as disconnected to the story as possible.”
She added it was “reaffirming” that two other women came forward last year of harassment allegations against Lucido but also brought mixed emotions.
“It made me feel a little more supported,” she said. But, “It was hard to hear two other women go through the same thing because I know how bad if feels. I felt bad because they went through the same or similar situation.”
She said she is “proud” of McCormick coming forward though it was more than a year after it occurred and realizes the ramifications such allegations can have on a woman’s life.
“For some women, the right thing is to never come forward,” she said. “For some women it may take years.”