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Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chief of Reserves resigns after criminal background surfaces

Posted at 6:01 PM, Feb 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-14 18:27:30-05

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The former Deputy Chief of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Reserve Officers, Mark Zarkin is explaining to 7 Action News why he did not disclose a previous conviction for Criminal Sexual Conduct.

Sheriff Benny Napoleon is explaining how it was not discovered in a background check.

“It didn’t come up in our background investigation. I’ve never seen anything like that in almost 44 years that I’ve been in law enforcement,” the Sheriff said.

He goes on to say Mark Zarkin should have answered the standard question - have you ever been convicted of a crime - saying, “He should have answered that in the affirmative, yes. He said he had no conviction and that’s the question we asked.”

This old conviction was first exposed by the Detroit Free Press.

Zarkin was a high-profile Reserve Officer and never disclosed a 1997 conviction in a plea deal of Criminal Sexual Conduct.

A court document shows Zarkin went to Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Mark Switalski who granted his motions for Relief from Judgment, Nolle Prosecution, Latin for ending prosecution and have his name and a picture removed from the Sex Offender Registry.

Zarkin tells 7 Action News he does not regret not disclosing it,

“I am not convicted or guilty of any matter that occurred 20 years ago,” he says.

The sex cases goes back to 1997 in Fraser.

Sheriff Napoleon says it was explained to him this way, “He had an encounter with a young lady at a hotel room that went bad and she alleges he sexually assaulted her.”

Zarkin only says, “I can’t discuss anything pertaining to any of that.”

Zarkin resigned a week ago after he and the Sheriff were asked about all of this by the Detroit Free Press.

Zarkin says, “I wanted to be able to let the Sheriff’s Department move on and do the good deeds and good things that they do.”

Sheriff Napoleon says he’s looking into how this happened. And how this was wiped clean through the court in Macomb County is also being investigated there.