Sporting a love for travel, the Ewell family posed for a photo while vacationing last year in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
If he was a name-dropper, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell Jr. would have quite the collection to choose from in terms of those he has had the pleasure of working with over the course of his legal career.
For starters, there was Judge Damon J. Keith, of federal court and civil rights fame, for whom Ewell served as a senior law clerk.
“He was the gold standard,” Ewell said of the legendary U.S. Court of Appeals judge who died in April 2019 at the age of 96. “He was a man of such integrity and conviction, and taught me so much during the time I worked for him.”
Then there was former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the recently appointed U.S. Energy Secretary, who Ewell worked with at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit. Their working ties would eventually help pave the way for Ewell’s appointment in 2003 to the Circuit Court by then Gov.- Granholm. The stint at the U.S. Attorney’s Office also cemented his admiration for his two bosses there, Stephen Markman, who recently retired from the Michigan Supreme Court, and Saul Green, former deputy mayor of Detroit who now is a prominent criminal defense attorney for Miller Canfield.
Two more names of note — former Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara and current Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan — would become part of Ewell’s daily life from 1995 to 2003, when he served in various key legal roles for the most populous county in Michigan.
“Ed McNamara was one of the finest people I’ve ever worked with, and had such a presence and charisma as a leader,” Ewell said of the political power broker whose name became synonymous with the expansion of Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “And, of course, Mike Duggan was Deputy County Executive and then Wayne County Prosecutor during my time with the Corporation Counsel Office. Two great leaders that I learned a lot from during my time with the county.”
Of course, by that time in his legal career, Ewell also had made a name for himself, rising to the rank of corporation counsel for Wayne County, handling myriad responsibilities while overseeing a staff of 40 attorneys and a multi-million-dollar budget.
“It was a job that presented a new set of challenges almost daily,” said Ewell, a University of Michigan alum who earned his law degree from Wayne State University. “I spent eight years in that office and it probably seemed like 20 because of the pace and the amount of the work. It prepared me well for becoming a judge, especially on a court that is as busy as the Wayne County Circuit.”
Ewell, who majored in economics at U-M and holds a master’s degree from Atlanta University, was Governor Granholm’s second appointment to the Wayne Circuit bench, following the selection of David Groner. Assigned to the Criminal Division of the court, Ewell “hit the ground running right out of the chute,” presiding over a double homicide case (see related story) that garnered heavy media attention during a three-week trial.
“It can be very difficult to keep your emotions in check when you’re dealing with some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, but that is our responsibility to ensure that the accused gets a fair trial and that justice is served,” said Ewell, who spent 10 years in the Criminal Division of the court.
For the past six years, Ewell has served as a business court judge, a role for which he seems particularly well-suited based on his experience as Corporation Counsel for Wayne County.
True to its name, the Wayne County business court handles business and commercial cases where the amount at stake is more than $25,000 and includes matters where all the parties are “business enterprises.”
The court also hears disputes between a business and individuals connected with it, such as owners, managers, directors, shareholders, officers, suppliers, and employees.
“The stakes can range from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of dollars,” Ewell indicated. “The issues can be very complex, requiring a lot of expert testimony to sort out the facts. I find it particularly fascinating work.”
In fact, he said, some of the cases involving disputes surrounding family-owned businesses can be especially vexing as “they can be more of a marriage than a real marriage.”
Ewell grew up on the east side of Detroit and was the product of a single-parent home headed by his mother, Beverly, who worked in a managerial role for the Michigan Department of Corrections before retiring.
“She has been a great influence throughout my life and imparted the importance of a strong education,” Ewell said of his now 81-year-old mother. “She set a great example for me and my two sisters and brother (Laurie, Angela, and Toure).”
A Cass Tech grad, Ewell played football for the Detroit high school on a team that included such U-M stalwarts as running back Harlan Huckleby and defensive standout Curtis Greer, both of whom excelled in the NFL.
“I played linebacker and on the offensive line,” said Ewell, who suffered a knee injury in high school that effectively ended his gridiron career. “We had a team that was loaded with talent.”
Now, Ewell finds his athletic joy on the tennis court, where he plays several times a week, harboring a “wish that I had picked up the sport at a much earlier age.”
His daughter, Simone, did play varsity tennis at Roeper High School and at Xavier University in Cincinnati, proving to be the star of the family in the sport. She now is exploring the possibility of attending vet school, while her brother, Edward III, is pursuing a graduate degree in the performing arts after graduating from Yale University and serving in the Teach for America program.
Ewell and his wife, Florise Neville-Ewell, met as law clerks, she for U.S. District Judge Julian Cook Jr. and he for Judge Keith.
“We worked right across the hall from each other during that time,” Ewell said of their courtship which spanned several years. “She grew up in Chicago and earned her undergraduate degree from Yale as well as her law degree, which shows you the kind of smarts she has.”
A former attorney with Honigman in Detroit, Neville-Ewell has taught law at Wayne State University and currently is a professor at Cooley Law School, where she teaches contracts, ethics and property courses.
In 2013, the Federal Bar Association Chapter for the Eastern District of Michigan honored her with the coveted Wade H. McCree Jr. Award for the Advancement of Social Justice.
Longtime residents of Detroit, the Ewells live in the same historic neighborhood as Wayne Circuit Judge David Allen and his wife, Colleen, cementing a bond that dates back to the time when the two future judges worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“We have had three threads running through our lives — as professional colleagues, as neighbors and the fact that all of our kids went to the same school (Roeper),” said Judge Allen, a member of the Wayne County bench since 2003.
“I really got to know Judge Ewell during his re-election campaign in 2004, when Judge Groner and I supported him by attending virtually all of his events and appearances,” said Allen “It offered me a chance to see that he was a man of the highest character and integrity, and that he lives it 24/7, 365 days a year. My admiration for him has only grown since then, and I’m very fortunate to have him as a great friend, colleague, and confidant.”
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First case leaves lasting impact on circuit court judge
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
For a man of faith, Judge Edward Ewell Jr. had his put to the supreme test during his first case on the Wayne County Circuit Court bench in 2003.
The case revolved around a grisly double homicide that took place in Garden City during the early morning hours of July 6, 2002.
As a new judge, Ewell was facing the ultimate baptism under fire.
“I had never seen anything like it before and nor have I since,” said Ewell of the brutal murders of a Garden City father, John Swinea, and his 7-year-old daughter.
“It was horrifying what happened that night.”
The assailant was 19-year-old Steven C. Maier, who had spent much of the evening drinking with his friend Swinea while they were at a nearby strip club. When the pair returned to Swinea’s home around 2 a.m., Maier reportedly made repeated attempts to contact his girlfriend for a late-night hook-up.
“As I recall, phone records showed that he tried calling her 32 times without success,” Ewell said. “She knew where he had been that evening and also that he had been drinking heavily.”
After being rebuffed by his girlfriend, Maier then began a two-hour crime spree that would claim two lives, shatter another, and correspondingly shock a community.
According to court records, Maier attempted to sexually assault Swinea’s 12-year-old daughter, who was asleep in her bedroom. When she awoke and began screaming, Maier “left the room, obtained Swinea’s shotgun, and shot and killed Swinea and his younger daughter while they slept in their beds.”
Shortly thereafter, Maier began repeatedly raping the 12-year-old girl, eventually shooting her in the top of her head in what he thought was a fatal blow.
“Miraculously, she somehow survived the shooting and turned out to be the key witness at trial,” said Ewell. “In fact, she played ‘dead’ after being shot, which ultimately saved her life as he later kicked her to make sure that she was dead.”
Maier then made off with Swinea’s car in a failed attempt to kill himself, ramming the vehicle into an embankment at a speed approaching 90 mph, according to Ewell.
“He walked away from the crash without serious injuries. When questioned by a State Police officer, he admitted that he had just killed three people,” Ewell said.
Later that day, according to court records, Maier “admitted his guilt” to the deputy chief of the Garden City Police Department, stating that he “had been intoxicated, and that he remembered very little of the events because he had a blackout.”
Following his arrest, Maier and his attorney would move to suppress the admissions of guilt, eventually bringing a motion before Judge Ewell that was denied.
It would be just one of many legal twists and turns to the case that would be played out during a three-week trial that attracted heavy media attention.
“There were a lot of evidentiary and constitutional issues that were raised, and then there was the testimony from the girl who survived the shooting,” Ewell related. “There was hardly a dry eye in the courtroom during her testimony. It was so emotional and impactful. That girl showed such courage and strength to recount what happened that night.”
But, of course, as the judge, Ewell couldn't show any emotion during the proceedings, otherwise it would be possible grounds for a new trial. Even though he, in effect, was living a three-week nightmare about the events of that fateful evening.
“What happened that night was so disturbing that even some of the police officers who testified had tears in their eyes,” Ewell said of the case that resulted in Maier’s conviction on two first-degree murder charges. “It was a case that I’ll never be able to forget.”
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