A New Robe, Old Habits? Scrutiny Follows Christopher Burnett to the Bench in Allegan County

On July 21, 2025, the Michigan Supreme Court announced the appointment of Christopher Burnett to the 57th District Court in Allegan County, following the resignation of Judge William Baillargeon. The official statement highlighted Burnett’s private practice background and his Juris Doctor from MSU College of Law.

It left out the rest.

Allegations from the Public Defense Trenches

Multiple individuals familiar with Burnett’s work as a public defender allege a consistent pattern: arriving late to hearings, appearing unprepared, and moving clients toward plea deals without providing a clear accounting of their rights or the collateral consequences of accepting a conviction.

According to that same source, Burnett described the deal as the best they were going to get and pushed for an immediate answer. In a separate matter unrelated to the arrests discussed below, that same client had to push Burnett to challenge an unconstitutional arrest in their own case. At the client’s insistence, Burnett filed the motion, and the charges were dropped.

Others describe similar experiences. One alleged that Burnett failed to file pretrial motions and actively discouraged the client from considering trial as an option. A regional caseworker familiar with Allegan County put it plainly: Burnett was known for clearing dockets, not for fighting cases.

Advocacy organizations in southwest Michigan have flagged Burnett’s name in multiple cases reviewed for questionable plea practices. These are not isolated complaints from isolated individuals.

A Demanding Docket, Not a Free Hand

Attorneys who worked alongside Burnett in the Allegan County public defender’s office describe an environment shaped less by individual discretion than by the courts above it. Allegan County’s felony matters run through the 48th Circuit Court, chaired for more than a decade by Chief Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker, whom multiple sources describe as running a docket with little tolerance for delay or trial requests.

That context does not resolve the plea pressure allegations described above, but it complicates a reading of them as purely a matter of individual choice. Public defenders working inside a courthouse culture built around speed, sources say, face institutional incentives to clear cases quickly that have little to do with any one attorney’s judgment.

Sources who worked with Burnett also describe him personally as even tempered and well regarded by colleagues, a characterization distinct from the pattern of casework concerns raised above. Clutch Justice has previously reported on Judge Bakker’s record in Allegan County courts, including disputes over case handling and allegations of selective treatment raised by other parties.

What the Appointment Process Did Not Ask

Burnett’s appointment arrives at a moment when Michigan courts are under sustained scrutiny for transparency and workload pressure in rural and under-resourced counties. Allegan County is among them.

The plea pressure allegations against Burnett, set against the courthouse culture sources describe, raise a narrower question than this piece originally asked. It is less about whether Burnett individually deserves the bench, and more about whether Michigan’s judicial vetting process accounts for the conditions public defenders work under before elevating them out of that system.

Where This Stands

Clutch Justice is not filing a complaint with the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission over the allegations described here. The pattern sources describe sits closer to the institutional pressures of Allegan County’s courts than to individual misconduct, and the more serious allegation originally reported alongside it, involving unreported unlawful arrests, has been withdrawn after further sourcing established Burnett was not involved.

Clutch Justice will continue reporting on Allegan County’s courts, including the office culture described by sources in this piece, as that reporting develops.

The citizens of Allegan County are entitled to know both what shaped Burnett’s record as a public defender and what did not. This piece has been revised to reflect that distinction.