Macomb County judge candidate accused of cocaine deals

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (WJBK) -
Defense lawyer Paul Zyburski wanted to be a 39th district court judge in Macomb County.

Now, he just wants to stay out of jail. Zyburski is charged with using a phone to set up drug deals.

The feds nabbed the 57-year-old after tapping the phone of suspected dope dealer, Antonio Lewis. They listened to phone calls between the two and read their text messages.  

Investigators say Zyburski scored cocaine from Lewis on a number of occasions.

Transcripts of the two men's phone calls and text messages outlined in the criminal complaint are damning.

On January 20th Zyburski wrote:

"Coyote, can you stop by, I got some 18-year-old broad coming here, so you know."

"One?" Lewis asked.

"Actually two sounds better if you got it," Zyburski replied.

"K (sic) on my way," Lewis said.

Investigators say Zyburski ordered two packages of cocaine-one for himself and another for his young flame.  They say over the course of the probe he and Lewis spoke more than 30 times about distributing controlled substances.

"If you're going in front of a judge you shouldn't be running to be judge," said Jared Maynard, a Macomb County political consultant. "I think that's fair to say. He's innocent until proven guilty but he should stop his campaign. It's something I would do."

Zyburski was still campaigning as of last Sunday. A federal judge signed a complaint May 23rd.

"As I believe him to be an upstanding member of our bar, it's disturbing, it's upsetting and mostly unfortunate," said attorney Todd Perkins. "I know what it looks like. But you also have to look at it from a different scope: you don't know the nature of their relationship. 

"Are they joking? Is this something they go back and forth on? Are they friends? Is this something they would be tongue and cheek about? Is it actually him using that phone?"

All of that will be determined in court. Zyburski's lawyer was unavailable for comment - as was the now controversial judicial candidate.

Zyburski is due in court on Tuesday. Many believe even if he's cleared of these charges, he will have a really hard time winning the election - he was not favored to win this election to begin with.

His competition is not commenting.