Only the Detroit News was at all interested. I immediately pulled the project from the Free Press and scrambled to find a self-publish website while continuing to gather research. But I was assured, by Free Press leadership, that in no way had the publication ever allowed outside pressure to interfere with an investigation. While he pled guilting to this federal corruption charge in January of 2021, he has yet to be sentenced, in part because of his ongoing public corruption case with the State Attorney Generals Office. ), I felt like Adlai Stevenson staring down Ambassador Zorin. When police searched Richholt and Neelys rental car, they found potential evidence of other crimes, including cash, zip-top plastic bags of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and firearms. Biden, the former vice presidentwho won Michigan 50.6%-47.9%, won the presidency Saturday morning after the Associated Press called the race in Pennsylvania, giving him 284 Electoral College votes, with 270needed to win the presidency, and delivering him a state that, like Michigan and Wisconsin, were key to Trump's victory in 2016 and played a vital role in defeating him this year. In Oakland County, in Novi Precinct 21, Clinton eked out a 49.8%-46.9% among the 1,157 votes. A high level review of elder care issues?. And his percentage of the overall vote actually declined slightly. Moreover, she had pledged to support the the downtrodden and, her meeting request looked like a desire to keep that campaign promise. While my press badge, issued by the Chicago Police Department, pissed off Kojak to no end and at least got me in the door with Teter, maybe it had no weight when it came to last minute pressers. According to news reports from the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, at least three members of the Detroit Police Department are suspected of accepting bribes from towing industry figures; no charges have been filed so these unnamed individuals were also not included in the regional public figure count. Chuck Rizzo whose rags-to-riches story of becoming a millionaire businessman in the trash industry only to lose most everything readily admits his guilt in a public corruption scheme. The Oakland police fired Valerga after he was criminally charged. Corruption in the Oakland County Child Killer case Guarded By Jackals. That's only part of the story to Biden winning Michigan: Even as Trump was adding to his vote totals in every county of the state but one Dickinson, in the Upper Peninsula, where Secretary of State records show he lost 111 votes his margin of victory in several counties long considered friendly to Republicans fell. Barry King was then in his late seventies, still practicing law. True to form, it was a downright bizarre four hours during which our summary of findings was received with moments which ran the gamut between receptive and defensive. Third parties. But police commission Chair Regina Jackson said in an interview Wednesday that she wasnt aware of any whistleblowing at the time they fired the chief. For instance, look at East Bay Township Precinct 1 in Grand Traverse County. "The Trump surge came at the end and he couldn't quite catch up to Biden's advantage," he said. Even after I received their 2018 Letter of Intent to publish my investigation into the Oakland County Probate Court, I was cautious. On Nov. 16, 2000, Officer Harper was acquitted of all charges after a month-long trial. I have to come to the conclusion that there is a certain lie factor, a certain unwillingness of Trump voters to express themselves.". If you prefer to do so anonymously, you can call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit tips online at tips.fbi.gov. In the 1960s, Oakland became the birthplace of the Black Panther movement after growing police harassment and brutality, and in 1968, anger at OPD boiled over when cops killed a 17-year-old member. I didn't quote him at the time but there were more than a few moments I wanted to blurt out "Well let me tell you, with a trespass on credulity that excels your best, that we do have the evidence. The Oakland city attorneys office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Plaintiffs alleged mistreatment at the hands of four veteran officers, known as the "Riders", who were alleged to have kidnapped, planted evidence, and beaten . Edward Ortiz, Officer Paul Harper, Sgt. In November 2005, Valerga pleaded guilty to the charges, all misdemeanors. Two leaders of an Oakland construction management firm pleaded guilty Thursday to felony charges in the far-reaching San Francisco City Hall corruption scandal centered . Darwin BondGraham Subscribe to our newsletters for regular updates, analysis and context straight to your email. But it was 56%-45%. Every single time, they were told to "get an attorney but hardly anyone dared to represent wards or families fighting Public Administrators and court-appointed guardians. A 21-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder in connection with a Jan. 23 shooting in Oakland that killed one and injured six. In 2016, more than 75,000 people in the state cast ballots but didn't vote for any presidential candidate. My opinion was, and still is, is that Valerga should have gone to prison, Rullamas said during the deposition. It's based on the candidate.". On Nov. 16, 2000, Officer Harper was acquitted of all charges after a month-long trial. On the morning of March 25, I paused to watch Nessels presser on Facebook. can stand by your side from the initial investigation onward. In the early 2000s, several women accused Oakland patrol officer Richard Valerga of holding them against their will in his squad car while he harassed and molested them. The sole remaining court record of the Riders case is related to officer Frank Vazquez, known to his fellow officers as Choker because he frequently grabbed people by their necks. In Wayne County (excluding Detroit), since 2016, there have been four public corruption charges. Indeed, outside Catallo and myself, no one ever wanted to talk to these families. This year, despite trailing in many independent public opinion polls such asthe Free Press' by around 7 points, he brought it closer to 2 by outgaining Biden in areas like St. Clair County, where he added more than 10,000 votes, and Monroe, where he added 9,400. Feds file obstruction case against ex-W. Bloomfield schools official . Recent headlines have been focused on several public officials, including four from the Detroit City Council, three from the Detroit Police Department and three from Macomb County. On the other hand, Steven G. Cohen, the attorney who brought the lawsuit against Chase and Jefferson, ended up on the wrong side of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission for his trouble. In 2000, Ortiz, Liddy, and Buchanan were convicted by a Los Angeles County jury of framing gang members and planting evidence. In Los Angeles County, the superior courts criminal division retained files for several former officers who were charged in the Rampart scandal, where anti-gang officers in a downtown precinct were accused of unprovoked shootings and beatings of suspects, as well as planting evidence and stealing drugs then turning around and selling them on the street. Lucido seemed equally surprised because, he said, there was supposed to be a press conference about it on March 25. Kinzinger, the attorney, told The Appeal that because the Riders trials ended with hung juries and the court dismissed the cases after 60 days, the retention requirement for the case files dropped to three years from 50. Biden won in Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Leelanau, Marquette, Muskegon, Oakland, Saginaw, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. It would be a long shot. It wasn't just metro Detroit, however. Corruption cases have long riddled the Metro-Detroit region and in an upcoming post we will detail the ones that have been brought to the public eye since 2016. He is a man to whom I will be indebted for the rest of my life. Her work has won or been nominated for four successive Chicago Press Club awards, been recognized by the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Journalists (NLGJA), and covered topics such as criminal justice,abuse atICE detention facilities, andalleged discriminationon the part of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services leading to the unnecessary separation of children from their parents. At least two other cases identified by The Appealone involving officers Eric Richholt and Mark Neely Jr., the other involving Richard Valergahave also been destroyed. The destruction of his court records means that there is no longer any public documentation of the criminal investigation against him, excluding media reports and a brief summary in the courts online database. Evidence Room: 248-858-5062. Why are you working with them?. A documentary crew with exclusive access follows the new leadership with the cold case team devoted to Morgan's case. Harris denied ever asking for police to cover any fees, her attorney said in an interview in February. The subjects of Nessels proclamation were alsocentral figures in my investigation alongside attorney Jon B. Munger (fired in 2017), Oakland County Probate Court Chief Judge Kathleen Ryan and her colleagues Linda Hallmark, Daniel A. OBrien and Jennifer Callaghan. For months, the president had been saying you can't trust absentee, mail-in ballots so his base was not using it. Since taking the bench in 2003, George had somehow survived numerous scandals and, like most Michigan probate court judges, knew on which side her bread was buttered. But the Riders wasnt the only criminal case file involving Oakland police corruption destroyed by the Alameda County Superior Court. However, when I saw that the list of attendees included State Public Administrator Michael Moody, I pushed back and alerted Rossman-McKinney that he was a focus of the investigation. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation. A survey of some 3,400 voters in Michigan done by the Associated Press as part of its election coverage found whites without college degrees made up some 54% of the electorate, and they overwhelmingly supported Trump 58%-41%. The U.S. Supreme Court has explained that, any favorable evidence known to others acting on the governments behalf in the case, including the police., Not all branches of Californias courts are as aggressive as Alameda County in destroying police corruption files. The afternoon was led by Assistant Attorney General Scott Teter. In January 2005, Valerga was charged with two counts of violating the civil rights of his victims, and two counts of false imprisonment. But it was clear that Democratic voters, especially, heeded the call to vote absentee. But he kept it up, and it worked to a great degree. In Los Angeles County, the superior courts criminal division retained files for several former officers who were charged in the. Either way, guardianship is a life sentence which hardly anyone in this country knows or about which anyone has cared to educate themselves. Chapter 2: The Obituary. You told me you would never back down to anyone. I was quite surprised when, almostimmediately I heard back from her Communications Director Kelly Rossman-McKinney asking if my team and I would be willing to meet with a long list of Nessel staff members in order to overview our findings. Besides, when you are investigating alleged public corruption, you lose your belief in the coincidental. Seven points (the margin between the two candidates in the poll) is not representative of the gap (in the election). Chapter 5: The Runaway. Originally, the oversight was to last five years, but the police department has been slow to achieve reforms. Its really hard toconfer a whistleblowing case when no one knew the whistle had been blown, Jackson said. Delphine Allen et al. In the region around Saginaw Bay and the Thumb, he got 27,000 more votes than in 2016 out of an area still trying to dig itself out of long-standing manufacturing losses. The Kirks formed a professional guardianship company and gave it the name Caring Hearts a more palatable title but no less vicious than their Macomb County predecesssor,ADDMS Guardianship Services. Harriette Cole: I don't want the neighbor's kids at my house, Dear Abby: My wife said she doesn't like it, but it's part of my life, Ask Amy: I feel guilty for not speaking up about my co-worker's activities, Ask Amy: I'm your cabin housekeeper, and you apparently have no idea what I do. That held true in my February 16, 2019 email asking for a face-to-face with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The book exposes the history of police brutality on Oakland, but it is a familiar and perhaps even universal story people can bear witness to in countless communities that stretch around the world. Prior to the Task Force presser, Nessel moved to dismiss Gellers lawsuit while I repeatedly emailed my teams findings to Michigan Supreme Court Director of Communications John Nevin with no response. All rights reserved. Biden was also able to flip Kent and Leelanau, though, two more traditionally Republican counties (though both also voted for Gov. This was the Detroit Free Press. Both Moody and his wife Lauras tenures with the AGs office pre-dated Nessel. Oct 30, 2019. The families got the same response from Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, the Michigan Attorney Grievance and Judicial Tenure Commissions, state and local police and the Detroit office of the FBI. Its the easiest job in the world for Nessel; like telling Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York that she cant be a Duchess because all those weight watchers commercials were a bridge too far. In addition, former Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland pled guilty to misconduct in office in May of 2021, and he resigned from City Council following the plea. Accepting what "is" here is NOT acceptable. Guys like John Chase and Alan May have been running roughshod for so long that theyve utterly lost their principles, he told me. As a result, the full extent of Valergas conduct remains unknown. 2. Corruption cases have long riddled the Metro-Detroit region and in an upcoming post we will detail the ones that have been brought to the public eye since 2016. In Oakland County, the state's second largest county, turnout was nearly75%, higher than the 72% seen in 2008; in Detroit which is getting smaller and the rest of Wayne County, turnout was 62%, just under that seen in the 2008 election. As part of his plea deal, Perez turned states evidence and accused dozens of other LAPD officers of misconduct. Trump couldn't afford it, having beaten Clinton four years ago by just 10,704 votes, or about two-tenths of 1% of the vote. About This Work. We have it and it is clear and incontrovertible.". While I was still working Oakland County, Catallo was doing sterling work in neighboring Macomb. The agency that oversees the Oakland Coliseum voted Friday to rescind its a multimillion-dollar naming-rights contract amid a conflict-of-interest scandal, but agency officials said they expect . Under Kirkpatrick, five previously achieved tasks were brought out of compliance. As part of his plea deal, Perez turned states evidence and accused dozens of other LAPD officers of misconduct. Many of the judges are in cahoots with the Friend of the Court workers. There were moments when, for example, I tried to raise the subject of Moody and Teter immediately shut me down. And that accrued to Biden's benefit in, for instance, northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, where Trump's level of supportfrom four years ago wasvirtually unchanged at 58.6%. The litigants are Aretha Franklins family members. The case led to a parallel civil rights lawsuit brought by 119 victims of police misconduct that ended in 2003 with the Oakland police being placed under a federal consent decree. donate today. It's the only message some people, agencies and entities understand. A high-level review of elder care issues? All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! The paper that would never bow to a public official. OCSO in the Community. For years, multiple families had gone to Michael with horror stories about hispublic administrators. , where anti-gang officers in a downtown precinct were accused of unprovoked shootings and beatings of suspects, as well as planting evidence and stealing drugs then turning around and selling them on the street. Not only did he flip Kent, where Grand Rapids is located, he cut Trump's margin in Ottawa County, in one of the most Republican parts of the state, by 9 percentage points. Teter had certainly not brought it up either at our meeting or any time afterwards. With no comment at all, Teter left around 4 pm, just before the families were going to tell him each of their stories. The U.S. Supreme Court has explained that the rule extends to any favorable evidence known to others acting on the governments behalf in the case, including the police.. For Shaw, that is 206 cases involving 256 defendants since February 2009, according to district attorney records obtained by The Times. After all, the families had already agreed to go on the record with their stories. At least once a year, but usually more often than that, a public corruption cases surfaces in Southeastern Michigan that involves a public official. Last week, Andre Spivey pled guilty to federal bribery charges and admitted he and an aide received almost $36,000 in bribes. It included Nessels press conference announcement which noted that only credentialed members of the press who had RSVPd to a Nessel communications team member would be allowed to attend. So, I never took for granted the honor of telling someones story and elevating a voice; especially if they had suffered from injustice or been discarded by society. Because it isnt worth it., I dont imagine any appeals to your conscience or journalist integrity are worth it, I added. Would dismantling Interstate 980 repair damage to Black neighborhoods? The fact that many of those areas are Republican-leaning or backed the president, as much as anything, give the lie to Trump's wild and seemingly desperateclaims that it was corruption in Detroit that cost him the election, when there is no evidence to support it. Two years later, ADDMS was also found to be up to its ears in all kinds of alleged malfeasance (of course, no one was ever prosecuted) and it was also a company to which George handed over rewards in the form of docket-fulls of wards. The second trials of Mabanag and Siapno also ended in hung juries. The decision to purge the files was legal, according to Tom Kinzinger, an attorney with Bryan Cave law firm who reviewed the Alameda County Superior Courts destruction of records for The Appeal. Of course, the fix is much more complicated than that, and this too will be explored at a later date. Anyone with information about public corruption anywhere in Michigan should report it directly to FBI Detroit special agents and analysts at MichiganCorruption@fbi.gov. It is one of the 80 key precincts identified by Tim Kiska, an associate professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who does election analysisfor the Free Press, as representative of the direction the state may take in a given election. If you have any . The initial charges against Smith were the state charges and occurred in March of 2020, and the federal charges came in September of 2020. I was floored. In 2000, Vazquez fled the country before he was arraigned on 18 felony counts including kidnapping, assault, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. In Antrim County, where an initial count raised questions and led to a re-tabulation, Trump's margin of victory fell 15%. Charges against Vazquez are still active because he is considered a fugitive. At the time, the chief told the lead investigator she was concerned about retaliation, according to the document. At the state level, Smith has been charged with five counts of embezzlement by a public official, one count conducting a federal enterprise, official misconduct in office, tampering with evidence in a civil proceeding, accessory after the fact to embezzlement by a public official and one count conspiracy to commit forgery, according to the Michigan Attorney Generals Office. However, some legal experts, including Cordell and Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg, believe that records of police prosecutions should be maintained longer because they also constitute official histories of institutional corruption. Staff writer David DeBolt contributed to this report. On August 23, 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she hadfired three Oakland County Public Administrators, John Yun, Jennifer Carney and Thomas Brennan Fraser and one Macomb County Public Administrator Robert Kirk. But the four kids were kidnapped The case led to a parallel civil rights lawsuit brought by. Far from the Michigan election being stolen from Trumpas he claims, the president did a remarkable job of energizing support, especially, but not only, in older industrial and rural parts of the state. Circuit Civil/Criminal - 248-466-4260. Much of his bluster was false rhetoric. Theres a reason why this story is my last as a journalist. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler. "But what happened was the Democrats got their voters out it wasn't enough to overcome what they were able to get out in voter-rich southeastern Michigan.".

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