B ) During the meeting, allow the AGs staff to review, but not keep, the documents. And his percentage of the overall vote actually declined slightly. . March 13, he continued. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! 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. On the morning of March 21, I interviewed Senator Pete Lucido (R). Thatdifference was even more stark in Kent County in west Michigan, where Trump lost,getting 165,318 votes to Biden's 186,753. And it tells us about Trump, a combativeand polarizing politician who has continued to shock with his claims and surprise with the resilience he has shown in drawing support in places like Michigan. This year, he won the precinct again. OAKLAND Former Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the city on Wednesday, alleging she was fired in retaliation for exposing corruption and . What should have been a problem, what is a problem is the fact that Oakland County Chief Judge Kathleen Ryans brother James Ryan Jr.'s company Public Affairs Associates (PAA) has longstanding ties to Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer and was among thetop donorsfor her inauguration committee. 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. In 2008, Oakland paid $2 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by 16 womenall of whom were Asian Americanwho said they were victims of Valerga. I called my editor at the Free Press. The reforms that Nessel, alongside Michigan Supreme Court Justices Richard Bernstein and Megan Cavanaugh, proposed that morning all stemmed from issues I had brought up in the meeting with Teter as well as Catallos reporting and ones which were clearly laid out in an updated 2019 federal Qui Tam lawsuit brought by Ann Arbor attorney Bradley Geller. Tagged: Detroit Corruption, Detroit maps, Drawing Detroit, Macomb County Corruption, Michigan Corruption, Public Corruption, Your email address will not be published. A public administrator was clearly just a title with no more consequences of its removal than telling the Duke of Edinburgh that he could no longer be a duke. So, prior to the meeting, my team and I reached a decision that if Moody was going to get involved, our best course of action was to provide the proof of our findings but protect the alleged victims and their families by: A) Redacting the names and case numbers from documents. Under Kirkpatrick, five previously achieved tasks were brought out of compliance. Read more onMichigan politics and sign up for ourelections newsletter. Teresa James, assistant division director for the Alameda County Superior Courts traffic and criminal division, confirmed that the Valerga, Richholt, and Neely files were destroyed in accordance with state law that allows the court to dispose of misdemeanor criminal files after five years. After speaking with AG [sic] office they assure me the task force has nothing to do with Oakland County issues, he wrote. In Oakland County, for instance, where Trump got 42.3% of the vote, or just over 328,000 votes, James, did better, with 43.8% of the vote, or 334,469votes. 2023 www.freep.com. By that, we're talking about the fact that while third party candidates played an oversize role in the 2016 election, with Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein taking about 5% of the vote, they accounted for just a little over 1% in this election. I told Lucido that I had heard no mention of a Task Force at all. The Riders case is significant for police accountability in Oakland. An example of that varying support can be found in Clinton Township Precinct 38, located along Romeo Plank at Hall Road. But I will tell you this: I am going to publish. However, Vazquezs case documents were inaccessible to the public until Sept. 27, when the Alameda County clerk uploaded them to its electronic records database in response to questions from The Appeal. One of the firearms found in the car was a shotgun that Neely and Richholt allegedly seized from an East Oakland mans house earlier in the day in a warrantless search. ), I felt like Adlai Stevenson staring down Ambassador Zorin. In suburban Oakland County, meanwhile, Biden's support grew by 91,000 votes though the president isn't making claims about trucks pulling up in the dead of the night there. Fired Oakland police chief sues city for, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Chart: Bay Area rainfall totals for this week, Fired Oakland police chief sues city for alleged retaliation for exposing corruption, abuse of power. She previously covered the Tri-Valley cities of Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and Danville. After she was fired, Kirkpatrick told this news organization that she believed she was terminated as a result of retaliation for refusing a police commissioners request to be reimbursed for towing fees. Getting those voters to voice their support in public opinion polls isn't easy. There are also cases tied to contractors and overall public corruption cases in Macomb County, that were not included in these counts. Those officers have since been fired. Well let me say something to you, we do have the evidence.. His case file remains in the archives of Los Angeless court system. As if I didnt already know, he reminded me that public administrators who took roles as guardians and conservators were acting outside of their job descriptions and as private attorneys. Can you supply one?. Nessel claimed that the Task Force was working in concert with the Supreme Court Justices. Nothing that was goingto happen in the last couple of weeks was going to change those votes.". In doing so, he swampedTrump's advantage in rural and olderindustrial areas with massive turnout, especially in Oakland and Wayne counties, which alone gave him more than 158,000 more votes than Clinton won in them. This statute is written as a set of instructions and authorizations to a branch of government and doesnt necessarily take into account the rights of defendants or victims, Weisberg, the Stanford law professor, told The Appeal. And, given the hands-off approach of Michigan officials (with the exception of Wayne County, MI) and the Detroit bureau of the FBI, there's a very good chance we will never fully understand the lengths public officials and police went to in Oakland County, Michigan, to put economics and reputation ahead of child welfare. Guys like John Chase and Alan May have been running roughshod for so long that theyve utterly lost their principles, he told me. Yet, for the months which followed, Nessel refused to say the words public administrator and investigation in the same sentence. As to why that should be the case, Porn said, "I think it's unique to the character of Donald Trump and how he is perceived. "I was just thinking that the Biden campaign nurtured the blue wall and cultivated it," said Wielhouwer. Not only that, but from 2003-to-2008, the MSC was provided audits of probate courts, in at least six counties. Rather than sticking to the letter of Michigan statute or Michigan Court Rules, the Oakland County Judges make up their own rules as they go along. Of course, the fix is much more complicated than that, and this too will be explored at a later date. 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. Kirkpatrick alleges in the suit that she was fired in February for standing up to the misconduct and reporting it. Your email address will not be published. Record turnout of 5.5 million, larger than that seen in the election of 2008,drove his victory, predicted the statewide winner for governor or president in the last sevenelections and 17 of the last 20, And that's in a county, like Kent, where Trump held a rally on the last day of the campaign, the former accounting for 6% and the latter 5% in the Free Press' last poll of the campaign, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. On August 23, 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she had fired three Oakland County Public Administrators, John Yun, Jennifer Carney and Thomas Brennan Fraser and one. The litigants are Aretha Franklins family members. 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. Not all branches of Californias courts are as aggressive as Alameda County in destroying police corruption files. Darwin BondGraham Reporting suspects and suspicious events seems to go nowhere. "He (Trump) grew his base considerably. It's the only message some people, agencies and entities understand. Both officers falsely represented themselves as FBI agents during the incident. Besides, when you are investigating alleged public corruption, you lose your belief in the coincidental. An outspoken, genuine sort of bloke, he pushed back on the notion that nothing had been done about alleged probate corruption. Four years ago, he rode a level of support in rural and older industrial areas, especially those with large swaths of white voters, unlike that seen since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, decrying trade deals and blustering that he'd force Mexico to pay for a wall along the southern border. A documentary crew with exclusive access follows the new leadership with the cold case team devoted to Morgan's case. You told me you would never back down to anyone. The Friend of the Court workers are not accurate in their reporting of the facts and they are defrauding children and their parents of justice. Oakland County Public Corruption Defense Lawyer, MI. "It's a huge reason we got the vote that we did, when you're talking about the numbers of third party votes we had in '16," Dulio said. Maybe this tells us '16 was an outlier.". With Detroit having turnout not seen in 20 years and turnout upsignificantly in both Oaklandand Wayne counties relative to 2016, Biden's margins in those counties he won in Oakland 56%-42%, compared with Clinton's 52%-34% and in Wayne 68%-31% to Clinton's 67%-29% more than made up the difference. He also saw raw numbers of voters swell in virtually every part of Michigan,which is a testament to his ability to generate additional support where it had seemed it had hit a ceiling. In 2003, the first trial ended in a hung jury. Theres a reason why I have boxes and flash drives full of evidence and no-one to whom to give them. 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%. Republican voters, though, as well as Democratic ones, are clearly not monolithic. Both officers falsely. Meanwhile, a small contingent of family members set out for Lansing to stand outside her offices and plead their case to any passing journalists. 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. The Section's public corruption work involves the investigation and prosecution of bribery, extortion, fraud, and embezzlement committed by elected and appointed officials, government employees, and those doing business with city, state, and federal government. As a result, this activity has continued unchecked for at least three decades, with probate court audits covered up by Nessel and her predecessors, the Michigan Supreme Court and the State Court Administrator's Office. And legal experts say that destroying records of police misconduct, even if authorized by state statute, may conflict with the constitutional rights of defendants. There is no evidence of absentee ballot corruption in Michigan and none of widespread problems nationwide. Sgt. "It's back to more typical levels this year.". Rather than address the serious issues Chief Kirkpatrick raised, the city of Oakland, through Mayor Libby Schaaf and the members ofpolice commission, fired the most progressive police chief in the citys history for blowing the whistle on the commissions misconduct, said her attorney R. James Slaughter of the law firm of Keker Van Nest & Peters, in a statement. Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute Executive Director and author of the Stealth Game report Abdinoor Dima Jillo, member of the Borana Council of Elders in Isiolo County, Kenya Isaiah Biwott, community member Tugen community, Baringo County, Kenya Violet Matiru, Executive Director, Millennium Community Development Initiatives, Kenya Host: Andy . Trump, despite ending his campaign in Grand Rapids and making west Michigan a focus of his campaign, raised less than 75,000 new votes. The Appeal was unable to contact Neely. Nessels campaign speeches had traveled as far as Chicago. In January 2005, Valerga was charged with two counts of violating the civil rights of his victims, and two counts of false imprisonment. She filed a claim against the city in May, the first step to filing a lawsuit. 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. That played out in other areas all over the state. Apr 20, 2022, M. Forrest Behne, Craig Waleed, Meghan Peterson, and Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein In Macomb County, the recent names making headlines for alleged public corruption are former Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Smith, former Macomb County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Ben Liston and suspended Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Derek Miller. I felt more disappointment than surprise when one of the principle topics of Nessel's presser was guardianship in Michigan's probate courts; the focal point of my investigation. In Oakland County, in Novi Precinct 21, Clinton eked out a 49.8%-46.9% among the 1,157 votes. The meeting was set for March 12. 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%. When Catallo was shooting the story, the Kirks attorney, Sterling Heights Mayor and rabid Democrat Michael Taylor showed up to do a bit of schilling for his clients. Juvenile (delinquency/abuse neglect) - 248-766-7533. Kos Media, LLC. In 2008, Oakland paid $2 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by 16 womenall of whom were Asian Americanwho said they were victims of Valerga. The power of the Purple Gang, the. With millions of those votes cast in the weeks before Election Day, it entirely changed the face of the campaign, and Avery wonders whetherit won't change things for good. Therefore, I cannot let this particular whole truth just vanish. Since 2016 there have been 10 public officials from Macomb County, either the County organization itself or a municipality within its boundaries, who have been charged with alleged public corruption crimes. But that wasnt on the high level reviews agenda. Mar 02, 2022. With no due process, or medical evidence presented as to a wards incapacity, shocking judicial overreach led them to be stripped of each of their constitutional, statutory, civil and human rights. We left at 5 pm with no comment but quite a lot of answers. That held true in my February 16, 2019 email asking for a face-to-face with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. 2. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California hasn't followed: What should you do? Oakland County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a driver who hit a road sign and left the scene. Clinton won the Democratic-leaning region 55.8%-39.9% for Trump four years ago. Four take plea deals in wild Brentwood homicide where victim, suspects shot each other, Feds charge two with robbing two San Francisco banks during the same day, One dead, another wounded in Oakland shooting, Prosecution wraps case in Alex Murdaugh murder trial. The Appeal was unable to locate Valerga for comment. 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. On the other hand, what happened this year with the Detroit Free Presstook the prize andwas a gut-punch to what had been my rose-tinted view of the profession. After we hung up, I immediately sent an email to Rossman-McKinney with no response. This year, 1,311 voters cast ballots, andit was Trump 49.4% to 49.1% for Biden. The Alameda County Superior Court destroyed Valergas entire case file sometime after his probation ended. (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication. In May, 2019, she paid a visit to an elderly couple, Bob and Barb. There were moments when, for example, I tried to raise the subject of Moody and Teter immediately shut me down. Oh them! Teter replied, growing visibly impatient. Biden won in Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Leelanau, Marquette, Muskegon, Oakland, Saginaw, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. Oakland County Courts are known for their corruption and their extortion. The March 12 meeting had yielded no comment to any of my questions concerning what was allegedly happening in Oakland County and statewide nor had Nessel, herself, been present. 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