Only the Detroit News was at all interested. I felt like Adlai Stevenson staring down Ambassador Zorin. To help, we passed around photographs that we had taken during our visits to them. OAKLAND COUNTY. Not only that, but from 2003-to-2008, the MSC was provided audits of probate courts, in at least six counties. We have concerns that the First Amendment right of access to court records may be violated by a statute providing for so short a period before records are destroyed, Kinzinger, whose firm serves as general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition, wrote in an email. Subscribe to our newsletters for regular updates, analysis and context straight to your email. Biden lost in all those places, as he did in all but 11 of the state's 83 counties. They asked you to jump and, instead of backing me, you did.. We had supplied Teter and his people with multiple cases demonstrating pattern and practice. And legal experts say that destroying records of police misconduct, even if authorized by state statute, may conflict with the constitutional rights of defendants. The Riders case is significant for police accountability in Oakland. These charges have surfaced over the last year or so, and have only driven the total number of public corruption cases that can be accounted for in the last four years. The power of the Purple Gang, the. 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. In fact, the entire day went by with radio silence from both the Free Press and Rossman-McKinney. It wasn't just metro Detroit, however. This was the Detroit Free Press. But that wasnt on the high level reviews agenda. But he won three more counties than Clinton did and did better in those he didn't win than Clinton did in a state known to be more Democratic-leaning than Republican in presidential elections. 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. The Kirks were donors to Macomb County Probate Judge Kathryn Georges re-election campaign. Moody, you know about. This was a rare opportunity to press her on the issue in person and, given its name, my questions clearly fell smack in the middle of the Task Forces wheel house. If that's the case, it's not just in Michigan, but in several other states as well, including Wisconsin and Florida, where Trump clearly outperformed most recent polls. 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. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler. 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. You cant give that stuff to them. 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. 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. Here's a look at how the state split the vote of 2020 and how Biden was able to beat Trump and put Michigan back into the Democrats' "blue wall" of states: A few weeks ago, the Free Press took a deep dive into the state's regions, their voting trends and their importance in electing statewide candidates. An outspoken, genuine sort of bloke, he pushed back on the notion that nothing had been done about alleged probate corruption. Trump, despite ending his campaign in Grand Rapids and making west Michigan a focus of his campaign, raised less than 75,000 new votes. What may be the most remarkable part of Biden's victory in Michigan, however, is the way in which the entire process unfolded amid the coronavirus pandemic. He fought back and ended up with a reprimand. "Everything will have to start a lot earlier. The prominent law firm alsorepresents the city of Oakland, Alameda County and the Coliseum Authority, most notably in the ongoing legal battle against the Golden State Warriors over a roughly $40 million debt the authority says the team owes. For Coblentz, that is 296 cases involving 345 defendants . After the city rejects a claim, a lawsuit can be filed. 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. The meeting was set for March 12. 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. One attorney who did described sanctions and threats of Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission complaints from both the PAs and the judges. 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. So, it didnt pass anyones notice that, despite the simplicity of the job, the Attorney General couldnt even bring herself to say the word fired., Instead, after careful internal deliberation, she decided relieve these public administrators of their appointments.. Far from it, at Listening Tours, she told the audience that if she found a public administrator was up to no good, she would have no compunction in firing that person.Of course not. 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. However, he was never formally investigated by its internal affairs division, nor did the department track down and interview all of his victims, according to depositions taken during the civil rights suit. Yet, for the months which followed, Nessel refused to say the words public administrator and investigation in the same sentence. Nothing that was goingto happen in the last couple of weeks was going to change those votes.". And then of course in the mid-'70s, '76, '77, with the four children in Oakland County who were kidnapped and killed. 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. His case file remains in the archives of Los Angeless court system. Some voters are unwilling to admit they are voting for him. This year, 1,311 voters cast ballots, andit was Trump 49.4% to 49.1% for Biden. Oakland County Public Corruption Defense Lawyer, MI. At the time, the chief told the lead investigator she was concerned about retaliation, according to the document. The day after my team met with Teter. In Antrim County, where an initial count raised questions and led to a re-tabulation, Trump's margin of victory fell 15%. They will take months to do anything. That morning, Nevin told a reporter who did get up the gumption to ask about the probate courts, "we have no specific instances of wrongdoing.". Just as he did in 2016, President Donald Trump this year mounted a late-breakingsurge in Michigan, using anaggressive campaign to bolster turnout, disproving myriad polls that showed his support lagging and drawing even greater backingfrom voters across wide swaths of the state than he did four years ago. The chief of staffs for Ayers and Benson are also included in this investigation but have not been charged. Biden won in Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Leelanau, Marquette, Muskegon, Oakland, Saginaw, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. Since they had never received a single response from their own attempts to shed light on what was happening at the probate court, I hoped to discern why, while giving them an opportunity to be heard. B ) During the meeting, allow the AGs staff to review, but not keep, the documents. Thatdifference was even more stark in Kent County in west Michigan, where Trump lost,getting 165,318 votes to Biden's 186,753. Michael Buchanan, and Officer Brian Liddy. Throughout the trials, the Oakland Police Departments internal culture was examined in detail, as were political decisions by city leaders to undertake a zero tolerance crackdown on drug dealers, which community activistsand even the Oakland police unionblamed for stoking violence by street cops. His margin of support among white men without college degrees was even higher, 64%-34%. Chapter 5: The Runaway. 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. The many decades of deceit, public corruption, evidence contamination, and including the lack of following up on anything. Oakland County Courts are known for their corruption and their extortion. Besides, there were Attorney General appointees allegedly engaged in unimaginable elder abuse and that wasn't high level enough? The Alameda County Superior Court destroyed Valergas entire case file sometime after his probation ended. 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. Edward Ortiz, Officer Paul Harper, Sgt. Either way, guardianship is a life sentence which hardly anyone in this country knows or about which anyone has cared to educate themselves. 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. Leland admitted to accepting the cash when he pled guilty. All of them showed shocking financial malfeasance. Its really hard toconfer a whistleblowing case when no one knew the whistle had been blown, Jackson said. Many of the cases are related the Rizzo Environmental Services federal case that entangled elected officials, public employees and business figures who owned the business and worked with it. "People didn't like her. 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. In Brighton's Precinct 4, at the Brighton Education Community Center on Church Street, Trump won 55%-40% four years ago, getting 507 votes to Clinton's 370. Lelands guilty plea stemmed from him being indicted on federal bribery charges and a felony misconduct in office charge for accepting $15,000 in cash and free car repairs in exchange for his vote on a land deal, according to the FBI. 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. What is fundamentally clear is that neither the Free Press nor Nessel wanted me there asking anything specific. In response to emailed questions from the Appeal about the destruction of the Riders files, a representative for the Superior Court in Alameda County wrote that the files were eligible for destruction and provided a link to the state government code permitting their disposal. Support a worker-led Appeal. Teter had certainly not brought it up either at our meeting or any time afterwards. Oakland County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a driver who hit a road sign and left the scene. Only one of them Saginaw was among those Trump flipped four years ago, and even then, Biden won it by only three-tenths of 1%. Political parties have to realign their messaging," she said. 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. On the night of March 21, a South Michigan guardianship reform activist forwarded an email she had received from a reporter at a local paper. "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.". Hes part of a case there right now. 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. She filed a claim against the city in May, the first step to filing a lawsuit. In addition to members of the Detroit City Council being investigated for possible crimes related to public corruption tied to City towing policies, so are three members of the Detroit Police Department. In 2015, the Superior Court in Alameda County, California, quietly destroyed the criminal case files for three former Oakland police officers, known as the Riders, who stood trial for beating, falsely arresting, and framing dozens of African American men in the late 1990s and early 2000s, The Appeal has learned. It was even apparent looking at the statewide vote for university trustees, which have often been seen as a barometer for partisanship since voters don't give them nearly as much attention as the top of the ticket and may merely have followed their party inclination. But I was assured, by Free Press leadership, that in no way had the publication ever allowed outside pressure to interfere with an investigation. 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. This year, Trump won 52%-48%.He got 552 votes to Biden's 509. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation. But it was 56%-45%. Record turnout of 5.5 million, larger than that seen in the election of 2008,drove his victory. The president, meanwhile, has repeatedly shown himself to be a political marvel, defying odds and proving pundits, handicappers and pollsters wrong. and corruption in Contra Costa County. 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. So, we started on the topic of the unlicensed group homes my team and I found across Oakland County in which conditions for the wards living there defied any kind of horrific description. No other county in the region or the state has had as many corruption cases the as Wayne and Macomb counties. I do hope hes got his Geiger Counter on standby. Many of the judges are in cahoots with the Friend of the Court workers. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Apr 20, 2022, M. Forrest Behne, Craig Waleed, Meghan Peterson, and Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein Chapter 3: Law and Order - LBP. 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. It is now . Mar 02, 2022. Scott Adams faces 'consequence culture' as U.S. newspapers drop Dilbert, Tom Cruise's 'ditching' of Suri showcased by Judd Apatow's 'co-parenting' joke, ex-Scientology exec says. And legal experts say that destroying records of police misconduct, even if authorized by state statute, may conflict with the constitutional rights of defendants. 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.
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