"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. 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. After we hung up, I immediately sent an email to Rossman-McKinney with no response. Nothing that was goingto happen in the last couple of weeks was going to change those votes.". Oakland, California CNN Four police chiefs in 10 days. Getting those voters to voice their support in public opinion polls isn't easy. 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. and corruption in Contra Costa County. 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. (Fugitive Apprehension Team/Detective Bureau) Investigative/Forensic Services. SF corruption scandal widens: Two business leaders charged with bribing City Hall official. As much as anything, however, the 2020 election in Michigan may have been a simple reversion to the mean, an indication that, even with changing voting patterns within the state, Michigan's overall political nature hasn't changed that much after all. And while Trump won Macomb, his margin, 53%-45%, was well below the 54%-42% Trump beat Clinton by there four years ago. Bill Ballenger: The blue AMC Gremlin, child killer. Your email address will not be published. Oakland County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a driver who hit a road sign and left the scene. in Oakland County at their at the Red Fox in I think it was Bloomfield. All of them were actively quashed from the public. 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. 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. Additional Emergency Contact Numbers: PPO - 248-303-1534. The destruction of the Riders files is also an erasure of an extraordinary case of corruption that ended with the Oakland Police Department placed under a federal judges oversight. 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. One attorney who did described sanctions and threats of Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission complaints from both the PAs and the judges. But the four kids were kidnapped But as Biden was winning a close race at the top of the ticket, Republicans won a trustee seatat Michigan State University and a Board of Governor's seat at Wayne State University (the latter going for former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land). Oakland County Courts are known for their corruption and their extortion. In 1945, Michigan was racked with corruption. 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. 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. 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.. The initial charges against Smith were the state charges and occurred in March of 2020, and the federal charges came in September of 2020. 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%. Both officers falsely represented themselves as FBI agents during the incident. 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. Darwin BondGraham Miller recently asked for the misconduct in office and conspiracy to commit a legal in an illegal manner charges against him to be dropped. 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. 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. The Oakland Police Department has been under a nearly two-decade-long federal oversight program as a result of the Riders case, in which officers were accused of beating and planting drugs on West Oakland residents. The judgesdecided on a sample of 2,278 guardianship and conservatorship cases my team and I reviewed. The chief of staffs for Ayers and Benson are also included in this investigation but have not been charged. Or one of the cases that had the DPOA that was ignored to see if we could file a motion to terminate. 2 days ago Armored truck driver shoots at attempted robbers outside Southfield McDonald's An. "That tells me some of those folks in Oakland County are turned off by Trump himself but would support Republican principles, at least as John James was pushing them," Dulio said. But he kept it up, and it worked to a great degree. Biden lost in all those places, as he did in all but 11 of the state's 83 counties. This year, Biden won 60%-40% and there were 1,500 voters. 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 . 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. Probate Corruption + the Michigan Attorney General + the Detroit Free Press = ? In Wayne County (excluding Detroit), since 2016, there have been four public corruption charges. Meanwhile, a small contingent of family members set out for Lansing to stand outside her offices and plead their case to any passing journalists. Whether Moody had jurisdiction over them or not, even after public administrators like Munger had been fired by him in 2017, Munger still took and was taking deceased estate as well as guardianship and conservatorship cases at the Oakland County Probate Court. On Nov. 16, 2000, Officer Harper was acquitted of all charges after a month-long trial. Record turnout of 5.5 million, larger than that seen in the election of 2008,drove his victory. Staff writer David DeBolt contributed to this report. 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. Charges against Vazquez are still active because he is considered a fugitive. Bernie Porn, pollster for EPIC-MRA of Lansing, which does polling work for the Free Press, said Trump's margin in the election suggests to him that a greater-than-believed portion of undecided voters and voters who tell pollsters they are supporting third party candidates the former accounting for 6% and the latter 5% in the Free Press' last poll of the campaign are really so-called "shy" Trump supporters who mask that support. You lied to me, I wrote back. This year, he won the precinct again. "People didn't like her. Under the guardianship of Macomb County Public Administrator Robert Kirk and his wife Cathy, they were literally fenced inside their own home. The three officers, who patrolled West Oakland together on the graveyard shift in 2000, were accused of violating the civil rights of innocent suspects by illegally detaining them, planting drugs. 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. donate today. Much of his bluster was false rhetoric. I was already looking into Macks background when Catallo broke Bob and Barbs story. "We know that a lot of that was baked in. Mack was a Wayne County Probate Court Chief Judge when, again, two attorneys operating out of his court, John Chase, Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr, allegedly worked with Wayne County Judge Freddie Burton, Jr. to pilfer the estate of no less than Rosa Parks. This was the Detroit Free Press. 2023 www.freep.com. This request came because, according to news reports, Millers attorney claims there was no criminal intent with his interaction related to the larger case of alleged misuse of forfeiture funds by Smith. Whether I received my answers from Nessel in the form of an official comment or not, the AG herself had ordered the meeting. 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. Since the inception of the consent decree, the agency has cycled through 10 police chiefs, all of whom have failed to fulfill the reform programs mandates. The meeting was set for March 12. They always left with no result. But it was clear that Democratic voters, especially, heeded the call to vote absentee. 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. The Attorney General has created an Elder Abuse Task Force, he told me. In Oakland County, the state's second largest county, turnout was nearly 75%, higher than the 72% seen in 2008; in Detroit which is getting smaller and the rest of Wayne County, turnout . The Free Press: Thats what it says on the cereal box. Would dismantling Interstate 980 repair damage to Black neighborhoods? Pressures to Raise Wages in Michigan Continue, Michigans Substance Use Vulnerability Index Highlights Wayne County as one of States Most Vulnerable, Rate of Alcohol-Induced Deaths Increasing in Southeast Michigan; White Males Have Highest Rates, Metro-Detroit Economic Indicators: Home Prices Dropping, Personal Debt Increasing, Climate Change in MichiganNow and in the Future. The Oakland Field Office of IRS Criminal Investigation has dedicated resources to unraveling the truth behind the extensive web of corruption, which Mohammed Nuru presided over, during his tenure leading the San Francisco Department of Public Works," said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson. She invited me to be a join it on. This year, 1,311 voters cast ballots, andit was Trump 49.4% to 49.1% for Biden. Yet, for the months which followed, Nessel refused to say the words public administrator and investigation in the same sentence. Monitor the livestream broadcast if youre worried about integrity of the process, but this isnt worth the back and forth with AGs office.. can stand by your side from the initial investigation onward. 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. At least, not in my rose-tinted world. 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. The early numbers from the Secretary of State's Office indicate that was down in this election to about 45,000, far closer to normal. Itis those votes, which under state law clerks and elections officials couldn't begin counting until Election Day, that Trump has especially called corrupt, as Democratic state officials encouraged people to vote by mail as Trump does in order to avoid potentially crowded polling places and ward against the spread of the virus. Throughout the day, I tried to call the AGs office and was repeatedly told that the entire communications team was In a meeting.. Gretchen Rachel Hammond is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist based out of Chicago. Five police departments ensnared in controversy. 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. Tipline: 1-888-TURN-1-IN or 1-800-773-2587. 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%. 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.". 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. They had a history of superlative reporting which seemed to substantiate that. Introduction. Really? However, they never faced criminal charges. 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. Ali Winston, How come I didnt know? The case against Deanna Barash, 46, is the latest case filed by public corruption prosecutors against a . Enthusiasm was clearly up, too. Metricmaps.org. 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