Charles Lewis, in prison 42 years for a crime he did not commit, stands proudly Oct.17 to hear that he is now a free man, as Judge Qiana Lillard reads her decision on his juvenile lifer case. With the 37-60 year sentence, and his prison good time, he was released the following day. With him are (l to r) defense investigator Michael Lynch, mitigation expert Jessica Carrier, defense attorney Sanford Schulman.
LEWIS RE-SENTENCED TO 37-60 YRS; WALKS OUT OF PRISON NEXT DAY
Courageous decision by Judge Lillard in face of pros. request for 50-100 yrs.
Joyous mother Rosie Lewis: “God shined his light!”
Polygraph expert J. P. Carey (former criminal investigator) says conflicting police reports led him to believe Lewis likely innocent, though not yet exonerated
“When I was sentenced in that court at 17, I vowed to learn the law to win my freedom;” — Lewis, who helped many others as jail-house lawyer
Now meeting with friends to make plans to resume musical career; as expert musician he organized, played in prison bands across Michigan
By Diane Bukowski
October 20, 2019
Atty. Kenneth Cockrel, Sr.
Judge Joseph Maher
DETROIT–In November, 1977, skilled young Black musician, student, and family caretaker Charles Lewis, 17, stood before Recorders Court Judge Joseph Maher, who the late attorney Kenneth Cockrel Sr. termed a virulent racist, to hear that he would spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he and eyewitnesses swore he did not commit.
On October 17, 2019, 42 years later, he and his legal team led by defense attorney Sanford Schulman stood before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard. She told Lewis he is now a free man, resentenced to 37-60 years, under U.S. Supreme Court rulings banning mandatory juvenile life without parole. His good time credits, restored to Michigan juvenile lifers as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Michigan ACLU, led to his immediate release from the Macomb Correctional Facility the following day, no strings attached.
Above: Judge Lillard announces 37-60 year resentencing after thoroughly reading file documents; cites inhuman treatment of Lewis in prison, other discrepancies; role Miller v. Alabama factors played in childhood
It was a courageous ruling by Judge Lillard, in particular because Lewis was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Gerald Sypitkowski (despite testimony by the officer’s partner and eyewitnesses who identified a different perpetrator). Judge Lillard paged through reams of documentation as she gave her ruling. It included a prison disciplinary record cited by the prosecution, which defense witness Michael Stapleton, an MDOC expert, said was typical of youth thrown into a hostile environment. Stapleton said Lewis is no threat to society. She condemned in particular a 1989 incident where officials put Lewis in the hole because he refused to kneel and spread his cheeks for no reason.
She also noted defense investigator Michael Lynch’s work, derived from 1970’s newspaper articles describing attacks on Black students whose families, like that of Lewis, had just moved into a mainly-white enclave on the city’s northeast aide. Lynch located many of Lewis former neighbors, including Michael ‘Mo’ Hollis, a childhood friend who went on to a prominent musical career and is now assisting Lewis to resume his own.
Oralandar Brand-Williams
ABOVE: Channel 4’s Koco McAboy interviewed Lewis and his attorney Sanford Schulman the morning of his release. Both Channel 4 and Detroit News reporter Oralandar Brand-Williams have faithfully covered Lewis’ 4 year struggle, as shown in Channel 4’s multiple videos from hearings through those years. See Brand-Williams article linked below story.
Lynch also unearthed the true origins of the neighborhood youth group police and media claimed Lewis belonged to, the “Kilbourne Killers,” a/k/a the “K.K. Capones.” One neighbor termed it a self-defense “anti-racist alliance” and others said it was NOT a gang. Lewis’ stepfather Herbert Lewis said that his family thought they were moving into a better neighborhood, but it turned out they had moved into a “powder keg.”
Polygraph examiner/ investigator J.Paul Carey: Lewis’ exams inconclusive due to heart condition, length of incarceration; but inconsistent DPD records show Lewis likely innocent.
Defense attorney Schulman’s team also included mitigation expert Jessica Carrier, forensic polygraph examiner/former police investigator J.P. Carey, and psychiatrists Dr. Colin King and Dr. Daniel Keating. Atty. Schulman compiled the research into a stunning 81 page sentencing memorandum at
The MDOC evidently has not changed much since the 1989 incident where Lewis was sent to the hole for refusing to kneel and spread.
“They put me in the hole when I got back to Macomb Correctional Facility,” Lewis told VOD, despite the fact he was a free man at that point. He spent the night in a basement cell with a mattress and a blanket waiting to be processed out. His sister picked him up early the next morning and took him home.
“Tomorrow I plan to be on a G-5 Lear Jet on my way to Paris,” Lewis added with a chuckle, joking but seriously referring to his plans to resume his musical career,
Lewis’ mother Rosie Lewis, who has fought for her son’s freedom ever since he was jailed, told VOD, “I’m feeling like God has shined on me, he’s just got the spotlight on me. It’s real, my son is alive, he’s well and he’s free. God made him, he didn’t make him to put his hand to no bullets to kill anybody. Lamont is humble, he is thankful.”
Rosie Lewis (center), mother of Charles Lewis and his supporters after Oct. 13, 2017 hearing.
Lewis’ family always called him by his middle name “Lamont,” which was his first name on his original birth certificate as Lamont Hilyard. He was later adopted by his stepfather Herbert Lewis.
Mrs. Lewis reported that her son spent the weekend with his two young grand-nieces, giving them one of his guitars and teaching them how to play it.
“They just love their uncle,” Mrs. Lewis rejoiced. She said he also spent time with his nephew “T.J.,” (Terrence Lewis) who helped Mrs. Lewis move to her daughter’s out-of-state home, where she is now living due to her medical needs. The Facebook video below was posted by T.J, showing Rosie and Herbert Lewis with Charles Lamont (right), sister Stephanie (left of Lamont), and baby Wendy Lewis.
During his decades of incarceration, Lewis, the oldest of five siblings who cared for them while his parents worked, always remembered their birthdays and those of his nieces and nephews, making sure to call each on their day. He also provided advice and guidance to them all.
The video above has song “I’m coming home” playing in the background. To hear video, start it, then click on the F (Facebook) icon.
Lewis has proposed joining his mother there for some time to give her joy in her remaining years.
Everyone VOD has spoken to regarding Lewis’ musical talents have said they are “world-class,” from a guard at Macomb who plays the bass guitar to prisoners who have heard him perform across Michigan, playing keyboards, guitar and numerous other instruments, writing his own music, and organizing concerts for prison bands. Lewis also sent a copy of a CD of his music, compiled by his brother David, to Judge Lillard. Judge Lillard expressed her appreciation of the skilled music she heard.
Michael Hollis, a childhood friend who went on to a successful musical career of his own, told defense investigators, “It makes me cry to think of my best friend who is every bit as good as I, maybe better, but for a twist of fate ended up in such a different place.”
The outline of this sketch was drawn in 1976 by a DPD evidence technician. Referencing testimony at second trial, VOD has added a red line with a white Lincoln Mark IV showing the path of that car. Also a green line showing route juveniles said they took at scene, stating Officer Sypitkowski was killed at bus stop to the right, where no forensic evidence found. Sypitkowski’s partner and other eyewitnesses said they were directly west of Barrett outside Oty’s Bar when they said they saw gunfire from the Lincoln Mark IV and Sypitkowski fall, mortally wounded.
Lewis’ potentially brilliant musical career was cruelly cut short when he was falsely arrested Aug. 2, 1976 for the murder of off-duty police officer Gerald Sypitkowski. The killing occurred in a Detroit northeast side neighborhood rife with racist attacks on Black youths by white civilians and police officers opposing the integration of the previously all-white enclaves.
Defense investigator Michael Lynch thoroughly combed the neighborhood to get statements from residents still living there, and others who had moved. They identified the “Kilbourne Killers/KK. Capones, termed a “gang” by police and media, instead as an “anti-racist” self-defense alliance.
The initial joy juvenile lifers across the U.S. experienced when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Miller v. Alabama in 2012, outlawing mandatory juvenile life without parole, was also cut short. Over half of Michigan’s juvenile lifers, 63 percent, have not yet been released.
Lewis faced a singularly uphill battle since he was convicted of killing a white police officer, albeit an off-duty officer in civilian clothes, who had just left a bar and would not have been recognizable as a police officer.
Henry Montgomery being booked
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Montgomery v. Louisiana, which declared Miller retroactive. The case was that of Henry Montgomery, a 17-year-old Black youth accused of killing a white deputy sheriff also dressed in civilian clothes. Montgomery, now 70, was resentenced to life WITH parole but so far has twice been denied release by the state’s parole board.
Most parole boards base their decisions on the original crime, not evidence of rehabilitation,” according to a study in Outline magazine, “The False Hope of Parole.”
“A nationwide survey of parole boards found in 2008 that the top two factors they consider are ‘crime severity’ and ‘crime type,’ writes author Katie Rose Quandt. “Five of the top ten factors relate to the original crime, and just one — “offender institutional behavior” — has anything to do with rehabilitation.”
She adds later, “Black youths suspected of killing a white person . . .make up about 23 percent of juvenile murder arrests — and more than 42 percent of juveniles serving life without parole.”
AP Tom Dawson argues for Lewis to be resentenced to 50-100 years.
Lewis, however, will never have to face a parole board, an issue which caused AP Tom Dawson extreme dismay.
Assistant Prosecutor Tom Dawson, red-faced, argued for a sentence of 50-100 years which would have forced Lewis to face the parole board. Dawson claimed that the “benefits” of re-entry programs during that time would help Lewis adjust.
Dawson’s proposed sentence is not authorized under the state’s juvenile lifer resentencing statutes, which limit term of years sentences to 60 year maximums.
Lewis has been in the MDOC Re-Entry Unit at Macomb Correctional Facility since Nov. 2018, after it appeared that prosecution would agree to a term of years sentence. He has taken numerous classes, including the well-known “Chance for Life.” But the sentence Dawson recommended would have forced Lewis to face a parole board that likely would NEVER release him.
Supporters from the Islamic Mellanic Palace of the Rising Sun gather outside Lewis’ courtroom Oct. 18, 2019.
Supporters who came to the second day of Lewis’ re-sentencing said NOTHING is offered to prisoners who leave on parole. Some also were at a packed memorial Oct. 19 for Morris Martin, Sr., founder of the Islamic Mellanic Palace of the Rising Sun, who worked tirelessly with Lewis and others to assist newcomers to the MDOC, educating and advising them on their legal and human rights, and assisting them with filing pro se appeals.
Dozens of those former prisoners, many who like Lewis spent more than 40 years in the MDOC, spoke out passionately at the memorial on what they learned from Martin. The Mellanic Palace recognizes as its true founder Nat Turner, the famed kidnapped African who organized a rebellion of slaves in Southampton, VA in Aug. 1831.
Morris Martin
Martin passed away Oct. 5, 2019 after spending 48 years in prison, at the age of 69. He had been ill for some time, but continued fighting for his fellow prisoners, who said at the memorial that he woke up writing documents on his typewriter and went to bed the same way, while teaching numerous prisoners to become “jailhouse lawyers.”
Martin won many legal cases, including the noted Martin v. Department of Corrections, which said the rules of the MDOC had to be “promulgated,” meaning they had to be made known to all parties including prisoners.
Nat Turner led a famed slave rebellion on July 4, 1831, and was later hanged, drawn and quartered, along with many of his fellow rebels, for their heroic resistance. The rebellion called primarily for the human right to education and literacy. Others won many of its demands later.
One day out of prison, Charles Lewis sat at Martin’s memorial, paying tribute to his mentor and comrade.
Charles Lewis honed his prodigious musical skills throughout his years in prison, leading jazz, rock and rap bands, organizing concerts, playing and writing his own music. He hopes to revive his musical career on his release from 44 years in prison, unjustly convicted.
Final mitigation hearing after 3 ½ years Tues. Oct. 15 9 a.m—Judge Qiana Lillard, Rm. 502 FMHJ
Defense says Lewis is not “the rare child” who is irredeemable, files a stunning 87 pp. brief including expert testimony and research
Brief attests to extreme racist hostility that existed in Lewis’ neighborhood during his youth, Lewis’ efforts to succeed as student, musician in its face
By Diane Bukowski
Charles Lewis, now 60 yrs. old.
DETROIT – After 44 years of incarceration, and over 3 ½ years of juvenile lifer resentencing hearings, Charles Lewis may finally see his “light come shining” at his mitigation hearing Tues. Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. in front of Judge Qiana Lillard.
He said he is focused on building a bright future for himself and his loved ones, including a promising, likely brilliant musical career that was brutally cut short when Detroit police arrested him Aug. 1, 1976 for the alleged murder of an off-duty police officer.
“I don’t have any hate in my heart toward anyone for what has happened,” Lewis told VOD. “In fact I am glad that the three teens who testified against me didn’t have to go through what I have gone through in prison, because it is very hard for ANYONE to survive in here.”
Lewis was convicted on the strength of the teens’ testimony, elicited under threat they would also be charged. But numerous eyewitnesses at the scene, including the officer’s partner, testified that they saw someone else shoot the officer. Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Deborah Thomas noted in a 2006 opinion that the teens’ version of the shooting was “a scientific impossibility,” and that none of the eyewitnesses said they saw a group of Black teens at the scene.
One of the witnesses expected to testify at the Oct. 15 hearing is Michael Hollis, Lewis’ childhood friend who has had a long musical career and even played in front of two sitting U.S. Presidents. He says in his witness statement that he did not know what had happened to Lewis until his band played at one of the prisons where Lewis was incarcerated.
Hollis told defense investigators, “It makes me cry to think of my best friend who is every bit as good as I, maybe better, but for a twist of fate ended up in such a different place.”
Atty. Sanford Schulman
Lewis’ attorney Sanford Schulman filed a stunning, moving 87-page brief for this hearing, with affidavits from expert witnesses including a polygraph examiner, a psychiatrist, a mitigation expert, a sentencing expert, and others. They state emphatically that Lewis was not “the rare child” who deserves to die in prison, described in Supreme Court rulings outlawing juvenile life without parole. (Miller v. Alabama2012 and Montgomery v. Louisiana 2016.)
The polygraph examiner, a former police officer himself, reported that while results of lie detector tests about the crime Lewis was convicted of were “inconclusive” due to Lewis’ various heart-related ailments, he strongly believes Lewis is innocent.
The brief includes a lengthy history of the times and location where Lewis came of age, compiled by the various experts. It cites multiple newspaper articles describing extreme racist hostility toward Black families moving into the predominantly white Northeast side where Lewis and his family lived, and toward Black children, who were constantly harassed, threatened and robbed by white children.
“White children would chase Black students with cars, jump out of cars with canes, sticks, throw bricks, and chase Black students with dogs,” says the brief. It describes numerous instances of police harassment of Black children as well, stops during which police told them they were not supposed to “be there.”
Ruby Kennedy, the mother of Mark Kennedy (one of the teens who testified under duress against Lewis) told defense investigators that Black mothers recruited Vietnam veterans to defend their children.
It says white children in the area formed a gang called the “White Knights.” Robert Lathan, a neighborhood child at the time, said that a loose-knit association formed by Black children called the “Kilbourne Kapones Killers” was “an alliance against racism. I joined so I wouldn’t have to take the bullcrap.”
Other neighbors who were children at the time said they adopted that name as a means of frightening off their white attackers but denied that the group was a “gang.”
Some newspaper articles on the killing of off-duty police officer Robert Sypitkowski on July 31, 1976 described Lewis as a leader of the “Kilbourne Killers” gang. However, the brief says that after Lewis’ arrest, two adult prisoners in the Wayne County Jail threatened him with rape, but another adult prisoner read out loud a newspaper article about Lewis’ arrest for killing a police officer, to frighten them off.
That prisoner told Lewis to use the nickname “KK” to stave off future threats. Lewis is still known across the MDOC and among many former prisoners as “KK.” Many MDOC prisoners are known only by such tags.
The first newspaper article on the killing of Sypitkowski, done at the scene directly after the murder, identified only Sypitkowski’s partner and other white eyewitnesses to the killing, and their account of the perpetrator in a white Lincoln Mark IV. No Black teens were identified as present.
The next day, the Freep completely changed the story, with no by-lines, abandoned the white Lincoln Mark IV issue, and substituted Sgt. Hill’s version. White Boy Rick has said Hill covered up many murders.
Later, the Freep published an article on Lewis’ arrest and identified him as a member of the “K.K. Kapones” gang without substantiation.
The brief also describes vicious attacks by Detroit police on Lewis’ family after his arrest.
In one instance, it says, during a police invasion of the Lewis home on Kilbourne, police slit the throat of the “seeing-eye” dog belonging to Lewis’ younger blind brother, in front of his young siblings, 13, 12, 9 and 5, and hung it from a revolving ceiling fan so that its blood sprayed the entire family.
The home was thoroughly vandalized by police, forcing the Lewises to move and scattering the family.
Retired Detroit police officer Dennis Van Fleteren/Facebook
The brief also cites the testimony at Lewis’ second trial of Officer Sypitkowski’s partner Dennis Van Fleteren, who said the two were off-duty, in street clothes, and had been drinking at Oty’s Bar on Harper and Barrett, off East I- 94.
“Van Fleteren testified that sometime before 1:30 a.m., Sypitkowski left the bar and headed down Harper Street,” says the brief, citing page numbers of the testimony.
“Van Fleteren testified further that he was talking to Sypitkowski when a white Mark IV pulled up on Harper with lights out next to Sypitkowski. He further testified that he saw Sypitkowski fall into the street and simultaneously heard a shotgun blast coming from the driver’s side of the white Mark IV. Van Fleteren testified that he ran into the street and attempted to stop the Mark IV by waving his hands and the driver of the Mark IV sped up and nearly ran him down. Van Fleteren testified that he crouched down . . .and memorized the license plate number. Van Fleteren testified that at the time of the incident he thought that the shot that killed his partner came from the white Mark IV. And, that there was no other traffic in the streets.”
The brief adds that Van Fleteren “stands by his testimony today.”
DPD Investigator report shows charges dropped for two of juveniles who testified against Lewis.
The brief says further that even if the testimony of the three juveniles was true, their actions that night were typical of the “impetuosity of youth,” and showed no intent to murder anyone, constituting only a “botched robbery.” It stresses that Sypitkowski “was off-duty that day and on vacation for two weeks. He was in civilian clothes, an orange shirt and blue pants. It would have been impossible for any stranger to identify him as a police officer.”
It notes further that weaknesses in the prosecution’s case included the fact that the three juveniles were originally co-defendants and served no time for the crime, and that no gun was ever found.
The brief says Lewis was turned in to an attorney, Gerald Lorence, by an aunt, for representation, but instead was confronted by then Detroit Police Sgt. Gil Hill and arrested. It says Lewis was never interviewed, never admitted to the crime, and never had his alibi witnesses checked out.
Ominously, it says that one of the juvenile’s stepfathers sent a note to Rosie Lewis through her foreman at the Mack Stamping Plant, where they both worked, the Friday before the officer’s killing but that she did not find it until Monday. Over the weekend, the stepfather was shot to death by his wife, Bernice Warren.
Husband and wofe Prosecutors Tom Dawson and Lori Dawson listen as defense atty.Clinton Hubbell argues for the sentence of 10 to 40 yrs. originally granted to juvenile lifer Cortez Davis by Judge Vera Massey Jones, who said she did not believe he was incorrigible. Davis was not the shooter in the crime he was accused at 16. and took care of himself and his homeless siblings. He went on to have a stellar record in prison and was also a staff writer for VOD. The Dawsons argued he should have received a 28-60 year sentence, but he was released after the 25 years the new judge imposed on him.
AP Tom Dawson does not include the testimony of Sypitkowski’s partner Dennis Van Fleteren or anyone else who testified that his killer was driving a white Lincoln Mark IV, focusing solely on the three juveniles’ statements to police. It does not include any interviews with those who best knew and know Charles Lewis. It cites Lewis’ disciplinary record while in prison but does not cite MDOC Corrections Specialist Richard Stapleton’s report that Lewis’ disciplines were typical of youthful offenders who are placed in an extremely hostile adult environment, and over the years find ways of coping, leading to fewer disciplines. Stapleton recommended Lewis’ release and said he does not represent a threat to the community.
Parroting the Michigan Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling last year in Hyatt/Skinner, Dawson says:
“Neither the statute or Miller requires that the court make a specific finding of fact or that the People prove a specific fact prior to the imposition of a sentence of life without the possiblity of parole. “Indeed, there is language in Montgojmery that suggest that the juvenile offender bears the burden of showing that life without parole is not the appropriate sentence by introducing mitigating evidence.” People v Skinner, 502 Mich 89, 131 (2018). MCL 769.25 and Miller simply require that the sentencing court consider the factors enumerated in Miller as well as any other relevant criteria prior to deciding whether to sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ultimately, the court’s decision to impose life without the possiblity of parole is not a factual finding, but a moral judgment which is based upon a careful and considered review of the Miller factors and any other elevant consideration. see People v skinner, 502 Mich 89 (2018).”
Attorneys for the two defendants in that case are pursuing all available appeals, citing the Hyatt-Skinner’s deliberate defiance of the provisions of Miller and Montgomery.
Dawson says without proof that Lewis and the three juveniles who testified against him were members of “The Kilbourne Killer,” despite the fact that one disavowed any such membership, and others of Lewis’ contemporaries say the “gang” was actually an “anti-racist alliance.”
Judge Joseph Maher, Lewis’ trial judge, was a blatant racist.
Dawson says also that Judge Joseph Maher declared a “hung jury” in Lewis first trial, but there is no existing transcript that says that. Judge Deborah Thomas said she “thoroughly reviewed” the first transcript and found no evidence that either the defense or the prosecution had called for a mistrial, or any evidence that the jury itself reported it was hung.
The prosecution relies only on “clerk’s notes” in the scraps of the first transcript that are left, which state a hung jury was declared, with no evidence from the transcript.
The prosecution says, “The evidence shows that the Defendant was the leader of the criminal gang in his neighborhood. The evidence further demonstrates that the Defendant is the one that suggested that the group commit a robbery on this fateful night and that he directed the other young men and told them what to do. Thus, the Defendant’s family and home environment does not mitigate in favor of a term of years sentence.”
However, the defense’s statement completely contradicts that, giving a clear history of the origins of the so-called “Kilbourne Killers/Kapones” with two other youths in the neighborhood, and its purposes of self-defense against racist attacks.
Dawson paints Lewis’ early life as a storybook childhood, but interviews the defense conducted with his family show that it was far from that, with Lewis subjected to constant violence from his stepfather as well as enemies on the street and in the schools, and constant illnesses. The prosecution did not talk directly to any family members, all of whom are anticipating Lewis’ release with joy. Even his stepfather, in his witness statement, says he regrets his treatment of Lewis and his neglect of acting as a father figure for him.
THE VOICE OF DETROIT HAS BEEN COVERING CHARLES LEWIS’ RE-SENTENCING HEARINGS AND RESEARCHING HIS CASE SINCE MARCH, 2016, PUBLISHING RELATED STORIES LISTED BELOW. VOD EDITOR DIANE BUKOWSKI HAS ALSO SUBMITTED AN AFFIDAVIT ADVOCATING FOR CHARLES LEWIS’ RELEASE TO ALL COURT OFFICERS INVOLVED, AT http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/AFFIDAVIT-OF-FACT-RE-CHARLES-LEWIS-BY-MDB.pdf
________________________________________________________ UPDATE (details below Paredes story): ACLU files 3rd amended complaint expanding original grounds, in front of USDC Judge Mark Goldsmith; contends continued captivity of state juvenile lifers 7 years after Miller v. Alabama violates DUE PROCESS. Also disputes state’s contention that denial of core programming for lifers does not affect chance of parole.________________________________________________________
“If a prison sentence that exceeds a juvenile offender’s lifespan is unconstitutional because it denies the offender meaningful parole consideration, obviously a LWOP sentence that will never provide them parole consideration does as well.”
200 out of 363 Michigan juvenile lifers have yet to be re-sentenced, while 22 other states have abolished JLWOP completely
Mich. AG Dana Nessel could rescind county requests for renewed life without parole; Gov. Whitmer could commute sentences of JLWOPer’s
Efren Paredes Jr. with family; Paredes has served 29 yrs. since age of 15 in racist Berrien County, which has recommended JLWOP resentencing for 100% of its juvenile lifers. He was not the shooter in his case, or in the store where a clerk was killed by white co-defendants.
A federal judge from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently noted that juvenile life without parole prison sentences are unconstitutional if they are “the functional equivalent of life without parole” (LWOP), exceed a juvenile offender’s lifespan, or do not give the offender a “meaningful opportunity for parole consideration.”
The statement was made by Judge Mark Goldsmith in the case Hill v. Whitmer, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115855 (decided 7/12/19), regarding prisoners who were sentenced to LWOP when they were juveniles (“juvenile lifers”). See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Hill-v-Whitmer-7-12-19.pdf
[VOD: In his broader opinion, Judge Goldsmith upheld in part and denied in part the state’s motion for summary judgment on the case.]
In 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory LWOP sentences for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional and ordered the resentencing of all 2,500 prisoners across the nation affected by the ruling.
Judge Mark Goldsmith
The Miller decision held that a LWOP sentence could now only be imposed on juveniles in cases where judges have an option to mete out a term-of-years sentence or a LWOP sentence. In other words, judges must have discretion to choose.
The court made it abundantly clear, however, that LWOP sentences could only be imposed in cases where the juvenile offender is “irreparably corrupt” and incapable of change. They also stated that the extreme sentence must become “rare and uncommon.”
Contrary to popular belief, the high court did not ban LWOP sentences altogether for juvenile offenders. They only struck down LWOP sentences in cases where a mandatory sentence was the only sentence that could be imposed by a judge at the time.
In Michigan there were 373 prisoners who needed to be resentenced. Of that number, 235 prisoners — sixty-three percent — had yet to be resentenced and continued serving unconstitutional sentences.
The inordinate delay has been the result of prosecutors abusing their authority to arbitrarily file motions seeking LWOP sentences against hundreds of prisoners who do not meet the requirements outlined in the landmark Miller ruling. Their misconduct has resulted in the need for costly mitigation hearings and expert witnesses at taxpayer expense.
Judge Goldsmith’s statement strikes at the heart of Michigan’s law regarding the sentencing of juvenile lifers to extreme sentences. If a prison sentence that exceeds a juvenile offender’s lifespan is unconstitutional because it denies the offender meaningful parole consideration, obviously a LWOP sentence that will never provide them parole consideration does as well.
Michigan AG Dana Nessel
Lawmakers continue clinging to pernicious punishment for juvenile offenders so they can campaign as being “tough on crime” rather than “smart on crime.” LWOP sentences for juveniles would have been abolished years ago as twenty-one other states have already done if not for legislators’ reticence to do the right thing.
If lawmakers are unable to resolve this ongoing legal battle one sensible solution is for Attorney General Dana Nessel to withdraw the motions filed by prosecutors seeking LWOP sentences again for the remaining 235 juvenile lifer cases. This would avert further delays, allow judges to schedule sentencing hearings, and proceed as they normally do when performing other individualized sentencing hearings.
[The AG’s webpage includes the following general powers accorded to the AG:
Represents the People of Michigan in civil and criminal matters before trial courts, appellate courts and the supreme courts of Michigan and the United States.
Serves as legal counsel to state officers and, with few exceptions, to state agencies, boards and commissions.
Assists prosecuting attorneys, local law enforcement and federal criminal justice agencies in the administration of justice.]
The impediment to moving forward would be removed and prosecutors could still argue for imposition of radically extreme sentences, if they elect to do so. Sentencing bodies are not marionettes for prosecutors, however. They are independent thinkers who can interpret the law and will side with the U.S. Supreme Court more often than they will with prosecutors in the vast majority of cases.
Another proposed solution is for Governor Whitmer to commute the sentences of the remaining juvenile lifers awaiting resentencing to 25- to 60-year sentences, and give jurisdiction to the Parole Board to begin reviewing the cases for parole consideration after the prisoners have served twenty-five years. After twenty-five years all juvenile lifers will have served well over half their entire lives behind bars.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
. . . .Release of prisoners would be contingent upon their rehabilitation and what they are doing with their time while incarcerated. Those who do not demonstrate growth and maturity could remain incarcerated up to 60 years depending on their behavior, if they live that long.
Of the nearly seventy prisoners who have been paroled none have recidivated and all have become productive members of society. Prisoners serving LWOP sentences who are released have a less than one percent chance of recidivating. This is the lowest recidivism risk of all offense categories.
Commuting the sentences would also save taxpayers millions of dollars that could be reinvested in schools and infrastructure projects rather than spent on avoidable mitigation hearings. Conservative estimates have the cost of 235 hearings being upwards of $10 million to pay for attorneys, qualified expert witnesses, and court hearings.
Political theater and gamesmanship are not the solutions to correct failed public policies that prizedeath-by-incarceration sentences over rehabilitation and redemption for juvenile offenders. Creating more injustice is not a solution to resolving injustice, it only compounds the problem. We need more solutions not more problems.
The Little Rock Nine finishing a school day in Arkansas under the protection of federal troops. The U.S. government called the troops in to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling that southern schools must be desegregated.
JUSTICE DELAYED—JUSTICE DENIED!
WILL FEDERAL COURT FREE 200 MICHIGANJUVENILE LIFERS FROM DEATH IN PRISON?
Even those who have been re-sentenced face long waits and uncertain future with parole board, failure of state to provide programming cited
JUVENILE LIFER CHARLES LEWIS FINALLY HAS MITIGATION HEARING SCHEDULED FOR WED. OCT. 15 @ 9 AM, JUDGE LILLARD, RM. 502 FMHJ
By Diane Bukowski
October 1, 2019
DETROIT, MI – Will Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel live up to her campaign promises on behalf of the state’s juvenile lifers in the newest phase of a federal class action lawsuit, Hill v. Whitmer?
The suit was re-filed by Attorney Deborah LaBelle and the Michigan ACLU on behalf of over 200 Michigan juvenile lifers who have languished in prison far beyond the U.S. Supreme Court’s abolition of mandatory juvenile life without parole in 2012, and its declaration making the ruling retroactive in 2016. They have yet to see a judge for judicial review and resentencing.
On Sept. 9, LaBelle filed a Third Amendment to the Complaint alleging that the delays constitute clear violations of federal due process law. On Oct. 3, LaBelle countered the state’s position that the denial of programming and training to lifers does not adversely affect their chances for parole.
The 200 juvenile lifers represent 63 percent of the total number of the state’s juvenile lifers, 363. County prosecutors are seeking renewed life without parole for them, in apparent violation of the high court’s holdings that only the rarest child proven to be incapable of rehabilitation should die in prison. Seventy percent of Michigan juvenile lifers are Black. The highest number, 60, come from Wayne County.
“There’s an understanding, obviously, that when juveniles commit crimes, it does not mean that they are someone who forever cannot be rehabilitated, “ Nessel told Michigan Public Radio, while campaigning for AG. “Their brains are not fully formed. There’s a lot of scientific evidence and scientific data that bears that out. So I do think that in all but the most extreme cases, you should be giving that person the opportunity to be paroled at some point in life.”
In 2016, former Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair and other retired prosecutors, outraged at Michigan’s non-compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court rulings, called on the federal government to intervene.
“Some prosecutors and judges in Michigan have ignored the Court’s guidance that life sentences for youth are impermissible except for ‘the rare juvenile offender who exhibits such depravity that rehabilitation is impossible,’ and have relied heavily on the life without parole option provided to them by the Legislature,’ O’Hair wrote in an editorial published in several newspapers.
“[The incarcerated juvenile lifers] got a shock recently when prosecutors recommended life without parole—again—for most, if not all, of those eligible for resentencing. Their actions undermine the Supreme Court and are an affront to our justice system.”
Meanwhile, 22 states have either abolished juvenile life without parole, and five have no one serving that sentence, a rapid increase over the past several years.
The U.S. is the ONLY country in the world that sentences children to die in prison. It is also the only country in the world with TRUE life without parole. In others, lifers are still afforded regular parole hearings and release if rehabilitated. The battle against JLWOP has ignited a broader battle against LWOP across the U.S., from Pennsylvania to California.
The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration met with PA gov. Tom Wolf last year after State Sen. Sharif Street introduced legislation that would outlaw life without parole sentences.
Nessel’s office now represents the state in ongoing hearings before U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith on the Hill case, replacing former Attorney General Bill Schuette, a virulent opponent of releasing juvenile lifers.
Goldsmith appointed Atty. Deborah LaBelle as the official representative of the juvenile lifer class when he earlier struck down provisions of state statutes passed in 2014 that denied resentenced juvenile lifers their access to “good time” credits.
Atty. Deborah LaBelle represents juvenile lifer class in federal court.
In her filing Sept. 9, LaBelle wrote, “More than three years after the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Montgomery v. Louisiana . . . . (2016), confirmed that plaintiffs are entitled to be resentenced, nearly 200 Hill class members remain in prison awaiting resentencing with no relief in sight. To compound this injustice, many would be eligible for release on parole or even immediate release if they are resentenced to a term-of-years. A delay this serious should no longer be countenanced.
“Therefore, Plaintiffs request permission to amend their complaint to add a claim seeking a declaratory judgement that the unreasonable delay in resentencing violates the Plaintiffs’ due process rights.”
She added, “The delay in resentencing Plaintiffs is inexcusable. It came about by Michigan’s initial over-designation of the majority of the Plaintiff class as the rarest of youth whose crime evidences irreparable corruption and is incapable of rehabilitation, and seeking to reimpose Plaintiffs’ life-without-parole sentences. But seeking to reimpose life-without-parole sentences on the majority of youth (including those who were convicted of felony murder, those who have exemplary prison records and demonstrable rehabilitation) should not result in over three years of delay in Plaintiffs having the opportunity to demonstrate that a term-of-years sentence is warranted and thus provide them with their constitutional right to a meaningful opportunity to obtain their release.”
Charles Lewis, now 60, has served nearly 44 years in prison, since the age of 17 for the killing of an off-duty police officer in 1976, during a period of violent racial strife and mortal danger for Black youth in the city. Lewis is one of 60 juvenile lifers for whom Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has recommended renewed LWOP.
Charles Lewis in 1977 at age 17 with mother Rosie Lewis.
He has always maintained his innocence. Lewis’ trial Judge Joseph Maher never stated on the record why he dismissed Lewis’ first jury after it heard from the officer’s partner and numerous other eyewitnesses that another man committed the crime.
During an appeal hearing in 2006, Judge Deborah Thomas said that meant he should have been acquitted and subject to double jeopardy, and that the prosecution’s theory of the case, drawn from three younger juveniles who were threatened with charges if they did not testify against Lewis, was “a scientific impossibility.”
Judge Gershwin Drain ordered Lewis’ conviction and sentence dismissed in an order on April 3, 2000, but the order was lost in another file for 10 years. After Lewis moved to carry out the order, his entire case file came up missing and he was accused of forgery, with no documentary proof. He says legal precedents mandate his case should have been dismissed.
He is one of the first juvenile lifers facing a recommendation of LWOP to be scheduled for a mitigation hearing Tues. Oct. 15 at 9 am in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard, Rm. 502 FMHJ. In his defense brief, Lewis’ attorney Sanford Schulman is asking for him to be re-sentenced to a term of 40 years, which would mean immediate discharge due to Judge Goldsmith’s restoration of good-time benefits to the juvenile lifer class.
Lewis told VOD that at least 30 juvenile lifers, also recommended for LWOP, are in the Macomb Correctional Facility Re-Entry Program with him.
Attorney Schulman is court-appointed and selected numerous resentencing experts including a polygraph examiner (with respect to the validity of Lewis’ innocence claim), a psychiatrist, a mitigation specialist, and an MDOC misconduct specialist, with generally positive results recommending release.
Charles Lewis (l), on guitar and Bill Lemons, on keyboard, both noted musicians, play in prison band several years ago. Lewis has honed his musical skills and organized concerts throughout the MDOC. He still plays at Sunday services at Macomb CF.
Lewis hopes to resume a promising musical career upon release. He was known before his arrest and during his imprisonment for “world-class” talent in writing music, producing concerts, and playing virtually every musical instrument. But he said others with him are not so fortunate.
“Many don’t have attorneys, or have not seen them or experts to which they are entitled under state law, and they don’t know when or if ever they will ever benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court rulings,” he said.
He remembered the joy with which juvenile lifers greeted the Miller v. Alabama ruling in 2012.
“That was the first time we knew we would not have to die in prison,” he recalled. His mother said prison officials told her when he was sentenced that she would not even be able to get his body to bury him after he died in prison.
But Lewis is gravely concerned that judges have resentenced some juvenile lifers to life without parole again, without adequate grounds, and wonders what action is planned in their defense. Additionally, other plaintiffs’ filings in the Hill v. Whitmer federal case indicate that many juvenile lifers who HAVE been re-sentenced face ongoing complications with the parole board, based in part on the state’s admitted policy of denying programming and training to prisoners serving life.
David Bennett, incarcerated since 1972 for the murder of a young woman, was resentenced to LWOP on June 5, 2019 by visiting Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dalton Roberson, known before his retirement for his relatively liberal stance. At the time of Bennett’s original sentencing in 1992, experts said he was suffering from schizophrenia and other mental disorders, and he was placed on a regimen of multiple anti-psychotic medications.
His attorneys Eric Van Campen and Kristin Lavoy wrote in their defense brief that Bennett “has committed no act of aggression or violence” in the last 45 years.
David Bennett at 17 going into Garden City court.
David Bennett today, aged 67.
“Even though he was sentenced to die in prison, Mr. Bennett chose to better himself in every way possible,” they said. “He has put extraordinary effort into developing skills to cope with his mental illness and manage the trauma of his youth.
“Today, Mr. Bennett’s mental health is so stable that the only medication he takes is for depression. Thus, Mr. Bennett has demonstrated not only that he had the capacity for rehabilitation at the time of his offense, but that he has been successfully rehabilitated through his own efforts, the aging process, and the programming he has received within the MDOC.”
But Judge Roberson gave Bennett life again. The Judge said Bennett had been on multiple anti-psychotic medications and expressed fear that he would not continue taking his meds if he was not in a structured environment, despite contrary indications from expert defense witnesses.
Barbara P. Hernandez MDOC photo
Barbara Hernandez was resentenced to LWOP on Aug. 8, 2019 by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Nanci Grant. Born on March 16, 1974, Hernandez left home at 14 as a result of ongoing physical and sexual abuse first from her father and then from her stepfather. She moved in with a boyfriend four years her senior. In 1990 when Barbara was sixteen, her boyfriend coerced her into helping him steal a car as part of a plan to leave the state. When Barbara brought a man with a car to the house, her boyfriend attacked and killed the victim while Barbara was in another room.
Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper recommended LWOP for nearly 100 percent of that County’s juvenile offenders. Along with former Michigan AG Schuette, Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, and Berrien County Prosecutor, she has been one of the most strenuous opponents of any change in juvenile lifer laws.
Juan Carlos Nunez MDOC
In Michigan’s Ottawa County, the sole juvenile lifer there, Juan Carlos Nunez, was resentenced to LWOP April 24, by County Circuit Court Judge Jon Hulzing.
Nunez was 16 at the time of the murder in question, which took place during a robbery gone wrong. Judge Hulsing considered the six Miller factors mitigating crimes committed by youths, but declared that Nunez “still knew right from wrong.” This constituted a deliberate misstatement of the U.S. Supreme Court findings in Miller and Montgomery, which cited scientific evidence that the brains of juveniles, in particular the areas involving impulse control, do not develop fully until the age of 25.
The Hill v, Whitmer complaint until now had proceeded chiefly along lines of the defense’s argument in Count VI.
Count VI alleges that by failing or refusing “to provide programming, education, training and rehabilitation opportunities,” Defendants have “deprived Plaintiffs of meaningful opportunities to obtain release based on their demonstrated growth, maturity and rehabilitation.”
The State took the position essentially that the parole board does not require proof of such programming in releasing prisoners on parole and identified various defendants who had been re-sentenced to terms of years despite the lack of such resources. However, LaBelle cites juvenile lifers who have been re-sentenced to a term of years, but not yet paroled, awaiting completion of such programming.
Kevin Boyd at 15
Kevin Boyd, now 42
“Kevin Boyd must complete substance abuse core programming, yet he has been denied access to this program during his over thirty-years of incarceration in MDOC facilities,” writes LaBelle. “The prosecutor in Oakland County sought to resentence Kevin Boyd, a named class representative, to life without parole. On May 15, 2019, Kevin was instead resentenced to a term of 25-60 years. With good time credits he was eligible for release on June 1, 2015. Kevin was not interviewed by the Parole Board until June 24, 2019, and is still waiting to receive its decision, over three months later.
Tykeith Turner was resentenced on December 21, 2016 to 25-60 years. He has outstanding requirements for core programming, including substance abuse and violence prevention programming. Defendants refused to allow Tykeith’s requests to participate in this programming even after his life-without-parole sentence was vacated and he was resentenced to a term-of-years sentence.
Tykeith Turner, now 40.
On April 29, 2018, Tykeith became parole-eligible and the next day he was interviewed by the Parole Board. Tykeith has yet to receive a decision more than a year later.
Defendants’ records note that Tykeith is still awaiting classification referral for substance abuse and violence prevention core programming; they also note that Tykeith as ineligible for this programming because of his “lifer” status. 1 (See Ex. 2).
“Defendants also fail to address class members, including Christopher Wiley and Lorenzo Harrell, whose parole decision was deferred specifically because they had been unable to complete core programs. In fact, Defendants deferred Christopher Wiley’s and Lorenzo Harrell’s parole reviews for months because they had not completed recommended core programming.
Christopher WIley
Lorenzo Harrell
“But Defendants denied them access to this critical programming while they were waiting to be resentenced. Thus, they remained incarcerated—despite being immediately parole-eligible—solely because they had failed to complete recommended core programs.”
There are thirty-two other class members who have been resentenced, are parole-eligible, and have outstanding core programming requirements. It is unclear when or if they will ever be provided this programming before their parole review hearings, or whether their parole determinations will be deferred, denied or delayed because of this lack of core programming.”
Juvenile Lifers for Justice Rally, June 18, 2017, organized by Efren Paredes: supporters of Charles Lewis and Mike Calviin were among dozens who turned out. Mike Calvin is set for a mitigation hearing October 24, 2019.
Some members of the Michigan Chapter of the Anti-Bullying Crusade; Patricia Reed at bottom center
OCTOBER: NATIONAL ANTI-BULLYING AWARENESS MONTH!
By Ricardo Ferrell, VOD Staff Writer
VOD staff writer Ricardo Ferrell
Women are the cradle of civilization and should be honored as such – Everyday! Far too often, the strong women of our society who are out there on the frontlines get overshadowed by the philanthropic work of the Rich & Famous; therefore, overlooked by mainstream media outlets.
In this article, Voice of Detroit is proud to be honoring and recognizing three women of excellence who Rock! Today, we’ll be highlighting their inspiration to others, and their passion to eradicate bullying and reduce violence.
To combat these issues that plague our children and have become a common theme in our learning institutions across America, Lauren Washington cofounded the Anti-Bully Crusaders Organization (ABC). A nonprofit 501(c)(3). @ http://www.antibullycrusaders.org.
Through hard work, dedication, vision and leadership these women are impacting the lives of our children and changing the landscape in our communities. Now, let’s meet the beautiful women who are responsible for running ABC. Lauren Washington, Alexis Ramirez and Patricia Reed.
Kiesha Shaw, named ABC’s new event planner, was not directly available for this interview. But Keisha attributes her motivation for the ABC Project to her passion for learning, teaching, and empowering the youth.
Lauren Washington co-founder Anti-Bully Crusaders, with dad Leroy Washington
RICARDO: HELLO LADIES. SO TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND WHY YOU CHOSE BULLYING AS YOUR HUMANITARIAN CAUSE?
LAUREN: Okay, where do I start? I have a degree and background in Business. I’m working on my MBA, trying to break into the Real Estate market, and I’ve recently teamed up with an investment group to relaunch my online boutique.
Why Anti-bullying… Changing and Saving young lives has become a major priority for me? It really bothers me to see young children and teens committing suicide. Actually taking their OWN lives because they are getting bullied. That is UNACCEPTABLE. I can’t just sit on the sideline and watch this epidemic continue without doing something. I think we all have a moral obligation to get involved – by doing so, we are helping to save some lives. The pain I have in my heart is we’re not doing all we can do, in the wealthiest country in the world, to put a stop to bullying and senseless acts of violence. So, ABC is my contribution to the solution.
Alexis Ramirez, ABC Executive Director
ALEXIS: Well, I have a degree in accounting. I’ve known Lauren for a while and when she told me about her idea for this nonprofit and she needed my assistance to help eradicate bullying, it was a no brainer for me. I really believe in the cause. To witness the program actually working makes my heart flutter. There is no better feeling than knowing you’ve made a difference in the life of a child who needs your help.
PATRICIA: I have a Bachelors of Science from the University of Phoenix. I worked in the manufacturing industry for 12 years before I decided to become a teacher. As an educator working with at risk youth in the Lansing Public School District, I have witnessed firsthand how our learning institutions have become a common place for hazing, cruelty, humiliation, mistreatment… and all the other acts of bullying.
Michael Martin, 13, committed suicide after bullying.
I said “Enough is Enough” when a 13 year-old 8th grader, Michael Martin of Lansing Everet High School, committed suicide in January of this year because he was being bullied. The really sad part about this story is the fact that his mother was proactive and went to the administrators of that school for help in November. This made me really upset. Kids are dying because other kids are picking on them in school! School is supposed to be a safe place. To make matters worse, as I further researched, I found out that Michigan has one of the highest bullying-related suicide rates in the country. That’s when I decided, I definitely have to do something to help change this narrative.
RICARDO: LAUREN CAN YOU TELL US HOW ABC CAME ABOUT?
LAUREN: It would be my pleasure. I was a freshman in college and I had to do a research paper on suicides. As I was researching, I came across some startling statistics. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), “Four thousand four hundred (4,400) American teenagers commit suicide annually, and two out of nine (22%) as a result of an act of bullying. That really bothered me. I knew right then and there, I had to do something about it.
ABC co-founder Leroy Washington, Lauren’s father.
I got with my father and asked him to help me develop a program for young people that would impact their lives and help us as human beings to change the way we treat each other. He responded in his typical nonchalant fashion “to easy ma.” We worked on a curriculum and instructor’s manual for a couple of years, then founded the “Anti-Bully Crusaders Organization.”
And here we are. It hasn’t been an easy task, or journey, but I have learned so much along the way and met so many wonderful and amazing young people. To know that my father and I, along with our ABC family is making a difference, is so rewarding.
RICARDO: TELL US HERE AT VOD ABOUT THE PROGRAM AND WHAT IS DIFFERENT WITH ABC FROM OTHER ANTI-BULLYING PROGRAMS?
LAUREN:While there are many Anti-Bullying organizations/programs, their disadvantage is that most are only symposium-based, merely on a one-time group meeting or discussion. Although we believe they mean well, their methodology does not equip participants with the necessary tools to understand the problem, let alone change the narrative. Therefore, they are less effective. No organization does what ABC does. We offer an interactive curriculum that is engaging, thought provoking, and actually causes change in the Thinking, Attitude and Behavior. Basically, we are teaching young people how to think. Not what to think. And that’s important.
ALEXIS:In my eyes, the program is special because of the way it was beta tested in a prison setting, among a group of 60 Black, White, and Hispanic young men between the ages of 15 to 21. It changed the lives of the original participants forever. These gang members and violent offenders became change agents. Their attitudes and behaviors were a direct reflection of the program.
Patricia Reed, President of ABC Michigan Chapter
The prison administration mandated it for the entire youth population. Within the first month of implementation it reduced the overall violence in that prison by 32% (from 480 critical incidents down to 150). That’s amazing. We learned that if can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
In our current form of the program, we have kept the integrity of the original program, but have revised it, to become relevant to the needs of men, women, teens, and children everywhere. Now, who can say their program has been tried and tested in this fashion and capacity? Big thanks to the administrators at the Thumb prison for letting us pilot, monitor and evaluate the program at their facility.
PATRICIA: As an educator, what stood out to me about the program was the multiplicity in the style of teaching. ABC uses five complementary tools that build understanding: Reading, Visualizing, Writing, Conversing, and Reflecting. It is education in its truest form, tapping into the experience of the participants to elicit “the exchange of information.” We create an environment in which a group can together explore issues of bullying, drawing forth from one another a deeper understanding of how these issues affect our lives as individuals and as a society. The emphasis is on the real-life experiences the facilitators and participants bring to the class. These experiences inform the readings. The readings illuminate the experiences. The exercises opens everyone to the process.
RICARDO: HOW RECEPTIVE ARE THE SCHOOLS AND KIDS OF YOUR PROGRAM?
ALEXIS: Every school we’ve been to has made the experience pleasant. We get a lot of calls from schools all over the United States requesting our workshops and seminars. Unfortunately, our resources are limited and we can’t service everyone. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but that’s the problem we’re having right now. So, this year, in order to service more schools, we are planning some unique fundraising events. Hopefully, we’ll get awarded the grants we’ve applied for. We are seeking a title one certification. This will help urban schools offset some of the cost. For schools, who may not have available funding in their programming budget, we can help them do some creative fundraising as well.
Shawn T. Blanchard, author of “How About That for a Crack Baby?”
As far as the program… With young people, you know they can be rough at times. However, Shawn (Shawn T. Blanchard) and Tracy (Palmer) are consummate professionals. They do most of the facilitator’s training and keynote speaking. Both are exceptional mentors and the kids really respect them and their approach. What we’ve been learning from our program (a common across the board), while school is a learning institution, our children are coming to school with a lot of unsolved issues. Our program opens the door to these conversations. One of the primary things we teach young people, is how to ask for help.
LAUREN:I agree with Lex. I’m no psychologist, but I can remember days in school where I had social distractions. I didn’t know how to deal with these issues nor did I know how to ask for help. A child can’t learn anything when so many other things are on his/her mind that they feel are far more important. We have to help them clear the air first. We have to stop discounting what’s important issues to our young people. For instance, on day five of the journal action challenge we ask students: “Make a firm decision today and let go of something in your heart that has kept you living in hatred, rather than love. Write down what you plan to let go. Why do you think you’ve held on to this feeling for so long? One student wrote: “Well first of all I would let go of the hate from the men that killed my brother but yeah no that hatred never leaving.”
Two things… First, this is a cry for help. The student is saying, I want to forgive, but I don’t know how! Secondly, how can a student perform at a high level, when they have to deal with these real-life personal and social issues? Our programming opens the door for meaningful dialogue that young people to address issues that are not being addressed in our schools. And, with all due respect, we can’t expect or force our teachers or learning institutions to become psychologists or psychiatrists.
RICARDO: THAT WAS DEEP. WHAT DO YOU LADIES THINK WE ARE DOING WRONG? AND AS PARENTS WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE THINGS BETTER?
Keisha Shaw ABC Event Coordinator
LAUREN: To be honest I don’t have all the solutions. ABC has been my contribution and starting point. Collectively, we have to do more to stop bullying and violence. We are the most affluent and greatly blessed people anywhere on this planet and we are not doing enough for those who do not have a voice.
PATRICIA: I think we have to take these social issues more seriously. Young people are experiencing and experimenting more. If we don’t teach our kids, somwone less qualified certainly will. The streets are mean. Full of destruction and death. We must teach them to embrace the concepts of ,”The Strong Must Protect Weak! Not ridicule and Exploit Them! And collectively we are not going to allow it!
RICARDO: WE HEARD THAT PATRICIA WILL BE OVERSEEING THE MICHIGAN BRANCH OF ABC. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT INITIATIVE? WHEN WILL IT START AND WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?
PATRICIA: I’m very excited about having this opportunity. Last year we were blessed to work with Martin Luther King High School (Detroit), Great Lakes Academy (Pontiac), and Northwestern High School (Flint). This year we hope to kick off the Michigan initiative during NABAM (National Anti-Bullying Awareness Month) of October by servicing more schools in those districts as well as Lansing Everet and Sexton. Our objective is to get the parents, city council members, mayors, state reps., the governor, the public and most importantly, all the students involved in this movement to help make all schools a “Bully Free Safe Zone!” We need volunteers and all the support we can get. We the “PEOPLE” have to change this ugly narrative of -Bullying.
LAUREN:This year our focus is to put boots on the ground in Michigan and establish a permanent presence. Our goal is to make all schools in Michigan a “Bully Free Safe Zone!” We are cordially inviting everyone to get involved in this fight to eradicate bullying. If you would like to bring a workshop or seminar to your school please contact us. We would be happy to go over this fun, quick and easy process. We work directly with the student body, PTA, faculty amd local community leaders to assist in creative funding alternatives and fundraising opportunities. Contact us today at: www.antibullycrusaders.org
RICARDO: LAUREN YOU SAID SOMETHING THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION. “…MAKING THE WORLD BETTER FOR THE NEXT GENERATION” WOULD YOU PLEASE ELABORATE?
LAUREN: Absolutely. My father has imparted upon me that every generation must prepare for the next generation. To live for today is shortsighted and selfish, to live for tomorrow is vision and selfless. God gave us all the wealth of our potential, abilities, energies, creativity, ideas, and dreams to help others. To help the next generation, we must nurture these gifts. If I do not take what has been given to me and my potential to make a serious contribution and difference, then I will have failed not only myself, but others who are depending on people like me.
RICARDO: SPEAKING OF YOUR FATHER, THAT’S MY GUY! WHAT IS HE UP TO RIGHT NOW?
LAUREN: Well, as you know he’s working on his Doctorate of Education. He has four classes this semester. He’s working on his biography/memoir. Shawn T. Blanchard hooked us up with a publishing deal from Lion’s Dream. He’s helping us coordinate our Michigan initiative. While these are huge opportunities, he’s most excited about the TAB-MI (Thinking-Attitude-Behavior-Modification-Initiative) curriculum he’s working on with you and Quentin Jones. I thought I was busy… major sensory overload! I don’t know how you guys do it! But, corrective behavior, mentoring and curriculum writing is what he’s most passionate about. I can’t wait to see you all’s project come into fruition.
Thank you. All I can say about the TAB-MI Project, is that it’s huge. We have some real heavyweights making a scholarly contribution. And, you’re right. Your father is one of the most driven individuals I’ve met in a long time. That’s one of the reasons I’m excited and honored when he asked me to be a part of this venture. I came right in and proposed a name for the project, which turned out in part to be from an essay I wrote for DreamBigLiveBig.Net, a free online website for troubled youth and young adults titled: Thinking*Attitude*Behavior (TAB).
RICARDO: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN STORE FOR THE NATIONAL ANTI-BULLY AWARENESS MONTH OF OCTOBER?
ALEXIS: NABAM (National Anti-Bully Awareness Month) of October is a special month for our cause. 2017, the theme was “Speak-Up & Speak-Out” campaign; 2018, was the “Bullying Stop Here!” rally; this year our objective is to make all of our learning institutions a “Bully Free Safe Zone.” During October, we’ll be hosting the ABC seminar at 25 schools in 25 days (25/25). This tour will allow us to reach and teach over 75,000 students in Dallas/Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Our goal is to spread awareness, teach students about the Bully Situation, give each school an opportunity to bring the ABC Workshop to their community, and of course this is our month of fundraising. It’s also noteworthy to mention: Our NABAM Celebrity Basketball Game that was scheduled for October has been postponed until May 2020. Some of our staff was invited to the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit at the historic Masonic Temple, around the same time, and with the 25/25, we just won’t have time to make it as epic an event as we would like. We’re not in the business of half doing things.
RICARDO: NO SHAME IN DOING IT RIGHT. MAYBE YOU’LL GIVE US AN EXCLUSIVE TO COVER THAT EVENT IN MAY?
ALEXIS: Sounds Good. It’s official! The entire VOD family is invited.
RICARDO: WHERE DO YOU SEE ABC IN THE NEXT 2-3 YEARS?
LAUREN: Glad you asked! Our ultimate goal is to have the Anti-Bully Crusaders Program in all schools across the nation. With that, we would like to have certified ABC Student Ambassadors at all schools to help represent the program and movement. Also, just to let you in on a little secret, we are in talks with a group about helping us add a second phase to the ABC Programming. This will be a follow up/mentorship program for all former participants. In order to keep them on track, we would like to offer them additional resources and tools. So, stay tuned-in and make sure you sign up for the ABC Newsletter on our website. Coming this Fall!
PATRICIA: One of the main goals that I would like to accomplish is to work on developing a curriculum for preschool and elementary schools, because I’ve noticed that bullying starts at a very young age.
RICARDO: AS WOMEN WHO ROCK! WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A YOUNG WOMAN WHO MAY SEE YOU AS A ROLE MODEL?
LAUREN:I would tell young a young woman what my father told me… “You have the ability to create the world you want to live in. Nothing is fixed for you. You can conquer anything you put your mind too! Knots can be untied, chains can be broken, walls can be smashed down, and doors can be pushed open. Keep that self-determination and confidence in your abilities. Always listen to your inner voice and never let others drown it out. Measure your words and balance your works with your gifts carefully.
Let NO one define who you are! Some will deify you, and treat you like a princess, while others will want to dismiss you as a peasant. Some will embrace you, others will shun and reject you. This is the world we live in, but their opinions of you will not increase or diminish the value of who you truly are! Allow none to tempt you to abandon your principles. Always follow what is right! Stick to the path of honesty and integrity. You are a strong young lady…let nothing break you!” If you wanna be great, you have to do all the extraordinary things that great people do! Being a woman means we have to work twice as hard, be twice as smart. When everyone is playing, vacationing, sleeping, we gotta be putting in work!
PATRICIA: The advice I would give a young woman who may see me as a role model is to always find a purpose that you’re passionate about. Knowing her purpose helps her stay focused on the goals that she has set for herself and will make life more meaningful. She should always surround herself with positive and successful people who will inspire her to be a better person.
ALEXIS: To all the women out there, don’t let anyone or anything stop you from reaching your full potential. Get out there, be brave and don’t be afraid to learn or try new things. When you find your passion in life or something you enjoy doing or want to do, go after it, keep pushing and don’t give up. The only thing worse than a failure, is a no try!
RICARDO: WE NEED MORE PROGRAMS LIKE ABC IN OUR SCHOOLS. HOW CAN WE HELP RAISE FUNDS AND WHO HAVE BEEN YOUR GREATEST SUPPORTERS?
ALEXIS: This fiscal year will be the first time we apply for grant help. If anyone has any grant information or suggestions, we could certainly use that. Also, September marks our 2nd Annual T-shirt & Hat sale. If you would like to purchase Shirt or Hat or make a generous donation go to our website. We appreciate all the help we can get. Take pictures in your shirts at your school, on the job, wherever you’re at and send them to us to post.
LAUREN: As far as supporters, we are looking for a permanent corporate sponsor. We’ve done a lot of collaborations with other organizations and we’ve received financial and product donations from many companies. However, our biggest supporter has been the United Auto Workers of America (UAW). Each year these wonderful men and women host our T-shirt and Hat sale. It’s because of our supporters we’ve been able to service thousands of students. So, thank you all and God Bless you for your purchases and generous donations!
RICARDO: THANKS FOR SHARING THIS MOMENT WITH US AR VOD. IT HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE INTERVIEWING YOU AMAZING LADIES. DO YOU HAVE ANYONE YOU’D LIKE TO THANK?
ABC: Of course, too many to name! First, we’d like to give all the praise and glory to God! Then we’d like to thank all the student participants, teachers, faculty members, volunteers, staffers, sponsors, everyone who has made a generous donation and contribution in support of ABC. And, last but certainly not least, a special thanks to You, Diane Bukowski and the entire VOD team. Without all of you believing in our cause and having faith in what we do… we couldn’t do it!
RICARDO: Once again. The ABC project is an evolving set of projects that provide avenues of hope, meaningful educational opportunities, and creative strategies that curtail intimidation, crush cruelty, and help to reduce senseless violence. The program demonstrates the potential for dynamic collaborations between students, facilitators, and other prominent figures of the community. Most importantly, through this unique exchange, the ABC Project seeks to deepen the dialogue -transform ways of thinking about being a bully, victim, or witness in society as a whole. ABC needs your support! This life changing program is definitely a game-changer when it comes to addressing the issue of -Bullying.
For more information about how you can keep up with the efforts of the ABC movement, win prizes, enter contests, show your support, donate, sponsor a workshop, and/or bring a workshop or seminar to your school or community, become directly involved as a volunteer or facilitator and become an independent fundraiser for ABC’s “Bully Free Safe Zone” Initiative. Visit the ABC website at: http://www.antibullycrusaders.org, or Facebook/AntibullyCrusaders or Instagram@Antibullycrusaders.
Writers note: Until the next time… Practice peace, tolerance and acceptance! Also, I am looking forward to contributing to ABC’s Newsletter by frequently submitting anti-bullying related articles for publishing. To Lauren, Alexis, and Patricia, keep being ABC’s phenomenal -Women Who Rock!
Ricardo… signing off!!
VOD staff writer Ricardo Ferrell has been a human rights activist behind the prison walls for decades. Write him!
Close to 50,000 United Auto Workers across the United States are on strike against General Motors as of 11:59 p.m., September 15. If the strike goes on for any real length of time, it’ll be tough on those who have walked off the job and away from a regular paycheck.
But it could be great for the country.
The UAW strike is the largest labor action in the United States in at least a decade, and the first for the union in twelve years. Images are cropping up of auto workers walking the picket line, carrying boldly lettered “On Strike” signs and chanting their rallying cries: “What do we want? Jobs! What do we need? Security!”
The UAW strike is the largest labor action in the United States in at least a decade, and the first for the union in twelve years.
It’s a worker-led contrast to the choreographed, kabuki theater scenes of the 2020 election season, including the most recent Democratic debates. It does matter, of course, who becomes President in 2020. But whoever wins the highly orchestrated, carefully managed match-up between Trump (his party’s likely nominee despite the presence of a few rivals) and the Democratic candidate will still be just one person—even if that person is a skilled purveyor of populist ideals and plans, such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.
And even if a Democrat does win the presidential election, he or she will most likely face a recalcitrant Republican majority in the Senate. Or, as Mark Barabak put it in a recent opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, zero percent of the “fine-sounding pledges,” such as free college and affordable health care, are likely to “come to pass, however, if Democrats can’t also win control of the Senate in November 2020.”
But the UAW strikers are many, and include more than just relatively well-paid auto workers—some of whom can command wages and benefits that top $70 per hour. The first autoworkers who walked off the job are employed at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. As they headed to work for their final, pre-strike shift on September 15, the autoworkers passed a group of janitors who are also UAW members that work in the Flint auto plant—who were already on strike
According to the Detroit Free Press, the janitor strike prompted the autoworkers—who were still waiting for the strike authorization nod from union leaders—to stop by the janitors’ picket line offering food, a well-directed curse word or two, and a desire to band together in solidarity.
About 850 janitors at GM plants in Ohio and Michigan work for contractor Aramark but are represented by the UAW. In a video posted to the Detroit Free Press website, Damon “D.J.” Harrison describes the treacherous work he and his fellow maintenance workers perform at the General Motors plant in exchange for an hourly wage that hovers around $15.
“We do these water blasts,” Harrison said, noting that the high powered sprayers they use are strong enough to slice off a “foot or finger.”
For Harrison and his fellow janitors, access to affordable health care isn’t a nice talking point to lob at an opponent on a debate stage—it’s a matter of life and death. “We have families to live for,” Harrison told the Detroit Free Press, before shaking his head and appearing to walk off camera.
He hit the picket line in part to rally for manageable health care costs. This puts him in solidarity with the UAW plant workers who walked off the job just hours after the janitors did. They are also pushing back against the climbing cost of health care, even as General Motors continues to score billions in annual profits.
These are the stories of rank-and-file workers who possess, perhaps, the numbers and the drive to shift the imbalance of the massive inequality that dominates life in the United States today.
These are the stories of rank-and-file workers who possess, perhaps, the numbers and the drive to shift the imbalance of the massive inequality that dominates life in the United States today. While the UAW strike is the largest the country has seen in years, it is taking place alongside other noteworthy labor actions led by working people.
Chicago teachers’ strike 2012.
Look no further than Chicago. In 2012, the city’s teachers mounted a strike seen by many as an impressive show of union strength in an era of declining rights for workers. Now, the 35,000-member Chicago Teachers Union is poised to go on strike again; this time, thousands of school-based staffers represented by the Service Employees International Union may join them.
In an article in Jacobin, Alan Maass detailed the brewing Chicago battle, noting that the special education assistants, bus drivers, and other workers represented by the Service Employees International Union make so little money that they fall into the federal government’s “very low income” range. The collective union members in Chicago are also reportedly ready to push back against privatization, an ongoing transfer of wealth from publicly funded, publicly managed entities into private hands.
The stories of these workers, backed by work stoppages and strike votes, are worth paying attention to, and should ring in our ears far longer than the pre-planned soundbites that zing across the stage at Trump rallies or Democratic candidate debates.
(L to r) Derrico Searcy, Darrell Ewing with defense atty. Phillip Comorski at podium, AP Jon Wojtala seated.
Third hearing Fri. Oct. 4 at 9 a.m. ordered to deal with jurisdictional questions on evidentiary hearing re: murder conviction of Darrell Ewing and Derrico Searcy
Fourth juror, foreman Brian Tubbs, testifies Sept. 6 that he has no recall of most aspects of 2010 murder trial
Judge Hathaway earlier: “What really matters is whether ONE juror, Kathleen Byrnes, was inappropriately influenced”
AP Wojtala: “The prosecution definitely plans to appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals if a new trial is ordered;” specifies no grounds
By Diane Bukowski
September 16, 2019
Ewing/Searcy trial jury foreman Brian Tubbs, Judge Michael Hathaway
DETROIT — Darrell Ewing, 30, and Derrico Searcy, 37, seeking to have their 2010 murder convictions overturned due to jury misconduct at their trial, and an innocence claim, will have to wait for yet another date in their ongoing evidentiary hearing. Retired Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway set a fourth hearing for Friday, Oct. 4 at 9 a.m. in room 801 of the Frank Murphy Hall to deal with jurisdictional issues.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood ordered the current evidentiary hearing in Nov. 2017.
On Sept. 6, Hathaway ordered defense attorney Phillip Comorski and AP Jon Wojtala to submit briefs with “proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law” before the Oct. 4 hearing, regarding Hathaway’s authority to order a new trial and the appropriate jurisdiction, state or federal.
Ewing and Searcy were convicted of murdering J.B. Watson Dec. 29, 2009, in an allegedly gang-related shooting at Harper and Van Dyke. They have been in prison since 2010, despite the confession of another prisoner, Tyree Washington, to the crime, backed up by affidavits from others in the car with him.
“The prosecution definitely plans to appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals if a new trial is ordered,” Wojtala said Sept. 6. Hathaway, who appears inclined to rule in favor of the defense, said he wants to consult with Judge Hood to see if he can issue a report on his findings from the hearing and refer the case back to her for the order.
Otherwise, Ewing and Searcy will have to wait in prison through another state appellate process, and a second federal habeas hearing if the state appeals are unsuccessful, before a final determination.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood
Judge Hood originally ordered a new trial in November, 2017, instead of an evidentiary hearing, based on her finding of jury misconduct consisting of the independent use of Facebook and other internet research on gangs. The Sixth Circuit overturned the new trial order, with one dissenting opinion that it was in Judge Hood’s discretion to order an appropriate solution.
In Judge Hood’s order on remand, she said the trial judge should issue any order relating to a new trial.
It is not clear on what grounds the prosecution would appeal. Testimony from four original trial jurors in two sessions Aug. 26 and Sept. 6 clearly established that “extraneous information” from the internet was introduced by at least two jurors into deliberations against the trial court’s instructions. One juror strongly confirmed that research on gang “pecking orders” changed her verdict to “guilty.”
The jurors also testified that most of their time deliberating on the case was spent on defendant Ewing, with the understanding that if Ewing was guilty. so was Searcy.
Jury foreman Brian Tubbs was the only witness Sept. 6, following three other jurors who testified Aug. 26. He said that he “did not recall” information about internet research on gangs introduced by juror Karen James, Facebook research admittedly introduced by juror Michelle Chesny, or any related discussions during deliberations or trial testimony. He said he did remember sending a “hung jury” note to the trial judge but could not recall exactly why juror Kathleen Byrnes changed her vote to “guilty” afterwards.
During the Aug. 26 hearing, juror Kathleen Byrnes gave powerful, emotional testimony that the introduction of the extraneous research caused her to change her vote to “Guilty.” She had been the lone hold-out against conviction, based primarily on a confession by Tyree Washington that he committed the murder involved. But she said firmly she changed her vote after James told her that Washington was at the bottom of a gang pecking order and falsely confessed to save Ewing.
Former Juror Kathleen Byrnes
Sobbing, she said, “I remember this trial so well because it haunted me. I just kept wondering if I had done something terribly wrong.”
During that hearing, Hathaway told Wojtala after two other jurors testified, “I don’t mean to shortcut this hearing, but you can call all other 11 jurors and have them say [the internet research] didn’t matter, but what really matters is whether ONE juror, Kathleen Byrnes, was inappropriately influenced. It is irrefutable that she had some doubts that were reasonable, based on the ID evidence and the confession of Mr. Washington, and that she was worn down by other jurors bringing extraneous information into the jury process.”
Ewing’s mother LaSonya Dodson and numerous family members and supporters of both defendants have been campaigning vigorously for the duo’s release since their conviction, sponsoring protests outside the Federal Courthouse and joining various coalitions against wrongful convictions. They have packed the courtroom for both sessions Aug. 26 and Sept. 4, as well as during the original trial.
Dodson earlier told VOD she sold her house and exhausted her 401k to pay Ewing’s trial and appeals attorneys. She added that one daughter in the service retired early at the age of 26 due to severe headaches from the stress of her brother’s case, while the rest of the family ceased “living the active lives we used to.”
Darrell Ewing’s family and supporters including (back, 3rd from l) mother Sonya Dodson.
Black youth in Melbourne, Australia protest racist depictions of them in media, et. al. VOD has noted an abundance of “lazy journalism” in the U.S. as well, which reports police versions of events without further investigation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: There is also extensive internet research on the use of the term “gangs” to describe groups of youth of color for the purposes of mass incarceration. E.g. the article below:
THE BLACK CRIMINAL OTHER AS AN OBJECT OF SOCIAL CONTROL
Sociology Department, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6LL, UK
Published: 13 November 2018
Abstract “Throughout this paper, we contend that the ‘gang’ has been appropriated by the state as an ideological device that drives the hyper-criminalisation of black, mixed, Asian, and other minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Drawing upon two research studies, we demonstrate how the gang is evoked to explain an array of contemporary ‘crime’ problems, which in turn (re)produces racialised objects to be policed. With particular reference to collective punishments, we suggest that “gang-branding” is critical to the development of guilt-producing associations that facilitate the arrest, charging, and prosecution of countless numbers of BAME people for offences they did not commit. As such, there is now an urgent need to ‘take seriously’ the criminalising intents of a dangerous criminology of the Other, which legitimises intrusive racist policing and surveillance, and justifies the imposition of deliberate harms upon racialised communities.
Donations for the Voice of Detroit are urgently needed to keep this paper, which is published pro bono by folks on extremely limited incomes, going. Among ongoing expenses are quarterly Lunar Pages web host charges of $350, now late, costs for court documents, internet fees, office supplies, gas, P.O. Box, etc. Please, if you can:
FTC takes 94 legal actions against companies including First Choice Horizon, LLC and Media Mix 365, worst offenders targeting seniors, poor
TRACED Act and Stopping Bad Robocalls Act pending in U.S. Congress, expected to be finalized in fall
51 State AG’s including Michigan’s Dana Nessel send letter to FCC asking for more stringent action
LANSING – The Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, 50 state Attorneys General, including Michigan’s Dana Nessel, and consumer groups are calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take stringent action to make telecom providers implement technology that blocks illegal and unwanted robocalls, as well as caller-ID spoofing.
FTC files 94 actions v. First Choice Horizon, LLC, Media Mix 365, others
“We’re all fed up with the tens of billions of illegal robocalls we get every year,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Fighting this scourge remains a top priority for law enforcement agencies around the nation.”
The crackdown involves nearly 100 cases, five of which are criminal enforcement actions. They were brought by the FTC, Justice Department, 50 states and a slew of local authorities.
The Washington Post reported, “The government’s efforts come as robocalls continue to ring Americans’ phones at record rates. Scam calls made up a large share of the estimated 4.7 billion robocalls to mobile devices in May, according to YouMail, an app that helps block them. That’s more than double the amount from two years ago, an uptick that has prompted Americans to complain to the FTC at historic levels. The agency said Tuesday that it now receives about 10,000 robocall complaints per day.”
“The FTC filed complaints in federal court in Florida earlier this year against two of the main actors in the Robocall nightmare. They are First Choice Horizon, LLC, believed to be the lead entity in a maze of operations that prey on poor Americans, including seniors, and Media Mix 365, which dialed millions of numbers on the federal Do Not Call list.”
The FTC added in a June 25 release, “The Federal Trade Commission and its law enforcement partners today announced a major crackdown on illegal robocalls, including 94 actions targeting operations around the country that are responsible for more than one billion calls pitching a variety of products and services including credit card interest rate reduction services, money-making opportunities, and medical alert systems.
The joint crackdown, “Operation Call it Quits,” is part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to help stem the tide of universally loathed pre-recorded telemarketing calls. It also includes new information to help educate consumers about illegal robocalls. In addition, the FTC continues to promote the development of technology-based solutions to block robocalls and combat caller ID spoofing.”
The FTC said targeted companies and individuals also included 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle, Derek Jason Bartoli, Lifewatch Inc., Redwood Scientific, and Life Management Services.
Actions in U.S. Congress expected to force stronger actions, after FTC, FCC fail to collect on record fines levied in the past
The National Law Review reported that a bill in the U.S. House prods the FTC and the FCC to toughen their efforts. “The bill faults the agencies for failing to collect on some of the record fines they’ve levied in the past. Lawmakers also cited the emerging threat to doctors and patients, urging the agencies to prioritize investigations that involve hospitals.”
U.S. Senators John Thune and Ed Markey
The Verge said, “In the U.S. Congress, a bipartisan proposal, the TRACED Act, was introduced by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Ed Markey (D-MA). It would raise the fines the FCC is permitted to levy on robocallers, and increase the statute of limitations for bringing those cases. It would also create an interagency task force to address the problem, and push carriers like AT&T and Verizon to deploy call authentication systems like the pending STIR/SHAKEN protocols into their networks.”
“The bill, known as the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, builds on the TRACED Act passed by the Senate in May. The House and the Senate now need to reconcile the two bills before sending the legislation to the White House for the President’s signature. That’s expected to happen in the fall.
“In addition to giving regulators stronger enforcement tools, the House bill would require phone carriers to implement call identification technology and mandate that the Federal Communications Commission report to Congress annually on the state of robocalls.
“The House is sending a strong message that it is time to stop the abuse from robocalls,” [said] Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst for Consumer Reports. “This bill would go a long way toward protecting people from the daily harassment of unwanted robocalls. These calls aren’t just annoying. Shady businesses and individuals are using them to steal your money and your personal information. With today’s House vote, we now look forward to seeing the strongest possible bill enacted into law.”
The paper added that 80 consumer rights groups, including Consumer Reports and the National Consumer Law Center, sent a letter to Congress urging passage of the bill. The wireless industry trade group CTIA also supports it.
Consumer Reports went on, “To date, there have been 29 billion robocalls in 2019, according to YouMail, a robocall blocking and tracking firm. ‘That’s nearly 90 calls per person in the U.S.,’ said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. The blocking and tracking firm Truecaller estimates that consumers lost $10.5 billion to phone scams in 2018.
51 State Attorneys General announce their support for new FCC ruls
The letter from the Attorneys General comes after the FCC issued a declaratory ruling and proposed new rules related to federal and industry efforts to block illegal robocalls and eliminate caller-ID spoofing. This effort comes following last week’s unveiling of the Anti-Robocall Principles to fight illegal and unwanted robocalls by the Attorneys General and 12 major telecom providers.
Michigan State AG Dana Nessel
“Illegal and unwanted robocalls continue to harm and hassle people every day,” the letter says. “Consumer fraud often originates with an illegal call, and robocalls regularly interrupt our daily lives. State Attorneys General are on the front lines of enforcing do-not-call laws and helping people who are scammed and harassed by these calls. For this reason, we support free, robust call blocking that is simple and easy for all consumers, and the timely implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN Caller ID authentication framework.”
In a release, Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel said, “The FCC is integral in holding telecom providers accountable. We hope that the FCC will heed our advice to protect consumers in Michigan and across the country from caller-ID spoofing and the flood of illegal and unwanted robocalls.”
In their letter, the Attorneys General state that telecom providers should:
Offer free, default call-blocking services to all customers based on reasonable analytics that do not block important calls such as emergency alerts or automated calls requested by customers;
Implement the caller-ID authentication technology – known as STIR/SHAKEN – which will help ensure telephone calls are originating from secure, verified numbers as quickly as possible;
Develop separate landline caller-ID authentication to prevent illegal and unwanted robocalls to seniors or those that live in rural areas; and,
Ensure that call blocking and call authentication efforts protect consumer data.
Many of these actions reflect the Anti-Robocall Principles established and released late last week by the Attorneys General along with AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream. These principles address illegal and unwanted robocalls through prevention and enforcement. The 50 state Attorneys General submitted their comments.
Defendants Derrico Searcy and Darrell Ewing listen to testimony of former jurors Aug. 26, 2019.
Juror Kathleen Byrnes gives powerful testimony on juror misconduct during trials, convictions of Darrell Ewing, Derrico Searcy
Byrnes says introduction of banned research changed her vote to “Guilty,” at evidentiary hearing Aug. 26, 2019
“I remember this trial so well because it haunted me. I just kept wondering if I had done something terribly wrong.”—Byrnes
“What really matters is whether ONE juror, Kathleen Byrnes, was inappropriately influenced”—Judge M. Hathaway, who can order new trial
State AG has petitioned Judge Hood for hearing deadline to be extended past Aug. 28, if petition granted, hearing to be continued until Fri. Sept. 6 at 1:30 pm
Ewing’s mother: Judge’s order demands release after Aug. 28, she and other supporters want release outright, or pending new trial
By Diane Bukowski
Aug. 27, 2019
Supporters of Ewing and Searcy outside courtroom Aug. 19; hearing was postponed because Ewing hadn’t been writted out from prison.
DETROIT – The juror in the 2011 murder trials of Darrell Ewing and Derrico Searcy who exposed the introduction of banned “extraneous material” from Facebook and the internet into jury deliberations gave powerful testimony Aug. 26 backing up her claim.
Former juror Kathleen Byrnes said firmly during an evidentiary hearing in front of retired Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway that the material caused her to change her original “not guilty” verdict. She testified in a courtroom packed with family members and supporters of the two co-defendants.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood
The hearing was held at the order of U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood, after the Sixth Circuit Court affirmed her earlier order vacating the conviction, in part, and remanded the case to her for further action. Hood originally cited an affidavit written by by Byrnes regarding the jury misconduct as one cause for her order. See http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Byrnes-affidavit.compressed-4.pdf.
Hood said in part: “On January 10, 2011, Juror # 4, Kathleen Frances Byrnes, filed an affidavit informing the court that during deliberations Juror # 13 (Michelle Chesny) brought in Facebook information regarding petitioner’s past history and information pertaining to an online eulogy for J.B. Watson. Ms. Byrnes also informed the court that Juror # 5 (Karen James) had googled gang information and brought up information pertaining to gang codes and gang activity that she found on the internet. This Court notes that the jurors brought into jury deliberations the same type of information that the trial court excluded prior to petitioner’s trial.”
Former Juror Kathleen Byrnes
At the end of her testimony, Byrnes, who had been previously been extremely composed and dignified during lengthy and detailed examinations, broke down, shaking and in tears.
“I remember this trial so well because it haunted me,” Byrnes said. “I just kept wondering if I had done something terribly wrong.”
Byrnes testified she was the lone hold-out for a “not guilty” verdict until another juror, identified by trial counsel as Karen James, discussed her internet research on “pecking order” in gangs at length.
She said James told her that another man who admitted to the allegedly gang-related killing of J.B. Watson on Dec. 29, 2009, Tyree Washington, was at the bottom of the “Hustle Boys” gang pecking order and took the fall for Ewing, who was allegedly at the top.
Washington later wrote an affidavit confessing to the crime which he sent to the prosecutor during the Ewing/Searcy trial. He said the “Hustle Boys” was not a gang and his motive for killing J.B. Watson was that Watson had earlier shot at him and his child and the child’s mother while they were driving. Adrienne Jackson, who was driving the car at the time, submitted an affidavit affirming his confession, but saying she had no idea what he was planning to do.
Byrnes said Tyree Washington’s photo resembled Darrell Ewing, but was accused of racism by jurors for saying so.
“Prior to this juror bringing in this information, I was the only hold-out because I felt that reasonable doubt existed because another person had confessed,” Byrnes said. She said emphatically that the “pecking order” information changed her verdict. Byrnes said she had asked earlier why anyone would confess to a crime they didn’t commit.
Trial judge the late Carole Youngblood had instructed the jury not to consider anything other than evidence presented at the trial, specifically including information from internet research. She earlier denied the prosecution’s motion to bring in a “Facebook expert” to testify, during a pre-trial hearing.
The jury brought back a unanimous “guilty” verdict after Byrnes changed her vote, only one day after they sent a note to Judge Youngblood asking if they could declare a “hung jury” because they were hopelessly deadlocked. Byrnes said the discussion on gang “pecking orders” took place after the deadlock note was sent.
Youngblood told the jury to continue deliberating, without giving standard “deadlock” instructions which emphasize no juror should change their honestly-held verdict as a result of pressure from the others.
The late Judge Carole Youngblood
Assistant Prosecutor Jon Wojtala argued that a witness who testified about Tyree Washington’s confession already said at trial that Washington was a “flunky” for Ewing. Byrnes and two other jurors testified that they recalled information about Ewing’s gang membership only from the prosecutor’s opening statement, not from witness testimony.
A second juror, Michelle Chesny, testified that she looked up Ewing’s Facebook page despite the late Judge Youngblood’s instructions, and brought the results of her research into the jury deliberations. She claimed the material did not affect anyone’s verdict, but repeatedly said she could “not recall” much of anything else. She said she thought it would be “OK” to look up the Facebook information.
Chesny appeared resentful at having to testify.
“I don’t mean to shortcut this hearing, but you can call all other 11 jurors and have them say it didn’t matter, but what really matters is whether ONE juror, Kathleen Byrnes, was inappropriately influenced,” Judge Hathaway told AP Wojtala After Chesny’s testimony.
Former juror Michelle Chesny testifies as Judge Michael Hathaway listens.
“It is irrefutable that she had some doubts that were reasonable, based on the ID evidence and the confession of Mr. Washington, and that she was worn down by other jurors bringing extraneous information into the jury process,” Hathaway concluded. “Even the last witness admitted she went on Facebook. I have an order from Judge Denise Page Hood that I have to follow. I have to conduct a responsible hearing.”
Hathaway added that Byrnes clearly had maintained her doubts for nearly 10 years.
In her order on remand, Judge Hood said, “The petition for a writ of habeas corpus is again granted on petitioner’s second claim involving the use of extraneous influence. The grant is conditioned upon the state trial court conducting an evidentiary hearing on petitioner’s juror misconduct claim within 120 days of this Court’s order and making a determination as to whether the extraneous information had a prejudicial effect upon the jury’s verdict. If the judge so finds, he or she shall order a new trial for petitioner. Ewing v. Horton, 914 F.3d at 1031-34.”
A third juror, Joyce Hall (sp?) who now works in the office of the Wayne County Prosecutor, also testified. She said she did recall other jurors doing internet research regarding the pecking order of gangs and gang codes, but that she herself did not do so because she had no access to the internet and because the judge ordered the jurors not to do so. She also recalled another juror looking up Ewing’s Facebook page.
Defense attorney Phillip Comorski.
“I remember her saying something about him and his girlfriend making hand signs in a photo,” she said. She said she assumed the “hand signs” were meant to be gang-related.
Defense attorney Phillip Comorski told VOD that Michigan Atty. General Dana Nessel’s office petitioned for an extension of Hood’s order past Aug. 28 if the hearing was not completed by then. .
“We are hoping my son is released as ordered originally by Judge Hood,” Ewing’s mother Lasonya Dodson told VOD. “And if there is a new trial ordered, we want my son home pending the date of the new trial.”
Defense Private Investigator Scott Lewis told VOD that in past innocence cases, the prosecutor’s office has waited months after a judge orders a new trial, before finally declaring that they cannot hold one for various reasons and finally allowing the defendant’s final release.
In the event that the Aug. 28 order is lifted, Judge Hathaway said he would continue continue the hearing until Friday, Sept. 6 at 1:3o pm because Wojtala said he had two other witnesses. They are the jury foreman and an investigator for the prosecution. Wojtala said the investigator delivered a subpoena to Byrnes and discussed the case with her. Byrnes said that the investigator was a friend of her husband’s family and that she thought they were just “having a conversation,” that lasted only a short while.
Darrell Ewing, mother LaSonya Dodson to his left, and sisters.
Byrnes also cited numerous other irregularities she said took place during jury deliberations, including:
An alleged statement by the jury foreman that the jury HAD to bring back a verdict, despite any anyone’s doubts, after Judge Youngblood’s response to the deadlock note.
Other jurors’ statements that they also had seen the photos from Ewing’s Facebook page (Juror Chesny did not bring the actual photos into the deliberations.)
“Once we got into the jury room, it became free to say whatever we wanted to say among the jurors.”—Byrnes.
The jury as a whole felt that since the two defendants were being tried together, if Ewing was guilty, so was Searcy. The jury spent little time deliberating on Searcy’s guilt.
Jurors threatening her that if Ewing and Searcy were released, and the jurors’ children were killed as a result, that she would be responsible.
Jurors did their own research about witness’s testimony that he observed Ewing and Searcy commit the murder from his rear-view mirror, checking what they could see from their rear-view mirrors.
Ewing and Searcy earlier appealed their guilty verdicts on three grounds. They included Judge Youngblood’s failure to give the proper “deadlocked jury” instruction, the extraneous information in jury deliberations, and Tyree Washington’s confession to the killings after trial in an affidavit, as newly discovered evidence. They lost their cases in state Courts and moved on to a habeas corpus appeal in federal courts.
Above is confession by Tyree Washington, taken by P.I. Scott Lewis.
Washington’s confession, above, is to the killing of J.B. Watson after Watson threatened the lives of his girl friend and child, and does not appear to have been “gang-related.”
U.S. District Court Judge Hood, who heard the habeas appeal. vacated the conviction on the second ground only. She noted there had been testimony at trial regarding Washington’s confession, although Washington himself did not appear.
On appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court remanded the case to Hood, who originally ordered a new trial outright. The Sixth Circuit, with one dissenting vote in favor of a new trial, said “The appropriate remedy in such a case, however, is generally to order release unless the State provides—instead of a new trial—a hearing to consider whether a new trial is warranted. Such an order should have been entered by the district court in this case.”
Editor: Author Gary Younge recently published a reflection on the causes of alleged gang-related violence among youth, appropriate here because the jury in this case clearly had pre-conceived notions and biases about Black gangs in particular. Read it at:
Retired DPD Deputy Chief James Younger in 2018 was head of Detroit’s disbanded Gang Squad.
Ex-offenders I have talked with have said that at the time they went to prison, in the mid-’70’s, there were no such things as gangs in Detroit, that they were basically loose affiliations of young people who admittedly stole cars and committed other street crimes.
One juvenile lifer whose case I followed for years in the Michigan Citizen was arrested by Detroit Police Officer James Younger in 1975. Younger later became head of the Detroit Police Gang Squad, disbanded in 2013 due to allegations of corruption and brutality. Younger claimed this teen was a gang leader, a claim discounted by his peers.
Juvenile lifer Charles Lewis, whose case VOD has been following for three and one-half years, was similarly portrayed as a leader of a gang at the time of his arrest in 1976. However, he and his family discount that claim, again saying the alleged gang was a loose affiliation of Black youth in a mostly-white neighborhood rapidly changing due to white flight, stoked by racist real estate “block-busters.
Racist Judges like Thomas Poindexter, who headed the Greater Detroit Homeowners Council, aimed at keeping Blacks out of white neighborhoods also stoked the flames of racisl hate. Lewis’ court-appointed defense attorney Arther Arduin earlier was Poindexter’s campaign manager. Lewis was sentenced to LWOP by another known racist judge Joseph Maher, who unsuccessfully attempted to take famed militant attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr.s’ law license for telling the media that Maher was a racist in community dialect terms.
Lewis is currently awaiting a “mitigation hearing” October 11. Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Dawson stressed his alleged gang roots in a brief calling for him to be re-sentenced to life without parole.
Imam Luqman Abdullah
The history of the Black Panthers and their political education of so-called “gang members” among Black youth is well-known. Former Black Panthers including Jamil El-Amin (H. Rap Brown) formed a national organization, The International Council for Urban Peace, Justice and Empowerment, aimed at continuing this tradition. For this reason, El-Amin was falsely imprisoned for life, and another member of that organization, Detroit’s Imam Luqman Abdullah, was assassinated by the Department of Justice along with Detroit and Dearborn police in 2009.
Powerful video above condemns mass incarceration of Black youth by units like Detroit’s gang squad. Current Detroit police chief James Craig has recently announced that he plans to reconstitute the gang squad and also called for the introduction of murderous tasers into the DPD arsenal.
NOTE: VOD WAS THE ONLY MEDIA OUTLET TO COVER THIS IMPORTANT HEARING. BUT WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO PUBLISH WITHOUT THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT, OF WHATEVER AMOUNT, FROM OUR READERSHIP. EDITOR DIANE BUKOWSKI AND FRIENDS STRUGGLED TO PAY THEIR BILLS, AND WERE FREQUENRLY PENNILESS DURING OUR COVERAGE. THE FRONT BUMPER OF BUKOWSKI’S CAR FELL OFF ON THE WAY TO THIS HEARING.
Donations for the Voice of Detroit are urgently needed to keep this paper, which is published pro bono by folks on extremely limited incomes, going. Among ongoing expenses are quarterly Lunar Pages web host charges of $350, due Sept. 4, costs for court documents, internet fees, office supplies, gas, P.O. Box, etc. Please, if you can:
PROTESTERS OUTSIDE AG NESSEL’S OFFICE MAY 25, 2019 Photo: Christine Abood
A Michigan court tasked with protecting its most vulnerable citizens has become home to a roiling controversy charging abuse, exploitation, robbery and neglect.
Part One of Five: Unacknowledged and Unprotected
By Gretchen Rachel Hammond
Michigan AG Dana Nessel, with MSC Justice Richard Bernstein at left, Justice Megan Cavanagh at right, announces formation of Elder Abuse Task Force May 25, 2019.
In the frigid, early morning of Monday, March 25, 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel held a press conference announcing a taskforce primarily charged with reforming a court system rooted in medieval English law.
According to state and national activists, it’s a system that has been left unchecked for decades and is now so broken that it has led to unprecedented judicial overeach and the eradication of the constitutional, civil and human rights of thousands of Americans who have suffered from resulting neglect, isolation, abuse, torture and theft on a massive scale, allegedly at the hands of the same individuals assigned to protect them.
Both in Michigan and nationwide, the system is called “guardianship” and/or “conservatorship.”
Once assigned to an individual that a probate or family court judge declares “legally incapacitated” and unable to manage their own affairs, often a complete stranger in the form of a court-appointed guardian or conservator assumes control over every aspect of that person’s life.
U.S. Veteran Gayle Robinson, 83, of Westland, Michigan was forced out of the home in which she and her husband raised 10 children and lived for 50 years, and into a nursing home, by Wayne Co. Probate Court.
Every last possession, penny and decision is handed over to one of Michigan’s professional guardians and conservators culled from a pool of county public administrators, estate and probate attorneys or private guardianship companies.
In as little as a year, wards have been rendered completely indigent and reliant upon social services and benefits such as Medicaid. Their homes are gone, as are their savings accounts, IRAs, investment accounts, cars, personal belongings, keepsakes, heirlooms, jewelry and even their clothing. Every dollar of their social security, disability income or pensions falls under the control of their guardians with the exception of an allowance as low as $60 per month.
Inevitably, it’s the developmentally disabled and exponentially growing senior populations who are the most affected not only in Michigan but nationwide. Advocates for both groups claim that guardianship, by design, results in a “civil death” for those who are subjected to it and that, although free from any charges of wrongdoing, a person under guardianship has less rights than an imprisoned felon.
Gayle Robinson at the Montford Marine Corps Black History Month Dinner in 2010.
Pro-guardianship organizations claim such statements are histrionic; that a guardian has simply assumed the rights of an incapacitated individual, also called a “ward,” as a protective barrier against those who would exploit them.
However, across the country, wards and their families have come forward with stories, detailing the brutality and horror of a life under guardianship, that belong more in a ruthless, dystopian autocracy than the American experience. In a country where personal freedoms and the rule of law are sacrosanct, incredulous listeners repeatedly ask, “How can this possibly be true? How can this possibly be legal?”
In Michigan, it is not only legal but shockingly easy for an individual to suddenly find themselves under a guardianship. It is a process that begins with a two-page petition filed in a county probate court with no corroborating medical evidence of incapacity and, often, without the knowledge of the prospective ward or their families.
A Life Sentence
In the hours before Nessel’s press conference started, a small group of these families gathered on the broad sidewalk outside the entrance to her offices in Lansing, Michigan. Among them were retired teachers, artists, business owners and homemakers. Black, white, working- and middle- class, they were staunch Republicans, centrists and far-left Democrats, devout Christians and equally outspoken atheists.
Notorious Guardian/Atty. Mary Rowan (seated in blue) grabs Mailauni Williams’ arm in Wayne Co. Probate Court June 13, 2013. Mailauni was the goddaughter of Rosa Parks. Rowan seized the developmentally disabled young woman; her mother did not know where she was at for weeks and it took her months to regain custody. Photo: Cornell Squires
Once–strangers from wildly different backgrounds, they have been united into a small army fighting a daily war so impossible, so emotionally and financially devastating, that only the tiniest shreds of optimism keep it alive.
Optimism brought them to Nessel’s office, where, huddled together in heavy coats holding signs emblazoned in multicolored lettering, they hoped to finally be heard, believed and for something to be done about what they say is unfettered corruption inside Michigan’s probate courtrooms that has terrorized entire communities, no matter their racial, religious, financial or social backgrounds. Even the families and friends of American icons Aretha Franklin and Rosa Parks have been affected.
Families of individuals under guardianship and conservatorship claim that, during a hearing that typically lasted under four minutes, their loved ones were stripped of their freedom by the state’s probate judges with no due process, no jury present and scant testimony offered via the opinion of a probate and estate attorney who had no medical or psychological training.
Their days are now spent inside a long-term care or assisted living facility, placed in a lockdown ward or hidden behind the front door of group homes both licensed and unlicensed, sometimes in subhuman living conditions. Families assert that it is a life sentence for the innocent in which they are drugged and isolated from those who challenge the presiding judge and appointed guardian by fighting for their loved one’s release.
Present Michigan statute is supposed to protect a ward’s statutory rights, such as the right to request a limit on the guardian’s powers or attend a guardianship hearing,. However, attorneys state that judges are routinely ignoring it. Multiple efforts to strengthen the statute, through legislative recommendations made by successive guardianship and senior taskforces, have failed.
We Don’t Have a Say?
Victoria McCasey of Holly and Randy Asplund of Ann Arbor were among group of protesters outside AG office May 25, 2019.
A freelance artist and illustrator, 58-year-old Randy Asplund (shown in photo at left) has been forbidden from seeing his mother Roberta for the past eight months. During her recovery from brain surgery, a 2017 petition for guardianship and conservatorship was filed against Roberta in Ann Arbor’s Washtenaw County Probate Court.
Presiding Judge Julia B. Owdziej declared Roberta incapacitated and, ultimately placed under the guardianship and conservatorship of her to two estate and probate attorneys.
Roberta remains under their control and has been isolated from her son since November 2018, when he tried to bring a legal challenge against the court’s decision to appoint them. Meanwhile, Asplund says his mother’s home has been stripped and her belongings sold off or trashed. He is presently appealing the case and fighting to stop the sale of her house.
Roberta and Randy Asplund, X-mas 2017
“These are people needing to be investigated, prosecuted and jailed,” Asplund says. “Laws are ignored and violated by the courts. The judges use their power to ensure that professional fiduciaries prevail in court, and the ward is almost never able to escape a guardianship or conservatorship.”
But, on March 25, all that was supposed to change with Nessel’s formation of an Elder Abuse Task Force.
Standing outside Nessel’s office, Asplund and his fellow protestors were met with curious glances by passing members of the media hurrying to the press conference. While Asplund managed to tempt a journalist or photographer into a brief, reluctant conversation, others in the group followed the invited members of the media inside the lobby and begged to be allowed to join the event.
Retired Detroit teacher Christine Abood was among them.
Christine Abood with mother Gloria Sullivan
In 2016, her mother Gloria was placed under the control of Oakland County Public Administrator John Yun who put her in a Novi, Michigan, nursing facility. Abood and her sons say they were unable to be at Gloria’s bedside on the night she died because she had been moved and Yun didn’t know where she was.
“I will never forget that, never,” Abood says. “He was supposed to care for her and he didn’t even know where she’d been moved? Why?”
It was a question Abood raised during a 45-minute back-and-forth argument with Nessel’s staffers, who refused her and the other families access to the press conference. She left the lobby, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
“They told us to watch it on Facebook!” She cried to the others. “This is about our families. We’ve been waiting and pleading for something like this and we can’t be a part of it? We don’t have a say?”
An Unacknowledged Narrative
The only victim of elder abuse who was allowed inside the event to tell his story, and so become a focal point for subsequent media coverage of the announcement, was Dennie Burgio (72) who was robbed of his life savings by a close friend.
Nessel emphasized that the majority of elder abuse was perpetrated at the hands of family and friends, a line later echoed by the state’s pro-guardianship lobbyist, the Michigan Guardianship Association (MGA)
” . . . investigations into alleged abuses perpetrated by probate attorneys acting as court-appointed guardians and conservators were never raised” by Nessel
Flanked by Michigan Supreme Court Justices Richard Bernstein and Megan Cavanaugh, Nessel announced nine initial reforms of Michigan’s guardianship system. However, investigations into alleged abuses perpetrated by probate attorneys acting as court-appointed guardians and conservators were never raised. Neither Bernstein nor Cavanaugh raised the prospect of Judicial Tenure Commision investigations into the actions of probate judges.
This, despite the families of those victims having called and emailed both Nessel’s office and that of her predecessors to alert them, as well as filing complaints with both the Michigan Attorney Grievance and Judicial Tenure Commissions.
Milton Mack, now head of SCAO, controls courts state-wide; he was originally head of scandal-plagued Wayne Co. Probate Court, a chief actor in abuse by guardians.
Their complaints, the families assert, were ignored or dismissed; part of an agonizing cycle during which they have been routinely brushed aside not only by the Attorney General’s office but local police, county prosecutors, the State Court Administrator, the Detroit office of the Department of Justice and even local media outlets.
“They tell us to ‘get an attorney,’”Abood says.
It is something easier said than done and, according to national advocates, a challenge common to most families fighting probate cases across the country.
“I’ve been told by local attorneys [that] they wouldn’t take my case because the corruption is too much to prevail,” Asplund notes. “I had to go from Ann Arbor to Lansing to find an attorney who did not usually appear in front of my judge or who relied on the court for business.”
Perplexed as to why they were not invited to the press conference, Asplund, Abood and the rest of the families gathered their collective optimism around an iPhone with the clearest signal and cheered when Nessel pledged that the Taskforce would reform the way the Michigan’s probate courts treat the state’s most vulnerable.
“We know what the problems are,” Nessel said. “So much of being able to cure the problem is to be able to better identify it, how often it’s happening and where.”
But that was far from the end of the story.
The Oakland County Fortress
OAKLAND COUNTY PROBATE COURT, 1200 NORTH TELEGRAPH, PONTIAC, MI
It’s never a good idea to be running late on a Wednesday at The Oakland County Sixth Circuit and Probate Courts, both housed in a stark complex of white and beige structures on 1200 North Telegraph in the Detroit, Michigan, suburb of Pontiac.
On ritualistically called “Motion Days,” each courtroom has a hefty tally of cases that can be called and over in just a few minutes—far quicker than it takes to get inside what local historians once described as a “fortress.”
With the exception of jurors, employees and attorneys, cell phones or recording devices are strictly forbidden. Videos of probate court proceedings must be ordered in advance and can only be watched in the court’s administrative offices. Probate court documents are not subject to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and can only be reviewed at the court’s sole public computer or purchased at the cost of $1-per-page plus a service fee.
Behind its walls to public access, Oakland County Probate Court Chief Judge Kathleen A. Ryan, and Judges Linda S. Hallmark, Daniel A. O’Brien and Jennifer Callaghan rule on a list of issues including adult guardianships/conservatorships for incapacitated individuals.
Although in the same building as the Sixth Circuit, their courtrooms operate autonomously from it and with little or no oversight, with the exception of rulings occasionally overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals. Despite some of those cases revealing shocking judicial actions, in the last 30 years, there have been no formal investigations of an Oakland County Probate Court judge.
True to its description, the court has been as unassailable as the majority of decisions made with a single stroke of a judge’s pen on an order finding a person to be legally incapacitated.
According to the wards, their family members, attorneys, and local and national advocates who were interviewed for this investigation, the consequences of that order are devastating and lifelong.
Lunatics and Idiots
The practice of guardianship has been traced back to 1270 England, when King Henry III “assumed control over the estates of lunatics and idiots.”
As with other laws exported to former British colonies that are still practiced in some form, although the language has changed, the basic principles of guardianship in the United States remain the same, and it is a system about which the majority of Americans remain hopelessly uneducated.
Individuals who are declared incapacitated by civil, family and probate court judges across the US are forced to cede their lives to an authority figure who takes complete control of their homes, mail, bank accounts, retirement and social security income, IRAs, life and health insurance, wills and trusts, property, passports, driver’s licenses and voter registration cards.
Rebecca Fierle, Guardian “angel of death”
He or she also dictates where a ward will live, whether they can own a cellphone or a computer, where they may or may not go, who they are and are not allowed to see and what they are or are not allowed to eat.
In fact, any personal, professional and medical decisions are no longer legally the ward’s own, including requests to doctors to dispense or withhold medication, and whether a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order should be enabled and enforced.
Such unilateral power has proven to be ripe for abuse.
In Florida, professional guardian Rebecca Fierle was recently accused of executing DNR orders on her wards without the knowledge or consent of her wards or their family members. One of her wards died of starvation after his feeding tube was capped off.
Marcia Southwick is a Director of the National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse (NASGA). See https://stopguardianabuse.org/.
“It should be blatantly obvious to all who approve of this very old and very entrenched system that such overarching authority should be closely monitored to ensure that wards are safe,” she says. “However, that is not the case. Based on flimsy ‘evidence,’ a person can lose his or her fundamental rights to liberty and property and be handed off to a professional who isn’t monitored or held sufficiently accountable for the welfare of the ward and their assets.”
“A Corrupt Game”
Under Michigan statute, an incapacitated individual is someone who “By reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, or other cause, [lacks] sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate informed decisions.”
A guardian is responsible for the ward’s care, custody and control. A conservator (or fiduciary), handles finances and decisions regarding assets that include managing income, real estate, savings and investments. Both positions are granted a substantial list of powers and can be given to a sole individual.
Michigan gives family members priority over court-appointed guardians who are either estate and probate attorneys, populating one of the largest sections of the State Bar of Michigan (SBM) or private guardianship companies. They are only supposed to step in only when a judge determines that family members or individuals listed on a potential ward’s Durable Power of Attorney documents are unable, unwilling or unsuitable to fill the role.
Some attorneys are appointed as County Public Administrators by the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Primary to their job description is to act as representatives to the estates of deceased individuals where there are no discernable heirs. Nowhere in their job description is it stated that they can act as guardians and conservators.
Yet, Oakland County maintains a present list of 13 public administrators who do just that.
Congratulating Oakland County Probate Court Chief Judge Kathleen A. Ryan (second from right) at the Spring Conference were (left to right) Georgia Callis, vice president, Michigan Guardianship Association; State Court Administrator Milton Mack Jr.; and Amy Katz, president. Michigan GuardianshipAssociation.
In its last statewide caseload statistics for 2018, the Michigan State Supreme Court listed a total of 60,712 adults and developmentally disabled individuals under guardianship and 10,912 adults with a conservator.
With the exception of Veterans (limited to ten), the number of wards each guardian can have is not mandated by state law and varies depending on the size of the county. However, figures which have showed one guardian or guardianship company with over 400 wards caused Nessel’s Elder Abuse Task Force to propose limits, a measure the Michigan Guardianship Association announced they intend to fight.
As of December 31, 2018, the Oakland County Probate Court had 7,064 open adult and developmentally disabled guardianship cases and 1,417 conservatorships.
A guardianship and/or conservatorship in Michigan begins when a petition is filed in a probate court. The two-page document can be filed by anyone, such as a relative, spouse, friend or neighbor of a prospective ward as well as an outside agency including Michigan’s Adult Protective Services (APS), a nursing facility or hospital. Once filed, the probate court contracts and assigns a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) to investigate and determine what actions are in his/her best interests.
In Oakland County, the GAL is an estate and probate attorney who not only files and verbally delivers a report to a judge but acts as a surrogate prosecutor questioning witnesses and cross- examining wards and family members, regardless of whether they are represented by an attorney.
For their services, GALs are paid directly from the ward’s estate.
One guardianship and conservatorship case was decided in O’Brien’s packed and stuffy courtroom on the Motion Day falling on October 10, 2018.
Matthew Martin, Senior Care Network
By the time the case number was called, it was close to lunch and O’Brien had grown increasingly impatient, sternly telling any quibbling attorneys or litigants to “move it along.”
The case was a contested hearing to settle the future of 76-year-old John. For privacy reasons, his last name has been excluded.
The petitioner was Matthew Martin, an external case manager for the Northville, Michigan- based care management company Senior Care Network, an organization which regularly files Oakland County guardianship petitions, who claimed John needed 24-hour care and “assistance applying for Medicaid.”
In delivering his findings as John’s GAL, estate and probate attorney Drew Carnwath recommended that O’Brien assign a public administrator to act as John’s guardian.
O’Brien asked Carnwath to recommend one himself.
Since that was a decision usually made by a judge, Carnwath was confused. “Well, I …” he began.
O’Brien interrupted. “So I don’t get accused of being in on some sort of corrupt game.”
Media-Assisted Accountability
In 1987, an Associated Press investigation of guardianship practices in all 50 states first uncovered what it described as a “burdened and troubled system that regularly puts elderly lives in the hands of others with little or no evidence of necessity, then fails to guard against abuse, theft and neglect.”
In the more than three decades since, it is invariably local journalists, rather than state or federal law enforcement agencies, who have taken the pleas of wards or families allegedly victimized by private or public guardians seriously and launched their own investigations.
In Nevada,New Mexico, New York, Florida,Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and California, to name a few, shocking cases have emerged that, together, form an almost identical pattern of behavior. In exercising their powers of protection, guardians and conservators have forced individuals and even couples from their homes and into nursing or assisted living facilities.
Estates that were once worth millions are systematically drained through massive over-billing, unreported expenses or outright theft. Homes in which wards have lived and raised a family for decades are seized and looted by the state. Guardian accountability and reporting requirements, inconsistent from state to state, are not properly followed or disregarded entirely.
Litigation costs for families are colossal and can stretch into years. When families try to seek help from local law enforcement, a city prosecutor, Attorney General or Department of Justice (DOJ) office, they’re sent packing.
Concerning History
Atty. Alan A. May
As part of the 1987 Associated Press investigation in Michigan, journalist Mark Fritz concluded that “Many of Michigan’s elderly people are being stripped of their homes, their incomes and their most basic rights under a misused and poorly monitored legal process that varies wildly in the state’s 83 counties.”
During a brief interview with Fritz, then–Southfield Michigan attorney Alan A. May admitted to “little personal contact” with his 400 wards.
“That is not a knock. That is a truth. There is very little visitation,” May said at the time.
May is currently a shareholder at the Troy, Michigan, law firm of Kemp Klein, a number of whose former attorneys have taken or presently take on cases at the Oakland County Probate Court, including Barbara Andruccioli, Jon B. Munger and Thomas Brennan Fraser.
All three have troubled pasts.
In November 2016, Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ journalist Heather Catallo launched a year- long investigation into Andruccioli and then–Macomb County Public Administrator Cecil St. Pierre, during which it was alleged that they had partnered with Utica, Michigan, realtor Ralph Roberts in order to open probate cases on deceased estates without notifying the next-of-kin.
Although not included in WXYZ’s investigation, in 2015 Munger was listed as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in Macomb County District Court in which it was alleged that he had been retained by Roberts to open up a probate case on the deceased estate of Helen Ann Adolph. According to the plaintiffs, Munger’s subsequent sale of Adolph’s home was not approved by the probate court.
Jon Munger
Andruccioli and Munger were subsequently fired from their roles as public administrators by the Attorney General’s office. St. Pierre was suspended and then resigned.
To date, no criminal charges have been filed.
Munger is still accepting guardianship, conservatorship and deceased estate cases at the Oakland County Probate Court. Roberts and St. Pierre are also still in business. Without explanation, Andruccioli was hired by all four judges as the Oakland County Probate Court Register and paid the highest possible salary of $102,650.
In October 2017, WXYZ aired a short series looking into Fraser’s activities as guardian and conservator, highlighting the billing and treatment of his wards. Ex-Parte motions (emergency and temporary petitions and orders filed without notifying the opposing party) were entered with O’Brien in an attempt to stop the story and any images of the alleged victims’ faces. After an Emergency Appeal was filed with the Michigan Court of Appeals, WXYZ prevailed on First Amendment grounds.
Scorched Earth Litigation
In June 2018, the online national magazine Tablet published an investigation into Munger who, two years earlier, had been given guardianship and conservatorship over a then–92-year-old Oak Park, Michigan, woman Virginia Wahab.
Plaintiff Mimi Wahab Brun with her mother Virginia “Jean” Wahab. Mrs. Wahab passed away in April, 2019 after a two-year ordeal in the Lourdes Nursing Home, which held her against her will. Visits with her daughter were barred
The petition was filed with Oakland County Judge Linda S. Hallmark by a social worker for Lourdes Senior Community, the short-term nursing and rehabilitation center at which Wahab was receiving treatment. Lourdes sought the guardianship because of a $32,000 past-due-bill.
Michigan law does not provide for the use of a probate court as a collection agency.
During her more than two-year fight to regain custody of her mother, Wahab’s daughter Mimi Brun claimed she was denied visitation rights, had a warrant issued by Hallmark for her arrest and filed three reports with the local police department asserting that Munger had illegally entered her mother’s home and looted it.
After the story was published, a July 30, 2018 bench trial on Brun’s petition to terminate the guardianship and conservatorship of Munger was presided over by Hallmark. During a day-long deposition, Munger was asked how many times he had been appointed as a guardian.
“Several thousand,” he replied, but could not precisely cite the Michigan statute under which a guardian is considered necessary.
He admitted to entering Wahab’s home to look for “Information about ownership, assets, bills, any of the above” and to taking a painting that was hanging on Wahab’s wall.
“It’s very colorful. I walk around it every day in my office,” Munger noted. When asked if he had seen his ward lately, Munger replied, “In 2018, I doubt it.”
He also admitted that he hadn’t reviewed Wahab’s medical records since his first visit in 2016.
After a second day of testimony, the trial was adjourned. Before it could resume, Hallmark issued an August 3 opinion and order terminating Munger as guardian and conservator.
“Mr. Munger has satisfactorily provided care, control and custody of Ms. Wahab,” Hallmark wrote. “In all of these matters, Mimi Brun has interfered with Mr. Munger using misinformation, obfuscation and self-dealing. She has engaged in scorched earth litigation. Ms. Brun has demonstrated a complete lack of authority because she believes herself to be the victim.”
“The litigation in this matter has been ongoing for two years,” Hallmark concluded. “The financial and emotional costs to the ward have been significant. It is not in the ward’s best interests for the litigation to continue. Her assets have been depletedbut remain with the family.”
This was the pleasant Oak Park home and neighborhood Virginia Wahab was kidnapped from.
Wahab was returned to her Oak Park Home. She remained under Brun’s care until she passed away in April 2019.
One month later, Brun filed a lawsuit against Lourdes alleging that the facility falsely imprisoned and ransomed her mother. Lourdes has since filed a Motion to Dismiss and asked for punitive sanctions against Brun and her attorney. That case is presently pending.
The Consequences of Talking
Families claim there are very few Michigan attorneys who are willing to take their cases against an Oakland County Public Administrator, and that those who do charge retainers that are far out of a family’s reach.
The Oakland County Probate Court has a reputation that’s no secret to attorneys practicing Michigan estate and probate law. Those who agreed to talk about the court admitted to a pervasive fear of openly criticizing any of the four judges or Oakland County Public Administrators. The attorneys claim that making such a challenge, whether in court or in public, can lead to sanctions placed against them or the possible removal of their license by Michigan’s Attorney Discipline Board.
One attorney, who has defended wards and families in front of Hallmark and O’Brien, spoke on condition of anonymity and was given the alias “Paul.”
“I knew of one client who has been through 60 separate attorneys, none of whom would help her,” he says. “I’ve heard from clients whose previous attorneys were threatened.”
While threats do not deter him from taking on Oakland County Probate Court cases, there have been consequences.
Thomas Brennan Fraser
“The judges have been sanctioning me for no reason,” Paul asserts. “I had not been sanctioned in my entire career. I’m trying to enforce the law or the court rules, I always have my briefs filed and they don’t care. They don’t care about the law. They don’t care about the facts.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is—an accounting, a petition to enter a home—it’s the same,” he adds. “I’m the one who’s going to be punished because I’m challenging the judge’s appointees, who they are going to protect no matter what. It’s so obvious to me. Their appointees can’t do anything wrong no matter how egregious it is.”
Paul recalls a case in front of O’Brien during which he demonstrated proof that Thomas Brennan Fraser had committed fraud against his client.
“Judge O’Brien said, on the record, ‘Don’t ever mention that again!” he remembers. “He didn’t say why.”
“The duty of the court is to protect the ward,” Paul concludes. “These are standards that have been codified in writing, but they are breeched on a regular basis. The judges should know, for example, how many wards each public administrator has and, if they have too many, are responsible for finding somebody else. But the judges aren’t paying any attention.”
Wards in the Thousands
Four of the most prolific Oakland County guardians and conservators are Munger, Fraser and Oakland County Public Administrators Jennifer Carney and John Yun.
Between them, they have a total of 4,669 open and closed adult and developmentally disabled guardianship and conservatorship cases.
As of August 1, 2019, their combined open caseload was 1,704.
TOTAL NUMBER OF ADULT AND DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED GUARDIANSHIP AND CONSERVATORSHIP CASES– HISTORIC
TOTAL NO. ADULT AND DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED GUARDIANSHIP & CONSERVATORSHIP CASES CLOSED/ADJUDICATED
Under Michigan Statute, a guardian has a “Duty to make provision for the ward’s care, comfort, and maintenance and, when appropriate, arrange for the ward’s training and education.” A conservator must “Preserve assets and to expend them for the support, education, care, and benefit of the individual and his or her dependents.”
Can four individuals, each with a limited number of staff members, ensure that those duties are being adequately maintained?
“It’s not possible,” Paul says. “In Munger’s case, that’s why he doesn’t see his own wards, or he sends a staff member with no training at all. If you have 500 people and your interest is to get their home and pay yourself, why would you care about the ward? In my view, all he cares about are ‘where are her assets? How can I sell them? How much money can I get?’”
Public administrators who are assigned as guardians and/or conservators take their attorney and fiduciary fees out of a ward’s estate, with every action they make on the ward’s behalf—from making a phone call to listening to a voicemail—billed at an hourly rate. For example, Fraser bills at $245 per hour. Professional guardians also receive $83 per month per ward on Medicaid, which is taken out of the money received by a nursing facility. The Michigan Guardianship Association has consistently lobbied for an increase, claiming that $83-per-month is not enough given the gargantuan task of assuming the life of another person.
Paul says the responsibility is so enormous that guardians with more than 400 wards serve the guardians themselves rather than their wards.
“When you care for another human being, it’s all day, every day,” Paul asserts. “He also has a law practice and an office to run. He has a family life. So, where’s he going to find time to care for the ward? The guardians, themselves, have a duty, as an attorney under the Code of Professional Conduct, to say, “Look, I’ve got 500 people under my care, I’ve got four staff members in my law firm. I can’t take on any more clients. I can’t do [them] justice.”
Petitioning into the Fortress
According to the University of Michigan, “Courts view guardianships as a last resort because the ability of the person to make basic decisions about his or her care, treatment, or living arrangements is being taken away.”
It raises the question as to why Oakland County guardians and conservators have so many wards.
This investigation reviewed 2,278 open and closed cases belonging to Munger, Yun, Carney and Fraser presided over by Hallmark, O’Brien, Callaghan, Ryan and former Oakland County Probate Court Judge Elizabeth Pezzetti.
With two exceptions, each of the cases were the result of guardianship and conservatorship petitions filed by social workers or representatives of outside agencies, including APS investigators, the Senior Care Network, hospital and nursing facility social workers, attorneys and accounts receivables managers.
Of the petitions, the majority were filed by ten APS investigators.
The Senior Care Network is a care management organization. Among its services is assistance filing for guardianship and conservatorship, for which the organization utilizes a dedicated social worker, Matthew Martin.
The petitioner must note “Specific facts about the adult’s recent or condition or conduct” that leads to them to believe a guardian and/or conservator are needed.
In 95 percent of cases, petitioner answers were summarized in one or two vague sentences, or an attached paragraph, noting mental or physical ailments such as dementia, confusion, memory problems, bipolar, diabetes, depression, physical mobility and hoarding.
Other, less specific examples included:
“Mental health hinders ability to maintain employment and make informed decisions or manage her own finances.”
“Joint weakness and mobility issues in apartment. Has issues with hoarding.” “Altered mental status.”
“Non-engagement in mental health services.”
“Does not make sound decisions re: physical health and finances.” “He is declining medication. Lack of insight into his diagnosis.” “A lack of civilization.”
“Patient came in for dizziness and confusion. Incompetent to make decisions for medical care.”
“DPOA will not provide information needed for Medicaid application to nursing facility.” “Family has not paid facility bills and there are other outstanding bills.”
The overwhelming majority of petitions (98 percent) were not corroborated by any evidence, whether in the form of an official diagnosis from a doctor or a medical history.
The Powerless Power of Attorney
Probate Court petition
On the first page of the petition, there is an opportunity to identify any individuals the perspective ward identified in estate planning documents such as holders of a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) or Patient Advocacy Designation. According to Michigan statute, such an individual has priority over the appointment of a professional guardian or conservator.
Only 15 percent of petitions made note of anyone named in an estate planning document.
In those cases where such individuals were identified, they were either not present at the initial hearing, or the petitioner claimed they were unsuitable without offering any evidence to substantiate why. The presiding judge then tossed out or invalidated the documents, and guardianship and conservatorship was given to Munger, Yun, Fraser or Carney.
There were also cases in which the holder of a DPOA was also placed under guardianship.
In 2016, Martin and the Senior Care Network petitioned for the guardianship of a then–83-year- old Clarkston, Michigan, woman named Doreen who was a resident of a Lake Orion long-term care facility.
The petition noted her husband Ralph as the holder of her DPOA and added, “DPOA will not provide information necessary for Medicaid App. to nursing facility.”
Presiding Judge Hallmark gave temporary guardianship of Doreen to Carney.
One month later, while Doreen’s full guardianship case was pending, Carney petitioned for guardianship of Ralph, stating that he had “Difficulty with memory and comprehension” and added that his Veteran’s Administration benefits needed to be managed.
Hallmark ultimately gave guardianship of Ralph to Fraser.
The Missing Family
Page two of the guardianship petition includes an available box in which to list any of the ward’s known family members. Like the holders of a DPOA, family members have statutory priority over the appointment of a professional guardian.
In 65 percent of occasions where none was noted on a petition, the ward did, in fact, turn out to have a family.
Such was the case of a then 69-year-old Pontiac woman named Cynthia. In the petition for guardianship, an APS investigator alleged that Cynthia suffered from “three strokes, psychosis mania, expressive aphissa [sic] and is often paranoid that people are after her.”
While acknowledging that Cynthia did have a married couple who held her Power of Attorney, the investigator noted that they weren’t “Able to assist her anymore.” The box notating families was referred to the “Attorney General.”
Similarly, a three-paragraph report filed by Cynthia’s Guardian ad Litem insisted that she “Has no family and lives alone.”
However, Cynthia had an adult daughter, Heidi who filed a petition to terminate her mother’s guardianship three months after O’Brien had assigned Carney to the position.
In an accompanying brief, Heidi stated that she had not been not served the initial petition or any notice prior to her mother’s guardianship hearing. Why neither APS nor the Guardian ad Litem identified the fact that Cynthia had family is unknown.
Suitably Trained Investigators?
Such glaring errors in a petition, alongside claims of incapacity made without corroborating medical evidence, raise the question as to whether social workers, such as APS investigators, have been properly trained before conducting an investigation of a potential adult ward.
Dr. Peter Lichtenberg, PhD., is a Clinical Geropsychologist, Professor of Psychology at Detroit’s Wayne State University and Director of the Institute of Gerontology.
Dr. Peter Lichtenberg with older clients at WSU Institute of Gerontology.
“I’ve been working very closely with APS supervisors and staff over the last four years,” he says. “I found that, like all people who enter the caring profession, there’s a lot of talent and skill. There are huge caseload burdens. Often, [investigators] come from Child Protective Services [CPS] or domestic violence. So, they’re coming in at a deficit in terms of understanding geriatric issues.”
“It takes a lot of experience and it takes a team approach,” he adds. “Unfortunately, these workers are out there investigating a case under a time pressure and by themselves.”
In a 2016 petition for the guardianship of a then–88-year-old Korean War veteran named Raymond, an APS investigator claimed that he “Suffers from memory loss. He is not able to manage medications. He is not able to handle his daily living skills.”
However, according to Raymond’s Guardian ad Litem, his attending nurse stated that “She did not understand why APS was involved in this case or why an emergency petition was filed. It is [her] professional opinion that there is not a need for an emergency appointment of a guardian.”
Presiding Judge Ryan did not concur and appointed Carney.
The Guardian ad Litem
Seventy percent of cases reviewed began with an Emergency Petition for Guardianship.
This meant that Yun, Munger, Carney or Fraser were appointed to the role of temporary guardian on the same day the petition was filed or shortly afterwards. Coinciding emergency petitions for conservatorship have also been granted. The prospective ward was neither given notice nor an explanation of their rights under Michigan law before being placed under their control.
Gaurdian Ad Litem report that notes client does NOT want guardian and wants to know how to petition to remove the guardian.
Ordinarily, those rights are explained to the prospective ward during a personal visit from a GAL.
They include the right to contest the petition, to be present at the hearing, to be represented by legal counsel and to request limits on the guardian’s powers.
William Spern, atty. GAL
In a written report, which must be filed no later than 24 hours prior to a guardianship hearing, the GAL is instructed to note whether there are alternatives to the appointment of a full guardian, if the proposed ward wishes to exercise their right to contest the petition and be present at the hearing, or whether there are any objections to the execution of a DNR. The report should conclude with a GAL’s recommendations, either for the appointment of a guardian and/or conservator, or for a contested hearing.
In 100 percent of the 2,278 cases reviewed, the GAL was an estate or probate attorney with no discernable psychological or medical background.
Nevertheless, GAL reports—which varied anywhere from a five-page, detailed investigation to a few paragraphs to no narrative at all—included the GAL’s own determination of a potential ward’s incapacity.
In numerous cases, a GAL concurred with a guardianship petition, claiming that the proposed ward had some form of dementia or memory impairment, if they could not answer one or all of four questions pertaining to the date, their birthday, the day of the week and the name of the US President.
“Nobody can ask four questions and determine whether someone has capacity or not,” Dr.
Lichtenberg says. “Ideally, [a GAL] would join forces with somebody who has a background like mine where they would get a good assessment of cognitive strengths, weaknesses, mental health problems and try to apply those to the legal standards.”
Objecting but Not Present
Curiously, in 97 percent of the occasions when a potential ward emphatically voiced objections to a guardianship, the GAL also claimed that the individual waived their right to be present at the guardianship hearing.
A Director of Nursing for multiple long-term care nursing facilities for over two decades, “Gladys” requested an alias be used.
“We have patients and residents who come in who have Medicare, which provides for a 20-day stay at a long-term facility,” she says. “If they are still in need of care, you will see a petition go out for temporary guardianship. The [GAL] will visit for all of five minutes, if that. They will say they are from the court and ask me or a nurse caring for the patient to sign off on their visit.”
“Half the time, the patient may not know what’s going on because they don’t tell the patient anything,” she adds. “After a visit, I’ve gone in and asked the patient, ‘What did they say?’ The patient tells me, ‘I don’t know, they said they were a lawyer.’ Then, I say, “Did they ask you anything?’ and the patient says, ‘No.’”
Gladys emphasizes that “A lot of times, [GALs] don’t even see the patient because the patient is in physical therapy and they don’t want to wait that long.”
Lawyering Up
Even when the GAL recommends a contested hearing or, on rare occasions that the petition be denied, it does not mean an individual targeted for guardianship is out of the woods, something particularly true in cases involving APS.
When a contested hearing is recommended, the presiding judge orders an Independent Medical Examination (IME) to be conducted on the prospective ward and appoints legal counsel. The court has published a roster of 14 Michigan-based psychologists who “Have expressed interest in doing independent evaluations for Oakland County Court proceedings.”
However, in 97 percent of IME orders reviewed, only three doctors were regularly used, as well as one attorney who also is a “limited-license psychologist.” The results of these examinations are not made part of the public record. Judges such as Ryan have consistently ordered them to be “Faxed directly to chambers.”
Meanwhile APS invariably lawyered-up in advance of the hearing.
One of the attorneys they typically use, Heidi Aull, is employed by former public administrator Cecil St. Pierre, who resigned from the position in 2017 after WXYZ’s investigation into the opening of deceased estates without notifying next of kin. APS has also been represented by a lawyer assigned from the Michigan Attorney General’s office.
The ward, on the other hand, is usually provided legal counsel from the same pool as the Oakland County GALs.
Contested hearings involving APS always resulted in guardianship.
A 2015 petition filed by an APS investigator against a then-84-year-old White Lake, Michigan, woman named Betty asserted that the “Proposed ward’s spouse died in 2013. No children. Home is paid off. No other family. Ward has signed papers and doesn’t remember what she signed. Doesn’t always know what she has done with her money.”
Betty’s GAL reported to the court that she was “A pleasure to spend time with, knows what is going on with her money and where it goes. [Betty] is doing exactly what she wants with her environment and I argue on her behalf that [neither] this Honorable Court nor the Department of Human Services-Adult Protective Services should intrude in it.”
Presiding Judge O’Brien ordered a contested hearing for which APS retained a Special Assistant Attorney General.
After the hearing, O’Brien appointed Fraser as Betty’s full guardian. Two months later, Betty wrote a letter to the judge.
“I am sorry to report that I have [had] no word from Mr. Fraser since he first advised me he was my full guardian,” she asserted. “I don’t know if I get an allowance. I have a small dollar amount in my account I assume is no longer mine. I’m lost. My medications come in the mail and have not been forwarded to me. I need them! Please advise me what to do.”
By 2018, Fraser had moved Betty to a nursing home. In an account the public administrator filed that year, between patient pay and his own legal fees, he had spent all but $367 of Betty’s annual $20,000 social security income.
Double Standards
Guardianship and conservatorship cases at Oakland County rarely have a happy ending. With few attorneys willing to take on their cases at an affordable rate, families often enter the Oakland County Probate Court unrepresented by an attorney (pro se). Since these are civil cases, the family does not have access to a public defender and, they claim, legal aid organizations are either unresponsive or unwilling to assist.
Without knowing their rights under Michigan statute or all 61-pages-worth of Michigan court procedures, families enter hearings at a marked disadvantage and without a clue as to what to expect.
Requests for interviews concerning the Oakland County Probate Court made by this investigation to legal aid organizations, both inside and outside the county, went unanswered. The Detroit office of the ACLU declined without noting a reason.
In numerous cases observed over successive Motion Days, although Ryan at least attempted a modicum of empathy, families appearing pro se were bullied and berated by Callaghan,
Hallmark and O’Brien, who not only held families to the same standard as the public administrators but, in some cases, gave them far less latitude.
For example, at no time was a public administrator admonished for being late for a hearing.
Nancy Haddock’s eventual fate as ward.
Conversely, family members who do not appear on time can lose their case because of it. When they push back, they are threatened with Contempt of Court or the judge calls in the Oakland County sheriffs who threaten removal and/or arrest.
Catherine Haddock, the daughter of 76-year-old Yun ward Nancy Haddock, states that, before the first hearing on her 2016 petition for the guardianship and conservatorship of her mother, a member of Hallmark’s staff warned her that Hallmark would never allow Catherine to be a conservator owing to bankruptcy on her public record.
She says she was encouraged to accept a public administrator instead.
While such a determination by Hallmark falls under judicial discretion, court records show that Carney filed for Chapter Seven Bankruptcy in December 2010.
The Fight of Their Lives
Pauline in her 20’s/Family photo
Once a guardianship and/or conservatorship case against an individual is set into motion, both the wards and their families end up in the fight of their lives.
Since the case is still in litigation, the niece of a Bloomfield Hills woman, who was placed under Carney’s guardianship in January 2018, asked that both she and her aunt be identified using an alias.
According to her niece Marie, Pauline was born in 1922 in a small town in the Kentucky Appalachians. Orphaned during the Depression, she was separated from her siblings and sent to stay with relatives in Michigan.
Pauline graduated high school early and had been a secretary at the Dearborn “Glass House” headquarters of the Ford Motor Company for only a year before she was selected, out of 300 of her peers, to become the first female Executive Secretary to the company’s Vice President.
She fell in love with and married a local businessman who surprised her by purchasing a lot in Bloomfield Hills and building a magnificent home upon it. Pauline’s husband died of a sudden heart attack in 1973. The couple had no children, and a heartbroken Pauline never remarried but lived alone in the home they built together until 2018.
As Marie grew up, she and her aunt became “Extremely close, like a mother and daughter,” Marie says. “She was vibrant, proud of where she came from and where she ended up and she was very independent. Even in 2017, she was raking her own leaves.”
However, by January 2018 and at the age of 96, macular degeneration left Pauline partially blind. According to Marie, she was also prone to bouts of anxiety.
The Life-Altering Phone Call
Pauline prior to guardianship/Family photo
Since Pauline’s vision left her unable to dial her phone accurately, Marie recalls that “One early morning, my aunt crossed the street to ask a neighbor [to] call her friend. Another neighbor drove by and saw her and called the police. The neighbor told the police that she found Pauline wandering the streets. That just wasn’t true.”
Pauline was transported by the police to St. Joseph’s Mercy hospital and diagnosed with a Urinary Tract Infection. At the time, Marie was still living in Kentucky.
On March 2, 2018, Martin and the Senior Care Network filed an emergency petition for guardianship in the Oakland County Probate Court against Pauline. It made no mention of any family and specifically requested Carney as Pauline’s guardian. She was appointed as a temporary guardian by presiding Judge Hallmark at a March 7 hearing.
Neither Marie nor Pauline were present.
However, Pauline certainly understood that something had happened to her involving the court. On the day Carney was assigned, Pauline called her niece in a tearful panic begging her to come to Michigan immediately. Marie then reached out to Carney’s office and spoke with an assistant.
Oakland Co. Public Administator Jennifer Carney.
“I told her that I had stayed with my aunt for 20 months when she had gallbladder surgery, that I was perfectly happy to take care of her again and that my aunt wanted me to,” Marie says. “But I was told that [Carney] needed to do some more investigation. All Carney had to do was run a background check on me and tell the court that I was willing to look after my aunt, but she didn’t consider any of that. Carney had made up her mind that she was going to be my aunt’s guardian and there was nothing I could do about it.”
Medicaid and Medilodge
In Michigan, an unmarried person does not qualify for long-term Medicaid assistance if they have over $2,000 in countable assets (cash, stocks, bonds, investments, credit union, savings, and checking accounts).
Inventories filed by Carney in May and June 2018 listed Pauline’s assets as a $307,580 home, a 2003 Jaguar, which the public administrator valued at $3,900, a $73,313.30 checking account balance and $11,124.96 in shares. According to Carney’s own accounting, only one day after she had been appointed as temporary guardian, she charged Pauline’s estate $84 to “Prepare and submit [an] initial Medicaid application.”
Carney’s office subsequently received notification from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) stating that Pauline had been approved for Medicaid benefits that were also retroactive.
As soon as Marie arrived at her aunt’s hospital bedroom, she called Carney’s office again. This time, she was able to get the public administrator on the phone.
“I told her that I wanted to take my aunt home,” Marie recalls. “She told me, ‘No, you can’t do that. We’re going to put her in Medilodge until we get it straightened out. I didn’t know anything about the place.”
Calling itself a “leading provider of long-term skilled nursing care and short-term rehabilitation solutions,” Medilodge operates at least 50 facilities across Michigan, and not all with flyingcolors.
In 2017, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) determined seven deficiencies at the Medilodge facility in Southfield that included inadequate records of food served at the facility, medical equipment stored in patient shower rooms and an untrained staff member. A FOIA request to the MDHHS revealed that, between 2016 and 2018, Medilodge of Southfield received almost $30 million in patient Medicaid disbursements.
It was in that facility’s lockdown ward that Carney told Marie she was placing her aunt. Marie had to break the news to Pauline in her St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital room the night before she was to be discharged to Medilodge.
‘She started crying, shaking, she was having an anxiety attack,” Marie recalls. “She’d never lived anywhere else but her home. She didn’t want people undressing her and taking her belongings.”
When Marie saw the facility herself, she says, “I just died inside.”
“The place was a dump,” she adds. “It smelt horrible. My aunt was sharing a small room with someone else. She didn’t want me to leave her there, so I laid down next to her.”
Injuries to Pauline’s back after fall at Medilodge.
At 2 am, the facility director told Marie to leave. Even though she always stayed at Pauline’s home whenever she visited, Marie said that Carney was emphatic in forbidding her to do so and had changed the locks to the house.
Tossed out of Medilodge and with nowhere to go, Marie spent a sleepless night parked in a Walmart lot worried sick about her aunt. The following day, she received a call from Medilodge informing her that there had been an “incident” involving Pauline. Marie rushed to see her.
“My aunt had contusions on her head, bruises on her chest and arms. It looked really bad,” Marie says. “She told me that her roommate had come up behind her, hit her and shoved her down. Her head hit the metal heater in the room. The cut on her head never healed.”
“Carney told me it was not a big deal,” Marie remembers. “I said, ‘It’s a big deal to me!’”
After more incidents at Medilodge, Marie decided enough was enough and began to call attorneys across Oakland County. No one would take her case.
“They told me that if a judge had assigned someone as a guardian in Oakland County, there was nothing I could do,” she states.
Fighting Back
Marie began to do her own research. Armed with a little more knowledge, she filed petitions to replace Carney with herself as Pauline’s guardian and conservator. Pauline told her GAL that she wanted her niece to serve. Under Michigan statute, Marie therefore had priority over Carney and, in his report, the GAL recommended that Marie’s petitions should be granted.
Patient at Medilodge does not look happy to be there, but Medilodge put this photo on their website.
But, on April 25, shortly before they were to go up in front of Hallmark, Marie says that the GAL approached her with some disturbing news.
“He told me that Carney was willing to accept me as a co-guardian but that she was going to be the conservator,” Marie recalls. “Carney also told him that, if I fought her on it, she would make sure my aunt stayed a nursing home for another six weeks.”
Terrified that Carney would make good on her threats, Marie agreed to her terms. As co- guardian, Marie was finally able to gain access to Pauline’s home. While she was getting it ready for her aunt, there was a knock on the door.
“It was a man with a tow-truck,” Marie says. “He said he was there to take my aunt’s car.” A May 2 entry in Carney’s account authorized the removal of Pauline’s Jaguar.
As soon as she returned to Michigan, Marie took Pauline out of Medilodge and brought her home. For the approximately 42 days Pauline was a Medilodge resident, Carney charged her estate a total of $12,708.00 in patient pay expenses.
Petition, Argue, Repeat
For reasons then unknown to Marie, Carney would not let go of the conservatorship.
“She said, ‘I will never give up conservatorship to you,’” Marie recalls. ‘She didn’t say why.” At a hearing on July 11, Hallmark dismissed Marie’s petition to have Carney replaced.
“The judge didn’t listen to me,” Marie recalls. “She wasn’t mean to me, but she went with Carney’s recommendations every time.”
“I talked to some people at the court clerk’s office,” she adds. “They told me it wouldn’t do me any good to get an attorney.”
When a home health nurse visited Pauline, she was shocked when she saw the list of medications Medilodge had been giving her.
“They had her on psychotic drugs, why?’ Marie wonders. “All she had was a UTI. The nurse even agreed with me that there was no way my aunt was incompetent.”
Marie filed again and, when she went back to court for the fourth time, Carney doubled down.
“She said that she wasn’t comfortable with me being guardian or conservator,” Marie asserts. “Since I lived with my aunt and didn’t pay rent, she called it a ‘conflict of interest’. Then, she told me I would need to move out and get my own place before she would consider allowing my petitions to go ahead.”
Before the hearing, Marie asked Carney about her mother’s Jaguar.
“She first looked at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about,” Marie says. “Then she told me that she had sold it.”
“I knew that, the longer me and my aunt remained in Oakland County, the greater the chances that she was going to end up broke, she adds. “If that happened, Carney would sell her house.”
So, Marie came up with a plan to move Pauline back to Kentucky. She petitioned again to have Carney removed and Pauline returned to her care and, this time, included a letter to Hallmark summarizing the case, Pauline’s medical records and statements of support from neighbors and nurses.
Her petition was heard on the Motion Day of August 8, 2018, and was observed as part of this investigation. Whether it was because of the attendance of the press, Marie’s relentlessness or a combination of both, the judge suddenly relented and returned complete custody of Pauline back to her niece.
“I was in shock,” Marie says.
When Hallmark clarified that she was also terminating Carney’s conservatorship, the public administrator turned on her heels and stormed out of the courtroom. In her final accounting, Carney asserted that the “Court granted petitions allowing me to resign.”
According to that account, in just five months, she had blown through almost $50,000 of Pauline’s money.
One income line item noted a “$200 gain from the sale of automobile. ” Exactly how much Carney sold the Jaguar for and to whom is unknown. Carney’s account did not include any record of the sale.
It took Marie months to undo every action Carney had taken since she was given control of Pauline’s life. She and Marie went back to Kentucky together. It was in the state she was born that Pauline passed away in August 2018.
“She’d lost so much weight at the nursing home, she just couldn’t bounce back,” Marie recalls through tears. “It was all so unnecessary. If Jennifer Carney had gone by the law, or morality or listened to anything I had to say… All I can say to anyone who is going through this is to just keep fighting in any way you can.”
Gretchen Rachel Hammond is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist based out of Chicago. 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 at ICE detention facilities, and alleged discrimination on the part of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services leading to the unnecessary separation of children from their parents.
Other VOD stories on state terrorism against elders, families and children include many on world-renowned hero the late Maryanne Godboldo, who fought off a SWAT-team attack on her Detroit home in 2011 during which CPS kidnapped and forcibly medicated her 13-year-old daughter.
Godboldo died of a massive brain aneurysm the night before Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy scheduled a THIRD criminal trial against her in 2016. Two Judges twice threw out the same charges. Ms. Godboldo and her family carried out a years-long battle in juvenile and criminal courts, winning the release of Godboldo’s daughter to her family. They continue Maryanne’s battle on behalf of other state victims to this day.
Donations for the Voice of Detroit are always needed to keep this paper going. It is published pro bono by people on limited incomes. Ongoing expenses include quarterly Lunar Pages web host charges of $359, charges for court documents internet fees, office supplies, Post office box, etc. Please, if you can:
Macomb County rampant with corruption from top to bottom.
Saad Akram Bahoda targeted by Macomb AP Jorij Fedorak, now serving life for self-defense, tacked onto completed parolable life case; MDOC photo shows dignity
Saad Bahoda case preceded frame-up of Detroit businessman George Rider
AP Jorji Fedorak, married to ATF agent, prosecuted both Bahoda, Rider
Bahoda over-charged while on parole from now illegal 650 lifer sentence
VOD staff writer Ricardo Ferrell
BY RICARDO FERRELL
VOD Staff Writer
Further research, editing by Diane Bukowski
August 1, 2019
After decades of hearings and court proceedings held within Macomb County Courts, the level of corruption continues, causing many to wonder if any real justice will ever prevail for defendants, or be equally applied among those sworn to administer it.
Police agencies from cities like Shelby Township, Warren, Roseville, Mt. Clemens, Clinton Township, and Eastpointe continue to investigate and pursue trumped up cases in order to clear their books of numerous felonies.
The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, in past years headed by former Prosecutor Carl Marlinga, wasn’t exempt from scandal and corruption either, but Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith has continued and expanded the level of corruption since his election. He remains in office despite an ongoing federal investigation into his alleged embezzlement of public funds.
In 2011, Saad Bahoda was arrested by Shelby Township Police and overcharged by Smith’s office with Assault With Intent to Commit Murder for a minor altercation, which actually was self-defense, and if anything, only amounted to a simple fight.
Sahara Mediterranean Grill in Shelby, MI has been closed since last year. Shelby is 91 percent white.
On or about August 27, 2011, while attending a birthday party for his 17 year-old niece at the Sahara Restaurant located in Shelby, a fight broke out that involved Bahoda’s nephew who was only 18 years-old. Someone entered the restaurant and told Saad that his nephew Dylan needed him outside. Bahoda exited the restaurant after hearing his nephew might be in danger.
Witnesses testified at trial that Bahoda came out of the restaurant and broke up an altercation involving his nephew. Moments later nearly 35 individuals converged on him and his sister, who began swinging her purse to help her brother. Bahoda pushed his sister out of harm’s way and continued to ward off the mob attack. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the pocket knife that he used at his job cutting zip ties and stopped the altercation. Everyone left.
Bahoda soon after exited the Sweet Jane Hookah Lounge where he was confronted by a group of three. They aggressively come after Bahoda in what he perceived as an attack. He again pulled his pocket knife and instinctively tried to get the three attackers off by raising the knife, which struck the complainant on the neck.
Notorious Macomb County Jail
Bahoda was held in the Macomb County Jail for TWO YEARS awaiting trial, as were George Rider, Marcie Griffith, and Eric Griffin. He didn’t make bail due to having a detainer from the MDOC. He had been paroled two years prior after serving 21 years for a 1990 life sentence on a 650 Lifer drug sentence, later outlawed as racially discriminatory.
Bahoda won a 1995 state Court of Appeals decision exonerating him in the 65o lifer drug case based on claims of prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor used the terms “Arab,” “Arab connection,” and “Iraqi” at a trial conducted during the Persian Gulf War. He also threatened two witnesses with life sentences if they did not testify truthfully, and another with deportation. Finally, he allegedly injected a “civic duty” argument, expressed a personal opinion about defendant’s guilt, and used denigrating terms to describe Bahoda.
Retired MCCC Judge Thomas Brookover was replaced by Rider’s judge Suzanne Faunce, whose father and sister are also judges.
The prosecutor’s office vigorously pursued Bahoda after learning he was out on parole. The jury trial before retired visiting Judge Thomas Brookover was prosecuted by none other than Jurij Fedorak, the same Assistant Prosecutor in the Rider, Griffin, & Gibson case. He’s known for using shady tactics to obtain convictions. He is married to a federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent, Vera Fedorak as well.
Bahoda’s trial, like the Rider trial, had similar problems with Conflict of Interest, Questionable Conduct, and Improper Argument. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office knew the Bahoda case was nothing more than an instance of self-defense, as the facts surrounding the case showed.
Throughout the court proceedings and trial, Bahoda made it known to his attorneys that an evidentiary hearing was needed to sort out the many injustices in the case, involving conflicts of interest. Those conflicts included the fact that Bahoda earlier consulted Atty. Brian Legghio in an effort to retain him, but that later Legghio represented witness Natalie Allie who testified against him. Atty. Steven Kaplan later represented Bahoda but failed to object to that conflict of interest.
The late Robert Berg Jr., Bahoda’s defense attorney, was a longtime confidant of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young,
Mr. Bahoda’s subsequent trial attorney Robert Berg Jr. did employ the services of J.P. Carey Consulting, Inc., a well respected and reliable polygraph examination firm.
On April 19, 2012, at 8:14am, a polygraph examination was conducted on Saad Akram Bahoda at the Macomb County Jail. The results and findings by Mr. Carey indicated the following: “The subject’s polygrams contained no consistent specific physiological responses indicative of salience on relevant issue questions. After analysis of the subject’s polygrams, based on case facts available, it is this examiner’s opinion that the subject was truthful on the test issue.”
While Carl Marlinga represented Mr. Fedorak as his attorney, he filed a motion asking for Fedorak to recuse himself due to another conflict of interest, but the motion was not upheld and Marlinga shortly afterwards withdrew from the case.
Fedorak was able to obtain information by way of the portrayed conflict of interest between Brian Legghio and Bahoda. As an officer of the court, Fedorak should have disqualified himself so as not to have the appearance of being biased or interjecting an improper prosecutorial maneuver. In addition, Fedorak, along with another of Bahoda’s attorneys Daniel Rust both collaborated and conspired to sabotage Bahoda’s Ginther hearing in an effort to cover up the conflict of interest between Fedorak and Legghio.
Based on the above conflicts of interests, ineffective assistance of counsel, disregard for the interest of justice, overcharging by prosecutor’s office, injustices and inequities in applying the law, and total disregard of an obvious self-defense claim by defendant Saad Bahoda, all caused the resumption of Bahoda’s unfair and illegal life sentence. In other words, he was out on parole after serving 21 years on a sentence that basically was ruled illegal when Michigan drug laws changed in 1998 and 2003.
In addition to the numerous delays cited in part in this chart, Bahoda’s judge allowed at least half a dozen attorneys to withdraw from the case on uncited grounds.
Bahoda earlier won a state Court of Appeals decision exonerating him in the 65o lifer drug case based on claims of prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor used the terms “Arab,” “Arab connection,” and “Iraqi” at a trial conducted during the Persian Gulf War. He also threatened two witnesses with life sentences if they did not testify truthfully, and another with deportation. Finally, he allegedly injected a civic duty argument, expressed a personal opinion about defendant’s guilt, and used denigrating terms to describe Bahoda.
But that COA decision was later overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court.
The parolable life sentence to which Saad was sentenced to in 1990, is now in 2019 being used to hold him beyond the new 3 to 15 years term he received on the Shelby Township incident. The bottom line is, Eric Smith’s office vigorously pursued what amounts to an act of self-defense and turned it into the highest charge possible – Assault w/i to Commit Murder.
It’s blatantly obvious the Macomb County Prosecutors Office wanted to continue punishing Mr. Bahoda because of his drug conviction and parole status. The fact that the ‘650 Life’ was deemed illegal and unfair should have prompted a different outcome as it relates to the overcharge in the first place of something, if anything only amounted to a fight, or simple assault, a 90 day misdemeanor, which means Mr. Bahoda wouldn’t be back in prison serving an illegal life sentence.
The ‘650 life’ term meant anyone convicted of possession or delivering 650 grams or more of a controlled substance were automatically given life without parole sentences, which were changed to parolable life as a result of litigation and the Foster-Bey civil lawsuit covering some 850 parolable lifers.
The newly passed federal First Step Act in the Criminal Justice Reform packet allows for 3,000 such offenders to be considered for immediate release. See https://www.firststepact.org/about.
(Illustration courtesy of FirstStepAct.org)
The U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, and President Trump have all strongly suggested that states should follow suit and implement their own versions of the First Step Act, which would mean the handful of 650 lifers in Michigan would be released, and so should Saad Bahoda, who is the real victim in the Shelby Township case. In retrospect he was only trying to protect his nephew, sister and himself from imminent harm and/or danger.
Saad has now served virtually eight additional years on a sentence that has long been deemed illegal. In the interest of fundamental fairness and the interest of justice, Saad Bahoda should not have to serve the rest of life in prison for a drug conviction that’s nearly 30 years old. Altogether Saad has served nearly three decades on the same life sentence.
What sense does it make to have someone who was trying to do the right thing to serve the same life sentence twice?
Writer’s final note:The Bahoda case has striking similarities to that of the Rider, Griffin and Gibson case (see story below). The same Prosecutor and AP’s were involved where there were instances of conflict of interest, and repeated denial of valid and meritorious motions by Judges Brookover and Suzanne Faunce. Assist. Prosecutor Jurji Fedorak vindictively pursued defendants despite the lack of evidence to support the charges and used the prestige of his office to obtain a conviction.
Macomb Co. Pros. Eric Smith
Macomb Co. AP Jurij Fedorak
This racist and corrupt county must be stopped and held accountable; that means the corrupt judges who have shown their disregard for justice in their courtrooms, as well as Chief Prosecutor Eric Smith and his corrupt underling Jurij Fedorak, and police agencies in cities like, Warren, Roseville, Clinton Township, Harrison Township, and Shelby Township, should be put on trial instead.
VOD HAS PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE VICTORIOUS BATTLE TO FREE CHARLES LEWIS FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS, PUBLISHING AT LEAST 45 STORIES WHICH IT PROMULGATED TO THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN THE FORM OF PRESS RELEASES. THOSE RELATED STORIES ARE LINKED IN THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE AT http://voiceofdetroit.net/2019/10/13/juv-lifer-charles-lewis-free-at-last-final-hearing-tues-oct-15-9am-judge-lillard-fmhj/
OUR BELOVED BROTHER CHARLES LEWIS, WELCOME HOME TO YOUR BRIGHT FUTURE. MAY ALLAH GRANT YOU SUCCESS!!
It says white children in the area formed a gang called the “White Knights.” Robert Lathan, a neighborhood child at the time, said that a loose-knit association formed by Black children called the “Kilbourne Kapones Killers” was “an alliance against racism. I joined so I wouldn’t have to take the bullcrap.”
eyewitnesses to the killing, and their account of the perpetrator in a white Lincoln Mark IV. No Black teens were identified as present.
THE VOICE OF DETROIT HAS BEEN COVERING CHARLES LEWIS’ RE-SENTENCING HEARINGS AND RESEARCHING HIS CASE SINCE MARCH, 2016, PUBLISHING RELATED STORIES LISTED BELOW. VOD EDITOR DIANE BUKOWSKI HAS ALSO SUBMITTED AN AFFIDAVIT ADVOCATING FOR CHARLES LEWIS’ RELEASE TO ALL COURT OFFICERS INVOLVED, AT 
DETROIT, MI – Will Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel live up to her campaign promises on behalf of the state’s juvenile lifers in the newest phase of a federal class action lawsuit, Hill v. Whitmer?
“Some prosecutors and judges in Michigan have ignored the Court’s guidance that life sentences for youth are impermissible except for ‘the rare juvenile offender who exhibits such depravity that rehabilitation is impossible,’ and have relied heavily on the life without parole option provided to them by the Legislature,’ O’Hair wrote in an editorial published in several newspapers.
Thank you. All I can say about the TAB-MI Project, is that it’s huge. We have some real heavyweights making a scholarly contribution. And, you’re right. Your father is one of the most driven individuals I’ve met in a long time. That’s one of the reasons I’m excited and honored when he asked me to be a part of this venture. I came right in and proposed a name for the project, which turned out in part to be from an essay I wrote for DreamBigLiveBig.Net, a free online website for troubled youth and young adults titled: Thinking*Attitude*Behavior (TAB).
LAUREN: Glad you asked! Our ultimate goal is to have the Anti-Bully Crusaders Program in all schools across the nation. With that, we would like to have certified ABC Student Ambassadors at all schools to help represent the program and movement. Also, just to let you in on a little secret, we are in talks with a group about helping us add a second phase to the ABC Programming. This will be a follow up/mentorship program for all former participants. In order to keep them on track, we would like to offer them additional resources and tools. So, stay tuned-in and make sure you sign up for the ABC Newsletter on our website. Coming this Fall!
Close to 50,000 United Auto Workers across the United States are on 
The Washington Post reported, “The government’s efforts come as robocalls continue to ring Americans’ phones at record rates. Scam calls made up a large share of the estimated 4.7 billion robocalls to mobile devices in May, according to YouMail, an app that helps block them. That’s more than double the amount from two years ago, an uptick that has prompted Americans to complain to the FTC at historic levels. The agency said Tuesday that it now receives about 10,000 robocall complaints per day.”
The joint crackdown, “Operation Call it Quits,” is part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to help stem the tide of universally loathed pre-recorded telemarketing calls. It also includes new information to help educate consumers about illegal robocalls. In addition, the FTC continues to promote the development of technology-based solutions to block robocalls and combat caller ID spoofing.”
Editor: Author Gary Younge recently published a reflection on the causes of alleged gang-related violence among youth, appropriate here because the jury in this case clearly had pre-conceived notions and biases about Black gangs in particular. Read it at:
Behind its walls to public access, Oakland County Probate Court Chief Judge Kathleen A. Ryan, and Judges Linda S. Hallmark, Daniel A. O’Brien and Jennifer Callaghan rule on a list of issues including adult guardianships/conservatorships for incapacitated individuals.
TOTAL NO. ADULT AND DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED GUARDIANSHIP & CONSERVATORSHIP CASES CLOSED/ADJUDICATED
The Senior Care Network is a care management organization. Among its services is assistance filing for guardianship and conservatorship, for which the organization utilizes a dedicated social worker, Matthew Martin.
Page two of the guardianship petition includes an available box in which to list any of the ward’s known family members. Like the holders of a DPOA, family members have statutory priority over the appointment of a professional guardian.
Calling itself a “leading provider of long-term skilled nursing care and short-term rehabilitation solutions,” Medilodge operates at least 50 facilities across Michigan, and 
