|
| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
'Shakedown artist' Dean Reynolds guilty in Macomb corruption probe
Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press Published 6:51 p.m. ET June 21, 2018 | Updated 6:32 a.m. ET June 22, 2018
Federal prosecutors called them bribes.
The defense called them loans.
But it took a federal jury just more than an hour Thursday to decide that they didn't buy the loan argument, convicting former Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds of 14 bribery counts in a widespread federal corruption probe that started in Macomb County and took down a trash empire.
Reynolds, who was accused of taking bribes that included cash, a free divorce lawyer and a trip to Disney World, is the first person to stand trial in the probe that has netted more than a dozen guilty pleas and the sentencing of former trash kingpin Charles Rizzo Jr.
Clinton Township Supervisor Bob Cannon welcomed the verdict but said he was shocked to learn from trial testimony that the township's longtime planning director was involved in the scheme but never charged. He said the planning director has been placed on leave.
Reynolds is to be sentenced Oct. 25 in Port Huron, where his trial was held. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland remanded him to the custody of U.S. Marshals after the swift verdict.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, Reynolds faces more than 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for all his crimes combined. He faces a maximum of five years in prison on each of the four bribery conspiracy charges and a maximum of 10 years in prison on each of his 10 bribery convictions.
Reynolds' attorney, Stephen Rabaut, could not be reached for comment by the Free Press on Thursday afternoon.
During the six-day trial, which started last week, Rabaut acknowledged Reynolds received money from Rizzo. He told jurors that checks had "loan" written on them.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta said it was simply a way to disguise a bribe. And Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gardey described Reynolds as a "shakedown artist."
“Today’s verdict shows both our intolerance for corrupt public officials in Metro Detroit, and the community’s willingness to find them guilty after hearing the evidence. The verdict is a victory for honest government and a blow to those officials who try to subvert it for their own selfish, greedy ends," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a news release.
"The pursuit of public officials who abuse their authority for personal gain is one of the highest priorities for the FBI," said Timothy Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. "We are committed to rooting out corruption and graft in southeast Michigan to ensure that our communities get the honest and quality public representation that they deserve."
Reynolds was the first person charged in the widespread corruption probe that surfaced in October 2016.
He was accused of accepting $50,000 in bribes from Rizzo in exchange for helping him extend a lucrative garbage contract. Rizzo also provided Reynolds with a free lawyer for a legal problem he was having in exchange for his help.
The Free Press was the first to disclose that Rizzo Environmental Services was the target of the probe as prosecutors withheld the company name from documents for months, along with Rizzo’s cooperation.
During the trial, prosecutors said, evidence showed that Reynolds demanded and took more than $150,000 in bribes in four separate schemes involving four different government contracts. The bribes include more than $75,000 in cash, $50,000 in free legal services for his divorce, and an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World, including an eight-night stay in a deluxe-level room costing more than $600 per night.
The office said that the jury found that Reynolds demanded bribes in connection with the township garbage hauling contract worth more than $16 million, the township engineering contract worth more than $500,000 per year and the township towing contract.
It also states that the jury convicted Reynolds of conspiring to pay bribes to former New Haven Trustee Brett Harris and to corrupt the garbage contract for that village.
Shortly after he was indicted for bribery, Reynolds, a Democrat, lost an election bid to become Clinton Township supervisor over Cannon, the longtime Republican incumbent.
"This ends a dirty chapter in our 200-year history and I'm glad it's over," Cannon said Thursday.
However, testimony Wednesday from 16-year township planning director Carlo Santia shocked Cannon — Santia apparently was wrapped up in the probe also, but not charged.
Cannon said the FBI had tapes of Santia, Reynolds and engineer Paulin Modi, who also was charged in the probe, talking about the bribes. Cannon said the FBI granted Santia immunity if he testified Wednesday in court.
Cannon said he placed Santia on paid administrative leave Thursday and that he and then possibly the township board will evaluate the situation Monday.
"I'm devastated by this. This is just unbelievable to me," said Cannon, who added he was not aware of the Santia matter until Wednesday.
Nearly two dozen people have been ensnared in the ongoing pay-to-play probe, which spread into Detroit and snagged towing titan Gasper Fiore, who admitted to paying bribes to win towing contracts.
In April, Rizzo was sentenced to five years in prison for bribery and fraud. He was accused of paying bribes to politicians in exchange for help with securing lucrative garbage contracts and for embezzling $900,000 from his trash company and investors to line his own pockets and build a mansion.
Rizzo's father and Fiore are among those who have pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Reynolds was convicted of taking multiple bribes from Rizzo, Modi — a former managing partner of Giffels Webster Engineering — and Fiore.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
Staff writer Tresa Baldas and the Associated Press contributed to this report. |
|
|
Fri Jun 22, 2018 2:27 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
By Mitch Hotts, mitch.hotts@macombdaily.com, @mhotts on Twitter
POSTED: 05/21/18, 10:33 AM EDT | UPDATED: ON 05/21/2018
Oakland press
Home News Cops & Courts Bribery, graft and conflicts of interest
Prosecutors in Macomb corruption probe say more arrests expected in ‘very near future’
It appears the wide-ranging federal investigation into public corruption in Macomb County isn’t over yet.
Federal prosecutors working on the probe say the 20 defendants charged so far are likely to “have company in the very near future.” The disclosure was made in court documents filed last week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in recommending a reduced prison sentence for defendant Clifford Freitas, a former Macomb Township trustee.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Bullotta and David Gardey wrote the investigation has made it “abundantly clear” that a culture of pay-to-play government has existed in several Macomb County communities.
“And the 20 contractors and public officials charged thus far are likely to have company in the near future,” the two lawmen wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Freitas, 44, is scheduled to be sentenced May 31 after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy to commit bribery.
Freitas, who was elected to the Macomb Township Board of Trustees in November 2012, was hired two years later as a project manager by Chuck Rizzo, then-CEO of the Rizzo Environmental Services trash hauling firm.
He admitted in court to providing Rizzo with inside information to allow Rizzo to submit the lowest bid for a contract with the township. He accepted two bribes totalling more than $42,000, court records show.
Freitas abstained from voting, but the $16 million contract was approved unanimously, with a net profit of 6.8 percent. He lost in the 2016 Republican primary after news of the scandal broke.
Rizzo -- who has also pleaded guilty to his role in the scandal -- agreed to pay a $7,500 bonus to Freitas for using his official position to help win the contract.
Freitas also accepted a raise in his weekly salary and a one-time bonus of $35,000 for have the township put individual trash bills on the township’s water bills.
Federal prosecutors are recommending a 33-percent reduction his 30-month sentence guideline, or 20 months imprisonment for his “substantial” cooperation in the investigation.
According to court records, Freitas “detailed not only his bribery activities” with Rizzo and others, “but also detailed numerous embezzlement schemes” that were in the works, as well as information about other corruption targets in Macomb unrelated to the Rizzo case.
Those include Rizzo’s father, Charle’s P. Rizzo, former Rizzo employee Quintin Ramanauskas and others.
Freitas, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, has agreed to testify against the Rizzo father-son team, Ramanauskas and others.
In one intercepted phone call on Sept. 8, 2015, Freitas told Rizzo that he was going to see Trustee Dino Bucci to get additional information for Rizzo, according to court documents.
Bucci has been indicted in the investigation, but has not stepped down from his seat on the Macomb Township Board of Trustees.
In a sentencing memo, Freitas’ defense attorney Daniel Garon says his client was “clearly groomed” to be used by Bucci and Rizzo.
“(Freitas)’ complete lack of experience and his position as a board member was very clearly used by Rizzo to advance his own agenda, and by Bucci to continue his way of ‘doing business.’” Garon wrote.
Garon included letters of character reference by 14 individuals for Freitas, including family members and Nancy Nevers, a Macomb trustee. |
|
|
|
Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:17 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
1
'Shakedown artist' Dean Reynolds guilty in Macomb corruption probe
Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press Published 6:51 p.m. ET June 21, 2018 | Updated 6:32 a.m. ET June 22, 2018
Federal prosecutors called them bribes.
The defense called them loans.
But it took a federal jury just more than an hour Thursday to decide that they didn't buy the loan argument, convicting former Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds of 14 bribery counts in a widespread federal corruption probe that started in Macomb County and took down a trash empire.
Reynolds, who was accused of taking bribes that included cash, a free divorce lawyer and a trip to Disney World, is the first person to stand trial in the probe that has netted more than a dozen guilty pleas and the sentencing of former trash kingpin Charles Rizzo Jr.
Clinton Township Supervisor Bob Cannon welcomed the verdict but said he was shocked to learn from trial testimony that the township's longtime planning director was involved in the scheme but never charged. He said the planning director has been placed on leave.
Reynolds is to be sentenced Oct. 25 in Port Huron, where his trial was held. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland remanded him to the custody of U.S. Marshals after the swift verdict.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, Reynolds faces more than 20 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for all his crimes combined. He faces a maximum of five years in prison on each of the four bribery conspiracy charges and a maximum of 10 years in prison on each of his 10 bribery convictions.
Reynolds' attorney, Stephen Rabaut, could not be reached for comment by the Free Press on Thursday afternoon.
During the six-day trial, which started last week, Rabaut acknowledged Reynolds received money from Rizzo. He told jurors that checks had "loan" written on them.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta said it was simply a way to disguise a bribe. And Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gardey described Reynolds as a "shakedown artist."
“Today’s verdict shows both our intolerance for corrupt public officials in Metro Detroit, and the community’s willingness to find them guilty after hearing the evidence. The verdict is a victory for honest government and a blow to those officials who try to subvert it for their own selfish, greedy ends," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a news release.
"The pursuit of public officials who abuse their authority for personal gain is one of the highest priorities for the FBI," said Timothy Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. "We are committed to rooting out corruption and graft in southeast Michigan to ensure that our communities get the honest and quality public representation that they deserve."
Reynolds was the first person charged in the widespread corruption probe that surfaced in October 2016.
He was accused of accepting $50,000 in bribes from Rizzo in exchange for helping him extend a lucrative garbage contract. Rizzo also provided Reynolds with a free lawyer for a legal problem he was having in exchange for his help.
The Free Press was the first to disclose that Rizzo Environmental Services was the target of the probe as prosecutors withheld the company name from documents for months, along with Rizzo’s cooperation.
During the trial, prosecutors said, evidence showed that Reynolds demanded and took more than $150,000 in bribes in four separate schemes involving four different government contracts. The bribes include more than $75,000 in cash, $50,000 in free legal services for his divorce, and an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World, including an eight-night stay in a deluxe-level room costing more than $600 per night.
The office said that the jury found that Reynolds demanded bribes in connection with the township garbage hauling contract worth more than $16 million, the township engineering contract worth more than $500,000 per year and the township towing contract.
It also states that the jury convicted Reynolds of conspiring to pay bribes to former New Haven Trustee Brett Harris and to corrupt the garbage contract for that village.
Shortly after he was indicted for bribery, Reynolds, a Democrat, lost an election bid to become Clinton Township supervisor over Cannon, the longtime Republican incumbent.
"This ends a dirty chapter in our 200-year history and I'm glad it's over," Cannon said Thursday.
However, testimony Wednesday from 16-year township planning director Carlo Santia shocked Cannon — Santia apparently was wrapped up in the probe also, but not charged.
Cannon said the FBI had tapes of Santia, Reynolds and engineer Paulin Modi, who also was charged in the probe, talking about the bribes. Cannon said the FBI granted Santia immunity if he testified Wednesday in court.
Cannon said he placed Santia on paid administrative leave Thursday and that he and then possibly the township board will evaluate the situation Monday.
"I'm devastated by this. This is just unbelievable to me," said Cannon, who added he was not aware of the Santia matter until Wednesday.
Nearly two dozen people have been ensnared in the ongoing pay-to-play probe, which spread into Detroit and snagged towing titan Gasper Fiore, who admitted to paying bribes to win towing contracts.
In April, Rizzo was sentenced to five years in prison for bribery and fraud. He was accused of paying bribes to politicians in exchange for help with securing lucrative garbage contracts and for embezzling $900,000 from his trash company and investors to line his own pockets and build a mansion.
Rizzo's father and Fiore are among those who have pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Reynolds was convicted of taking multiple bribes from Rizzo, Modi — a former managing partner of Giffels Webster Engineering — and Fiore.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
Staff writer Tresa Baldas and the Associated Press contributed to this report. |
|
|
|
Fri Jun 29, 2018 12:36 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Feds: Fiore a prolific bribe-payer since Kilpatrick era
Robert Snell, The Detroit News Published 3:14 p.m. ET July 19, 2018 | Updated 3:20 p.m. ET July 19, 2018
Detroit — Businessman Gasper Fiore happily bought politicians with stacks of $100 bills so the multimillionaire could boost his bank account while robbing residents of an honest government, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Fiore is a prolific bribe payer dating at least to the administration of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the towing titan kept bribing politicians even though he knew it was illegal, prosecutors said.
The portrayal was included in a federal court filing ahead of Fiore's sentencing in the Macomb County corruption scandal. The filing served to counter the portrait offered by Fiore's lawyer Tuesday, who portrayed the Grosse Pointe Shores business mogul as a hard-working family man and generous civic leader humbled by having bribed Macomb County politicians.
"Investigations by the FBI over the past two decades revealed that there was virtually no public official whose palms Fiore wouldn’t try to grease if there was something in it for him or his businesses," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Bullotta and David Gardey wrote.
Fiore, 57, is a dominant figure in the Metro Detroit towing industry and a thread running through several FBI public corruption investigations, including the Kilpatrick racketeering probe. He is arguably the highest-profile person ensnared in a Macomb County corruption scandal that has led to federal charges against 20 contractors and public officials.
The former owner of Boulevard and Trumbull Towing will be sentenced Aug. 2 by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland.
The sentencing memo filed Thursday reads like Fiore's greatest hits of palm greasing and details the exploits of a powerful, wealthy businessman who avoided arrest until he bought Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds for $7,000.
Macomb corruption scandal figure arraigned
"Fiore bribed public officials in Metro Detroit for many years, persisting unfettered by the prison sentences of those around him whom he paid off," the prosecutors wrote. "Given this, he has richly earned a sentence of 21 months imprisonment."
The trail of bribes outlined by the government includes a 2010 revelation. That's when a high-level Wayne County Sheriff's Department official told the FBI that Fiore was paying deputies $50 for every towing referral.
The next year, the spouse of a Fiore employee described how the businessman used her husband to funnel straw campaign donations to Kilpatrick's re-election campaign.
Kilpatrick's right-hand-man, government official Derrick Miller, told the FBI that Fiore got preferential treatment in city towing matters because he financially supported Kilpatrick.
Fiore gave an envelope full of $100 bills to a Kilpatrick political advisor to pay Kilpatrick's election workers.
"Fiore even provided a car to then-City Councilwoman Monica Conyers," the prosecutors wrote.
Conyers was sentenced to 37-months in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to accepting at least $6,000 for her deciding vote in a 2007 sludge-hauling contract.
"Despite seeing the former mayor and his associates receive lengthy prison sentences for bribery, Fiore continued on, undeterred," prosecutors wrote.
By 2016, the FBI was tapping Fiore's phone and agents listened to conversations that focused on Detroit City Councilman Gabe Leland, who has been accused in a civil lawsuit of trying to trying to extort $15,000 from a Detroit businessman..
The wiretap revealed he was bribing Deputy Detroit Police Chief Celia Washington to get favorable treatment with new towing rotations.
Washington confessed she received $4,000 cash from Fiore.
"She also stated that Fiore attempted to bribe her a second time, but that she refused to accept the second envelope of cash," prosecutors wrote. "She also admitted that Fiore paid for drinks at her birthday party. A receipt from the purchase established that Fiore paid over $600, just months before Washington’s oversight of Fiore’s towing rotations."
Washington was sentenced earlier this year to 12 months in federal prison.
"For over a decade, Gasper Fiore has been an enemy of honest government in Detroit," prosecutors wrote. "His offense here is yet another example of his trading cash for contracts and corrupting an otherwise fair process."
Fiore initially did not cooperate with investigators. Later, he agreed to cooperate though the full extent of that cooperation, and whether he has told FBI agents anything about Leland, is unclear.
Prosecutors have outlined the extent of Fiore's cooperation in a sealed federal court filing.
"In light of what the City of Detroit endured under Mayor Kilpatrick, what is required here is a sentence that is sufficient to deter others who might, like Fiore, want to continue the pay-to-play way of life," prosecutors wrote. "A less-than-substantial sentence would send the wrong message to other businessmen and would-be Gasper Fiores."
rsnell@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2486 |
|
|
|
Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:11 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Detroit News
Charles Rizzo gets 90 days in Macomb County corruption scandal
Robert Snell, The Detroit News Published 5:38 p.m. ET July 24, 2018 | Updated 11:26 p.m. ET July 24, 2018
The father of trash titan Chuck Rizzo was sentenced to 90 days behind bars Tuesday for his role in the Macomb County corruption scandal.
U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland sentenced Charles Rizzo, 71, of New Baltimore eight months after the businessman pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Besides the jail time, Rizzo was given two years of supervised release and fined $10,000.
A second figure in the scandal, former Macomb County Public Works Department chief engineer James Pistilli, was sentenced to 90 days behind bars, fined $10,000 and given one year of supervised release for funneling bribes to a Washington Township official.
According to a superseding information filed in federal court, Charles Rizzo was involved in a scheme in August 2015 in which the owner of a recycling company was instructed to overcharge Rizzo Environmental Services for the purchase of Dumpsters. The next month, the owner of the recycler sent checks by mail to a third party for the Dumpster purchases.
Rizzo’s son Chuck Rizzo, the former CEO of trash-hauling firm Rizzo Environmental Services, pleaded guilty Nov. 9.
Chuck Rizzo, his father, Detroit towing titan Gasper Fiore, Bloomfield Hills resident Derrick Hicks and others plotted to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from Rizzo Environmental Services using a fake legal settlement agreement, fraudulent consulting deals, kickbacks, shell companies and stolen money to help pay for Chuck Rizzo’s mansion in Bloomfield Township, the government alleged.
Some of the stolen money bankrolled bribes for public officials to maintain and secure additional municipal garbage contracts, prosecutors say.
The scandal is focused on at least three fronts: Macomb County politicians pocketing bribes in exchange for approving municipal contracts with Sterling Heights trash hauler Rizzo Environmental Services, Fiore’s towing empire, and the Macomb County Public Works office. |
|
|
|
Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:26 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Detroit News
Charles Rizzo gets 90 days in Macomb County corruption scandal
Robert Snell, The Detroit News Published 5:38 p.m. ET July 24, 2018 | Updated 11:26 p.m. ET July 24, 2018
The father of trash titan Chuck Rizzo was sentenced to 90 days behind bars Tuesday for his role in the Macomb County corruption scandal.
U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland sentenced Charles Rizzo, 71, of New Baltimore eight months after the businessman pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Besides the jail time, Rizzo was given two years of supervised release and fined $10,000.
A second figure in the scandal, former Macomb County Public Works Department chief engineer James Pistilli, was sentenced to 90 days behind bars, fined $10,000 and given one year of supervised release for funneling bribes to a Washington Township official.
According to a superseding information filed in federal court, Charles Rizzo was involved in a scheme in August 2015 in which the owner of a recycling company was instructed to overcharge Rizzo Environmental Services for the purchase of Dumpsters. The next month, the owner of the recycler sent checks by mail to a third party for the Dumpster purchases.
Rizzo’s son Chuck Rizzo, the former CEO of trash-hauling firm Rizzo Environmental Services, pleaded guilty Nov. 9.
Chuck Rizzo, his father, Detroit towing titan Gasper Fiore, Bloomfield Hills resident Derrick Hicks and others plotted to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from Rizzo Environmental Services using a fake legal settlement agreement, fraudulent consulting deals, kickbacks, shell companies and stolen money to help pay for Chuck Rizzo’s mansion in Bloomfield Township, the government alleged.
Some of the stolen money bankrolled bribes for public officials to maintain and secure additional municipal garbage contracts, prosecutors say.
The scandal is focused on at least three fronts: Macomb County politicians pocketing bribes in exchange for approving municipal contracts with Sterling Heights trash hauler Rizzo Environmental Services, Fiore’s towing empire, and the Macomb County Public Works office. |
|
|
|
Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:27 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Ex-village trustee sentenced to 15 months
Staff and wire reports Published 7:57 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018 | Updated 8:48 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018
Former New Haven Village President Brett Harris
(Photo: Detroit News file)
Detroit — A former New Haven Village trustee has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery last year.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said Brett Harris, 58, also was sentenced Monday to two years of supervised release.
Harris was convicted of conspiring with fellow former New Haven Trustee Christopher Craigmiles and former Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds to take bribes from garbage contractor Charles “Chuck” B. Rizzo in exchange for votes on New Haven’s municipal garbage-hauling contract. Reynolds unknowingly introduced Harris to an undercover FBI agent posing as a consultant to the vendor, and Harris took a $2,000 cash bribe in March 2016. Harris took additional cash bribes of $2,000 and $5,000 in April and May 2016 from the undercover agent.
Subsequently, Harris recruited Craigmiles into the conspiracy, and Craigmiles took a $5,000 cash bribe from the undercover agent. Craigmiles was previously sentenced on June 8, 2017 to 18 months in prison.
Reynolds is facing over 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 20 based on his convictions on four counts of bribery conspiracy and 10 counts of taking bribes, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.
Harris is one of 20 defendants charged in Macomb County corruption investigation. He served as an elected trustee in 1995-98 and 2012-16. |
|
|
|
Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:45 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Mike Duggan secretly followed. Then video aired at city hall
Joe Guillen, Detroit Free Press Published 12:06 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2018 | Updated 1:49 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2018
Local businessman Robert Carmack says he hired a private eye to track Mike Duggan. He then paid for a truck to broadcast the video outside city hall. Detroit Free Press
)
Local businessman Bob Carmack — the star witness in the federal government’s bribery case against Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland — went to extreme lengths Wednesday in an attempt to publicly shame another elected official: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
As part of an operation for which Carmack said he paid about $20,000, surveillance video of Duggan was broadcast on two giant video monitors affixed to the back of a truck parked outside city hall Wednesday evening during rush hour. The truck drove around the government office center, exposing the video to city employees and downtown visitors during the busy evening commute.
Onlookers stopped and stared at the video, which appeared to show Duggan’s movements away from the office. Duggan is seen in the video — of which the Free Press has obtained a version — driving a Ford Taurus and entering and exiting the car at various locations. In an interview outside City Hall on Wednesday night, Carmack explained that he had hired private investigators to follow Duggan and record him after hours.
The edited video displayed on the giant screens showed Duggan driving to what appeared to be a suburban location and pulling into a garage. On three occasions, according to the annotated production, the video shows a woman arriving at the same location between one and four hours earlier in the day.
Duggan arrives at the location without his personal protection unit in view, staying on three different occasions for between one and two hours, according to the video obtained by the Free Press. The 15-minute video identifies a woman and implies Carmack's allegations of an extra-marital affair, although nothing in the video provides documentation of those allegations. The Free Press also has not independently verified the accusation.
In a statement today, Duggan and his wife, Lori Maher, called Carmack an angry litigant and condemned Carmack's intent to "create a negative judgment on the state of our marriage."
"We decided to write this statement together because we are proud of the marriage we’ve built over 32 years, proud that our bond today remains strong, and proud of our goal to spend the rest of our lives together."
More: Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland arraigned on bribery charges
More: Lawsuit: Detroit councilman Gabe Leland extorted $15K for favor
The Free Press is not identifying the woman in the video. She did not return a phone call requesting comment, and was not available at her place of work Thursday. She is not a city employee, but has served on at least one mayoral advisory group after Duggan was elected to office.
City spokesman John Roach earlier refused to discuss any aspect of the incident, including whether a citizen conducting video surveillance of the mayor or broadcasting allegations of misconduct with a large mobile display was considered a potential security threat that the city was going to examine.
Bob Carmack in the front office of his body shop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit on Tuesday, October 23, 2018.
Buy Photo
Bob Carmack in the front office of his body shop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit on Tuesday, October 23, 2018. (Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)
Carmack, who is embroiled in a handful of lawsuits involving the city, told the Free Press he hired a private eye to track the mayor this summer to see whether Duggan was living in the city and to see what the mayor was doing after hours.
Carmack explained that his goal in publicly broadcasting the video was to pressure Duggan to appear for a deposition in a lawsuit the city filed to evict Carmack from his collision shop in southwest Detroit.
Carmack offered an explanation for the video's footage.
“This is a video showing Mike Duggan going out … to meet a lady at night time when I put my private eyes following him on my federal lawsuit, to try to find out what kind of character he is,” Carmack said in an interview alongside the truck as it played the video on Larned Street near the employees’ entrance to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.
“I’m broadcasting it because this is where they can see what kind of character that this man has. They say he’s a clean-cut guy, that he’s honest and so forth. Here you see that he’s going to meet a lady at 10 O’clock at night, staying there one hour then leaving,” Carmack said.
Carmack has long held a grudge against Duggan. He blames the mayor for the demolition two years ago of a structure on a piece of property on Michigan Avenue that Carmack believes he owned. The city has disputed Carmack’s ownership, saying it bought the property in 2010 after the county foreclosed on it.
In a separate lawsuit against Carmack filed in June, the city called him a thief for fraudulently obtaining title to a piece of city property and selling it for $1 million. Carmack denies he acquired and sold the property improperly.
Wednesday’s stunt comes about a month after Carmack was thrust into the public eye as the key witness in Leland's bribery case.
Carmack told the Free Press last month that he wore a recording device for the FBI in its investigation of Leland, who was indicted Oct. 4 on bribery charges. The indictment does not name Carmack; it refers to a local businessman who Leland asked to pay a $15,000 bribe in exchange for a political favor. Carmack says he is the businessman in the indictment. The circumstances in Leland’s charging documents match details in a lawsuit Carmack filed earlier this year alleging Leland extorted him for $15,000.
Leland has pleaded not guilty to the charges and told reporters after his arraignment last month that he is looking forward to his trial.
Here is the full text of the statement from Duggan and his wife:
"A litigant, angry to be losing a case to the Detroit Law Department, apparently decided to retaliate by hiring private investigators to follow the Mayor without his knowledge for several months. And in the end, their surveillance failed to uncover a single misdeed in the management of the city.
"If that terrible invasion of privacy weren’t enough, it got worse. This same angry litigant then took individual videos of cars driving, spliced them together, and added assumptions and insinuations, all so he could create a negative judgment on the state of our marriage.
"We decided to write this statement together because we are proud of the marriage we’ve built over 32 years, proud that our bond today remains strong, and proud of our goal to spend the rest of our lives together.
"When you elect a public official you have every right to pass judgment on their performance in office. But you don’t get the right to pry into their personal lives, or demand information on their marriage. At least that’s how we feel and why we don’t answer questions about ours."
Joe Guillen is a reporter on the Free Press Investigations Team. He has been covering city governance and development issues for the newspaper since 2013. Contact him at 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com. |
|
|
|
Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:56 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Ex-Chesterfield Twp. supervisor gets prison for bribery
The Detroit News Published 3:19 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2018 | Updated 11:11 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2018
Lovelock
(Photo: Detroit News file photo)
Former Chesterfield Township Supervisor Michael Lovelock was sentenced Thursday to 24 months in prison for his role in the Macomb County corruption scandal.
Lovelock, 59, of New Baltimore, had pleaded guilty in June 2017 to conspiracy to commit bribery. According to federal prosecutors, he accepted $30,000 in bribes from Chuck Rizzo, the former CEO of Rizzo Environmental Services, from 2010 to 2016, in exchange for supporting a garbage-hauling contract with the township.
Lovelock also accepted two bribe payments totaling $4,000 from an undercover FBI agent and an individual cooperating in the investigation, according to prosecutors. Those payments were recorded on video.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Lovelock received a reduced sentence for cooperating with the government in its case against Rizzo and others. Rizzo was sentenced in April to 66 months in prison for bribing politicians and stealing money from the garbage-hauling firm he built into a regional powerhouse
Lovelock, a Democrat, lost his bid for re-election in November 2016 to Republican Daniel J. Acciavatti. Lovelock had served as Chesterfield Township supervisor since 2008.
The federal probe of municipal corruption has led to at least 17 convictions, including that of Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds. Another public official charged in the scandal, Dino Bucci, resigned Tuesday as a Macomb County trustee. |
|
|
|
Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:48 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Ex-Clinton Twp. official gets 17 years in corruption probe
Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press Published 4:21 p.m. ET Feb. 6, 2019 | Updated 7:10 p.m. ET Feb. 6, 2019
Former Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds asked to be sentenced to only five years in prison — twice the national average of a federal sentence for someone convicted of bribery.
Instead, Reynolds — once described by a federal prosecutor as a "shakedown artist" — got 17 years.
Reynolds, 51, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Port Huron after he took a chance on a jury trial and was convicted last year of 14 bribery charges in a widespread federal corruption probe that started in Macomb County. He also was ordered to pay $15,000 in fines, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
"The Court's sentence today shows that public officials who violate the trust of their communities by taking bribes and betraying their oaths of office will not escape our pursuit of justice," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement.
Reynolds was accused of accepting bribes in connection with millions of dollars in township garbage, towing and engineering contracts. He demanded and took more than $150,000 in bribes in four separate bribery conspiracies involving four different government contracts, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The stiff sentence fell below the approximately 19 years to 24 years recommended in the government's sentencing memorandum, but well above the 80-percent drop that Reynolds requested.
Reynolds' sentence comes about a half-year after federal prosecutors said he lied about having cancer in an effort to get bond. His attorney at the time also asked to withdraw from the case.
Reynolds' attorney, Richard Korn, emailed a statement to the Free Press:
"In view of the fact that Dean Reynolds was not charged with or convicted of crimes such as racketeering, extortion, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, or other crimes that often result in extreme prison sentences, and that there was no evidence whatsoever that Clinton Township suffered any financial harm as a result of Dean Reynolds actions, I felt that the 17 year sentence was unnecessarily severe and unreasonable."
Read more:
Feds to ex-trustee: Show us proof you have cancer
Kilpatrick, Beatty open up about affair
Reynolds was ordered immediately to jail in June 2018 after a jury convicted him for his role in the corruption probe that took down a trash empire and thus far has resulted in criminal charges against 20 people, including other politicians.
Reynolds was accused of taking bribes of more than $75,000 in cash, $50,000 in free legal services for his divorce and an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World, including an eight-night stay in a deluxe room costing more than $600 per night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Reynolds was the first person to stand trial in the probe, which has netted more than a dozen guilty pleas and the sentencing of former trash kingpin Charles Rizzo Jr. among others. Reynolds also was accused of taking bribes from towing titan Gasper Fiore, who was convicted of bribery conspiracy.
Reynolds' sentence is harsher than the more than five-year sentence Rizzo received and the 21-month sentence that Fiore was ordered to serve. It's not quite as tough as the 28-year prison sentence that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is serving for federal corruption crimes.
"Today’s sentence serves as a reminder that there are consequences for robbing our
communities of the honest government they deserve,” said Timothy Slater, special agent in charge of the Detroit field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “The FBI and the Detroit Area Public Corruption Task Force will continue to pursue those who — like Mr. Reynolds — abuse their position for personal financial gain.”
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporte |
|
|
|
Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:15 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Bribe-paying Macomb contractor bound for prison
Robert Snell, The Detroit News Published 10:21 a.m. ET Feb. 8, 2019 | Updated 7:00 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2019
An engineering contractor who bribed a Washington Township public official was sentenced to one year and a day in prison Thursday.
Paulin Modi, 50, of Troy, was convicted of paying a series of bribes totaling $5,000 to the late Steven Hohensee, Washington Township’s superintendent of public works, who secretly was cooperating with the FBI. The bribes were designed to maintain a township engineering contract for Modi’s engineering firm, Detroit-based Giffels Webster.
Modi is the latest person sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in a corruption scandal that has led to federal charges against 22 contractors and public officials and produced 17 convictions, including Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds. Reynolds was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors wanted Modi to spend 14 months in prison.
"Although the conduct of public officials who take bribes and betray their citizens is serious criminal activity, such crimes would not be possible were it not for bribe payers like Modi," Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Gardey and Michael Bullotta wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "Modi helped to corrupt communities out of a motive of greed, undermining good government and the integrity of the public contracting process."
Modi accepted responsibility, cooperated with the government and testified during Reynolds' trial and is remorseful, his lawyer Walter Piszczatowski said.
"His conduct and the resultant legal proceedings resulted in a hard lesson learned, and a mistake that will not be replicated," his lawyer wrote in a court filing.
rsnell@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2486 |
|
|
|
Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:04 pm |
|
|
|
Forum Rules:
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
