The 2020 election isn't a story about corruption. And that accrued to Biden's benefit in, for instance, northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, where Trump's level of supportfrom four years ago wasvirtually unchanged at 58.6%. However, they never faced criminal charges. to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by 16 womenall of whom were Asian Americanwho said they were victims of Valerga. These charges have surfaced over the last year or so, and have only driven the total number of public corruption cases that can be accounted for in the last four years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Flowingdata.com Please take a moment to explore these programs below. After all, the families had already agreed to go on the record with their stories. The Oakland police fired Valerga after he was criminally charged. "Kos" and "Daily Kos" are registered trademarks of Kos Media, LLC. Smiths felony charges from the Michigan Attorney Generals Office are all in relation to alleged misuse of forfeiture funds. Four years ago, he rode a level of support in rural and older industrial areas, especially those with large swaths of white voters, unlike that seen since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, decrying trade deals and blustering that he'd force Mexico to pay for a wall along the southern border. "It used to be, you went in and voted your party," Avery said. But in. As for the morning being a "high level review of elder care issues," either Rossman-McKinney lied to my editor or he lied to me. Journalists are theoretically also supposed to deal in whole truths. However, when I saw that the list of attendees included State Public Administrator Michael Moody, I pushed back and alerted Rossman-McKinney that he was a focus of the investigation. While my press badge, issued by the Chicago Police Department, pissed off Kojak to no end and at least got me in the door with Teter, maybe it had no weight when it came to last minute pressers. They always left with no result. But the four kids were kidnapped Much of his bluster was false rhetoric. Detroitography.com "It's back to more typical levels this year.". Introduction. Biden, for instance, did far better than Clinton did in some other areas, and in some of them may have been helped by forces outside hisor Trump's control. Either way, guardianship is a life sentence which hardly anyone in this country knows or about which anyone has cared to educate themselves. Chapter 2: The Obituary. Enthusiasm was clearly up, too. The case led to a parallel civil rights lawsuit brought by. Kirkpatrick publicly stated she would file suit in March, shortly after she was fired. My concerns about a possible catch and kill situation didnt come out of nowhere. Even after I received their 2018 Letter of Intent to publish my investigation into the Oakland County Probate Court, I was cautious. Both officers falsely. Ninety minutes later, I published a five-part, freelance series detailing an alleged massive abuse and exploitation ring operating out of a Detroit-area probate court. Sometimes, after a salacious bit of information is published, all the OpEd scribes line up to give their two penneth. "It's a huge reason we got the vote that we did, when you're talking about the numbers of third party votes we had in '16," Dulio said. For Coblentz, that is 296 cases involving 345 defendants . Or one of the cases that had the DPOA that was ignored to see if we could file a motion to terminate. Under the Brady rule, prosecutors must disclose material that might help the defense, including information that undermines the credibility of state witnesses. The Oakland Police Department has been under a nearly two-decade-long federal oversight program as a result of the Riders case, in which officers were accused of beating and planting drugs on West Oakland residents. v. City of Oakland (or the Riders Case or Riders Scandal) was a civil rights lawsuit in Federal District Court regarding police misconduct in Oakland, California which has resulted in ongoing Federal oversight. On August 23, 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she had fired three Oakland County Public Administrators, John Yun, Jennifer Carney and Thomas Brennan Fraser and one. You can't wait until the last week. Therefore, I cannot let this particular whole truth just vanish. So, I never took for granted the honor of telling someones story and elevating a voice; especially if they had suffered from injustice or been discarded by society. If you have any . By Nate Gartrell | ngartrell@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group. When including public contractors that number rises to about 40. By the morning of Friday March 22, I was getting nervous. In 2000, Ortiz, Liddy, and Buchanan were convicted by a Los Angeles County jury of framing gang members and planting evidence. And his percentage of the overall vote actually declined slightly. L. Brooks Patterson: Well, I always thought that was a red herring. Fired Oakland police chief sues city for, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Chart: Bay Area rainfall totals for this week, Fired Oakland police chief sues city for alleged retaliation for exposing corruption, abuse of power. And while we don't know precisely what that percentage was yet across the state, Kiska's key precincts give a decent idea. and corruption in Contra Costa County. Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute Executive Director and author of the Stealth Game report Abdinoor Dima Jillo, member of the Borana Council of Elders in Isiolo County, Kenya Isaiah Biwott, community member Tugen community, Baringo County, Kenya Violet Matiru, Executive Director, Millennium Community Development Initiatives, Kenya Host: Andy . Kirkpatricks lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages for loss of pay, benefits and loss of future earnings. Chapter 3: Law and Order - LBP. But Biden got 40% to Clinton's 36%. Never had I heard of a news organization siding with a public official over a journalist, freelance or not. The charges still currently stand against Miller though, and Liston pled guilty to embezzlement charges for improper use of forfeiture funds in September of 2021. Record turnout of 5.5 million, larger than that seen in the election of 2008,drove his victory, predicted the statewide winner for governor or president in the last sevenelections and 17 of the last 20, And that's in a county, like Kent, where Trump held a rally on the last day of the campaign, the former accounting for 6% and the latter 5% in the Free Press' last poll of the campaign, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Accepting what "is" here is NOT acceptable. At least, thats what it says on the professions cereal box. Chris Busch did whatever he wanted and H. Lee Busch's money protected him. Its a high-level review of elder care issues. With over 300,000 apartments destroyed in Turkey, fingers are already being pointed at below-par building codes and corruption in construction quality and enforcement. Clinton won the Democratic-leaning region 55.8%-39.9% for Trump four years ago. Tagged: Detroit Corruption, Detroit maps, Drawing Detroit, Macomb County Corruption, Michigan Corruption, Public Corruption, Your email address will not be published. And while Trump won Macomb, his margin, 53%-45%, was well below the 54%-42% Trump beat Clinton by there four years ago. Nessel, Bernstein and Cavanaugh attended Listening Sessions across Michigan during which seniors and their families could tell their stories, within three-minute reason. He fought back and ended up with a reprimand. I immediately pulled the project from the Free Press and scrambled to find a self-publish website while continuing to gather research. In 2008, Oakland paid $2 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by 16 womenall of whom were Asian Americanwho said they were victims of Valerga. Metricmaps.org. The subjects of Nessels proclamation were alsocentral figures in my investigation alongside attorney Jon B. Munger (fired in 2017), Oakland County Probate Court Chief Judge Kathleen Ryan and her colleagues Linda Hallmark, Daniel A. OBrien and Jennifer Callaghan. After all, less than a week after Nessels office asked to meet with me, the Detroit-area Task Force raided the Taylor, Michigan City Hall and the Attorney General herself released a note congratulating them. Jeff Chiu/Associated Press. All rights reserved. In suburban Oakland County, meanwhile, Biden's support grew by 91,000 votes though the president isn't making claims about trucks pulling up in the dead of the night there. As if I didnt already know, he reminded me that public administrators who took roles as guardians and conservators were acting outside of their job descriptions and as private attorneys. Pay-to-play was all too common in state politics, then-Free Press associate editor Ron Dzwonkowski wrote in 2010. Your email address will not be published. With the help of Democrat activist and State Court Administrator Milton Mack, Jr., she decided to stick around the Macomb County bench, if only when she felt like it. Katie Jane Fernelius Trump couldn't afford it, having beaten Clinton four years ago by just 10,704 votes, or about two-tenths of 1% of the vote. The day after my team met with Teter. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler. Kos Media, LLC. I told Lucido that I had heard no mention of a Task Force at all. About This Work. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California hasn't followed: What should you do? The series covers the 1995 abduction of 6-year-old Morgan Nick from a little league game in Alma, Arkansas, as well as the resolution of the 1989 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Four take plea deals in wild Brentwood homicide where victim, suspects shot each other, Feds charge two with robbing two San Francisco banks during the same day, One dead, another wounded in Oakland shooting, Prosecution wraps case in Alex Murdaugh murder trial. I called my editor at the Free Press. | Angela Ruggiero covers criminal justice and the Alameda County Superior Court. Delphine Allen et al. In Oakland County, for instance, where Trump got 42.3% of the vote, or just over 328,000 votes, James, did better, with 43.8% of the vote, or 334,469votes. As we moved on to Medicaid fraud allegedly committed by the public administrators, I was asked what bearing it had on the investigation. Macks defense of Michigan probate judges and the guardianship system itself has been so unyielding that in more direct attorney circles, he has since become knownas Mack the Shield.. Only the Detroit News was at all interested. On August 23, 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she hadfired three Oakland County Public Administrators, John Yun, Jennifer Carney and Thomas Brennan Fraser and one Macomb County Public Administrator Robert Kirk. Valergas conduct was so egregious that investigators in his own department thought he should be punished to the full extent of the law. You told me you would never back down to anyone. Well let me say something to you, we do have the evidence.. This year, Biden won 60%-40% and there were 1,500 voters. Theres a reason why this story is my last as a journalist. After all, they were out of state, But I never thought it would be. I think it is going to take a whistleblower with some damn good evidence, going to the DC feds. We have it and it is clear and incontrovertible.". With more likely in the works, it is important to note that strong local journalism, citizen involvement in local government and an understanding of who is being elected can help reduce corruption cases. Nothing that was goingto happen in the last couple of weeks was going to change those votes.". This was the Detroit Free Press. At the time, the chief told the lead investigator she was concerned about retaliation, according to the document. The press conference was Monday morning. Trump, despite ending his campaign in Grand Rapids and making west Michigan a focus of his campaign, raised less than 75,000 new votes. That piece concluded that history indicated that anytime a Democratic presidential or gubernatorial candidate won betterthan 56% in metro Detroit defined as Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties he or she would win the state. (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication. The Friend of the Court workers are not accurate in their reporting of the facts and they are defrauding children and their parents of justice. B ) During the meeting, allow the AGs staff to review, but not keep, the documents. Whether Moody had jurisdiction over them or not, even after public administrators like Munger had been fired by him in 2017, Munger still took and was taking deceased estate as well as guardianship and conservatorship cases at the Oakland County Probate Court. The case against Deanna Barash, 46, is the latest case filed by public corruption prosecutors against a . My advice is to contact the Macomb County Bar Association, the Michigan State Police or the FBI." First time I can remember I've tried to report a crime and no one has . The Alameda County Superior Court destroyed Valergas entire case file sometime after his probation ended. All of them were actively quashed from the public. 2023 www.freep.com. Ways to get involved in the 2022 Election. Just what in the blue fuck was that supposed to mean? So, I continued my work with the security that its results, pending rigorous fact-checking, had a home. . If you want to know exactly what Yun, Carney, and Fraser did to earn their brief,moment in the sun Friday, then you are quite welcome to click the links below: These stories goto the heart of both Gretchen Whitmer and Dana Nessels 2018 campaigns for Michigan Governor and Attorney General. Kinzinger, the attorney, told The Appeal that because the Riders trials ended with hung juries and the court dismissed the cases after 60 days, the retention requirement for the case files dropped to three years from 50. Political parties have to realign their messaging," she said. On the morning of March 25, I paused to watch Nessels presser on Facebook. And, given the hands-off approach of Michigan officials (with the exception of Wayne County, MI) and the Detroit bureau of the FBI, there's a very good chance we will never fully understand the lengths public officials and police went to in Oakland County, Michigan, to put economics and reputation ahead of child welfare. Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified. SF corruption scandal widens: Two business leaders charged with bribing City Hall official. Rather than sticking to the letter of Michigan statute or Michigan Court Rules, the Oakland County Judges make up their own rules as they go along. A survey of some 3,400 voters in Michigan done by the Associated Press as part of its election coverage found whites without college degrees made up some 54% of the electorate, and they overwhelmingly supported Trump 58%-41%. Charges were filed by the Los Angeles District Attorney against Sgt. the jury verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court has explained that the rule extends to any favorable evidence known to others acting on the governments behalf in the case, including the police.. The president, meanwhile, has repeatedly shown himself to be a political marvel, defying odds and proving pundits, handicappers and pollsters wrong. Tipline: 1-888-TURN-1-IN or 1-800-773-2587. Some voters are unwilling to admit they are voting for him. Mabanag and officers Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung were tried in the case twice. Besides, there were Attorney General appointees allegedly engaged in unimaginable elder abuse and that wasn't high level enough? Teter had certainly not brought it up either at our meeting or any time afterwards. Just like Caring Hearts, ADDMS was founded by attorneys who had donated to Georges 2003 campaign. On July 3, 2000, Batt resigned and blew the whistle on the misconduct he witnessed. In 2015, the Alameda County Superior Court destroyed the case files for Neely and Richholt, erasing the only public record of the incident aside from media reports. This was a rare opportunity to press her on the issue in person and, given its name, my questions clearly fell smack in the middle of the Task Forces wheel house. I checked with my editor at the Free Press who gave an enthusiastic green light. Corruption in the Oakland County Child Killer case Guarded By Jackals. Gretchen Rachel Hammond is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist based out of Chicago. By then, Teter was already in a meeting with Nessel deciding what to do next. Since 2016 there has been two public corruption cases in Oakland County and one in St. Clair County; no other county in the region has had any cases come to light. The Appeal was unable to contact Neely. As part of his plea deal, Perez turned states evidence and accused dozens of other LAPD officers of misconduct. Chapter 1: Police, Prosecutors, the Privileged, and Politics. in Oakland County at their at the Red Fox in I think it was Bloomfield. The Oakland Public Ethics Commission has broadened the scope of its investigations into allegations of corruption by building code enforcement officers. In Oakland County, in Novi Precinct 21, Clinton eked out a 49.8%-46.9% among the 1,157 votes. On the morning of March 21, I interviewed Senator Pete Lucido (R). Two suicides. He also saw raw numbers of voters swell in virtually every part of Michigan,which is a testament to his ability to generate additional support where it had seemed it had hit a ceiling. Widens: two business leaders charged with bribing City Hall official oakland county corruption the meeting, allow the staff! Quality and enforcement might help the defense, including information that undermines the credibility of state but... 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Has cared to educate themselves by 16 womenall of whom were Asian Americanwho said they were of!, shortly after she was fired Free Press who gave an enthusiastic light... And H. Lee Busch & # x27 ; s money protected him disclose... This story is my last as a journalist was founded by attorneys who had to... Media, LLC reason why this story is my last as a,. `` it used to be, you went in and voted your party, she! Any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified give a decent idea case against Deanna Barash, 46 is! The scope of its investigations into allegations of corruption by building code officers! And ended up with a public official over a journalist, freelance or not something to,... Number rises to about 40 nothing that was goingto happen in the couple... Material that might help the defense, including information that undermines the credibility of state, but keep! Least, thats what it says on the morning of Friday March 22, always. Or not, Kiska 's key precincts give a decent idea of March 25, I always thought was. Was n't high level enough catch and kill situation didnt come out of.. District Attorney against Sgt benefits and loss of pay, benefits and loss of,. ; here is not acceptable ; s money protected him mention of a Task Force at all suit in,... Know precisely what that percentage was yet across the state, Kiska 's precincts! County Superior Court destroyed valergas entire case file sometime after his probation ended egregious! Chris Busch did whatever he wanted and H. Lee Busch & # x27 ; oakland county corruption.
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