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Tag: Wayne County Circuit Court

  • Judge deals major blow to Detroit Thermal in Lafayette Park dispute – Detroit Metro Times

    A Wayne County judge has rejected Detroit Thermal’s bid to shut down a lawsuit brought by residents of Detroit’s historic Lafayette Park neighborhood, keeping in place a court order that blocks the utility from running steam lines through the protected greenspace.

    In a 22-page opinion, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry denied Detroit Thermal’s motion for summary disposition, ruling that the claims brought by the Mies van der Rohe-designed townhome cooperatives can proceed toward trial.

    The ruling is a significant setback for Detroit Thermal and residents of the nearby 1300 Lafayette high-rise, where about 600 people could be left without a permanent heat source after the building’s aging boilers failed in 2022. The company has sought to reconnect the building to the city’s underground steam system by routing new infrastructure through the Lafayette Park townhomes’ shared greenspace.

    Berry’s decision rejects Detroit Thermal’s main legal arguments, including its claim that decades-old utility easements give it the right to cross the private property and that the dispute belongs before state utility regulators rather than a court.

    At the heart of the dispute is whether Detroit Thermal has a valid legal right to use easements originally granted to Detroit Edison in the 1950s, when the townhomes were still heated by steam.

    Berry concluded that the easements were narrow in scope, granted for specific purposes, and explicitly described as licenses rather than permanent property rights. The opinion notes that the townhomes converted to natural gas heat in the 1980s and that the steam system went unused for decades, which are issues that support the plaintiffs’ argument that the easements were abandoned or automatically revoked when ownership of the land changed.

    Under state law, the judge wrote, even a valid easement cannot be expanded to create a new or greater burden on private land than what was originally contemplated. Serving a different building outside the historic district could exceed the easements’ scope, the judge found.

    Detroit Thermal also argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the claims were filed too late and because any alleged harm was speculative.

    Berry rejected those arguments, finding that the residents adequately alleged Detroit Thermal entered the property without authorization after fencing off portions of the greenspace and bringing in heavy equipment earlier this year. If the easements are no longer valid, the judge wrote, entering the property and beginning work could constitute trespass.

    The judge also declined to dismiss the residents’ nuisance claims and refused to send the case to the Michigan Public Service Commission, ruling that the agency regulates rates and service, not property ownership or quiet title disputes.

    Detroit Thermal criticized the court’s rulings in a written statement, warning they could have far-reaching implications.

    “In a series of puzzling orders, the Wayne County Circuit Court has prohibited the City of Detroit and Detroit Thermal from accessing or doing repair work to existing public utility pipes and other underground utility infrastructure within a utility easement on public land running through the Mies Van der Roh townhouses,” the company said. “If the rationale underlying these orders stands, it poses grave risks — not only to the residents of the 1300 Lafayette Coop who have received steam service through this utility corridor in the past and seek to reconnect to the Detroit Thermal steam distribution system, but to all residential, commercial and industrial users of any public utility service in this state.”

    Townhome residents have countered that Detroit Thermal is mischaracterizing the case, arguing that the dispute involves private property rights and a nationally protected historic landscape, not routine utility maintenance on public land.

    Berry previously issued a temporary restraining order in July barring Detroit Thermal from performing work on the private greenspace, finding that the residents were likely to prevail and that allowing construction could cause irreparable harm to the historic site.

    That order remains in effect as the case moves forward. A jury trial is scheduled for July 2026.


    Steve Neavling

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  • State AG urged to investigate how popular Detroit Democrat avoided mandatory jail time for third DUI

    AP Photo/Paul Sancya

    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is under fire for her office’s handling of a third drunk driving case against Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch.

    Local activist Robert Davis is calling on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate how Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch dodged a mandatory jail sentence after pleading guilty to his third drunk driving offense in 2005.

    In a letter sent Thursday to Nessel’s office, Davis argued that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office “blatantly failed” to enforce a plea agreement that required Kinloch to serve 30 days in jail in 2005. Instead, Kinloch was released from six months of non-reporting probation in early 2006 without serving the mandatory time.

    “The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s blatant failure to enforce the sentencing agreement and plea agreement constitutes misconduct,” Davis wrote. “The Attorney General must investigate and take supervisory control due to misconduct committed by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in Kinloch’s felony DUI case.”

    Davis pointed to court records showing that then-Circuit Court Judge Vonda Evans approved a probation officer’s unusual request to discharge Kinloch early and eliminate his 30-day jail requirement. When the prosecutor’s office belatedly sought to enforce the sentence in 2007, Evans granted the request. But no one followed through, and Kinloch never went to jail.

    “Despite Judge Evans’ January 9, 2008 Opinion and Order GRANTING the Wayne County Prosecutor’s motion to enforce the sentencing agreement, since that order’s entry, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has NEVER sought to enforce the sentencing agreement and plea agreement that required Mr. Kinloch to serve 30-days in the Wayne County Jail,” Davis wrote.

    In a statement to Metro Times on Friday, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Maria Miller said, “Prosecutor [Kym] Worthy will not dignify the request with a response.”

    A spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Friday that the case is best handled by Wayne County prosecutors unless Davis files a former complaint that alleges criminal wrongdoing.

    “As this matter was handled by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, I must refer you to that office for further insights into the handling of this case,” AG spokesperson Danny Wimmer said. “If Mr. Davis intends to allege specific criminal wrongdoing, I believe he is aware of the process to formally file a criminal complaint with this department.”

    The case resurfaced last month when Metro Times reported that Kinloch, a powerful Detroit Democrat, never served jail time. Prosecutors at the time acknowledged the problem but let the issue quietly drop after media scrutiny faded.

    In the letter, Davis noted that then-Assistant Prosecutors Paul Bernier and Jeffrey Caminsky urged Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda R. Evans to enforce the jail sentence. It’s unclear what became of those requests, and Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach Bernier or Caminsky.

    Kinloch, 56, has long been a fixture in Detroit politics. He was appointed to the Wayne County Board of Commissioners in 2021 and won a four-year term the following year. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan named him to the Board of Water Commissioners in 2018, a position he still holds. He also serves as chairman of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, is vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, and heads the Democratic Party’s 13th Congressional District. Over the years he has also sat on the Wayne County Housing Commission, the Detroit Library Commission, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, and the county’s planning and development department.

    Kinloch is also the brother of Solomon Kinoch, pastor of Triumph Church, who is running for mayor in the general election against City Council President Mary Sheffield.

    In an interview last month, Kinloch told Metro Times he pulled no strings and that the probation department recommended his release from jail.

    “It was a scary time, and it was 20 years ago, and I did everything the court required of me,” Kinloch said.

    In his letter to the AG’s office, Davis alleged “Kinloch has bragged openly about how his political connections and influence allowed him not to serve the mandatory 30-day jail sentence.”

    Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach Kinloch for a response.

    Davis recently sued Detroit police and Wayne County prosecutors after both failed to timely disclose records about the case under the Freedom of Information Act.

    Last month, a Detroit man alleged wrongdoing after prosecutors dismissed a case against a woman accused of falsely accusing her daughter’s father of molesting her child. The ex-partner, Taylor Clark, is the granddaughter of retired Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway, whose cousin Richard Hathaway is the chief assistant at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. Clark lives with Michael Hathaway in a luxury apartment in Royal Oak, according to court records. She has resided with the former judge since she was 15, according to her ex-partner, who asked not to be identified because of the severity of the allegations that Clark leveled against him.

    Worthy said she had been unaware of the allegations and would recuse her office from the case. But she denied that any of the Hathaways were involved in dismissing the case.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Politically connected Democrat Jonathan Kinloch avoided mandatory jail sentence after third drunk driving arrest

    Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority

    Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch.

    Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch, a longtime political activist and Detroit Democrat, never served a 30-day jail sentence after getting busted for his third drunk driving in a little over three years in 2003, Metro Times has learned.

    Records show that a judge and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office mishandled Kinloch’s sentencing, allowing him to avoid jail even though state law required him to spend at least 30 days behind bars. From the beginning, the case was riddled with errors, eyebrow-raising decisions, and false promises.

    While the arrest was 20 years ago, the case raises serious questions about whether political connections may have shielded Kinloch from consequences that ordinary defendants face.

    Kinloch is the brother of Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch, the senior pastor of Detroit-based megachurch Triumph Church. Solomon Kinloch is facing Detroit City Council Mary Sheffield in the November general election after coming in second place in the Aug. 5 primary. Residency questions have plagued his campaign after moving from Oakland County to Detroit in March 2024. He said he was living with his brother in an upscale condo complex downtown.

    The strange case involving Jonathan Kinloch began on Aug. 14, 2003, when Detroit police pulled him over and discovered he was drunk and driving with a suspended license. For reasons that still remain unclear, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office didn’t charge Kinloch until February 2005, a year-and-a-half after he was pulled over. He was eventually charged with a felony count of third-offense drunk driving and a misdemeanor count of driving with a suspended license and faced up to five years in prison.

    In a May 26, 2005 letter to the prosecutor, Kinloch requested “a lesser charge,” saying he was “embarrassed and sorry for my horrible choices” and had received out-patient treatment for substance abuse.

    “If the spirit and intent of our drinking laws are to both punish, rehabilitate and stop individuals from drinking and operating a motor vehicle, then it has worked for me,” he wrote.

    At the time, Kinloch was serving on the Detroit Board of Zoning Appeals and was running for a seat on the Detroit school board, which he would win in November 2005.

    In exchange for him pleading guilty to a second-offense misdemeanor charge, the prosecutor’s office dropped the third-offense charge and the misdemeanor for driving with a suspended license.

    Still, state law requires a minimum 30-day sentence for someone convicted of driving drunk for a third time, even if the charge is reduced.

    “If you plead guilty, or if you are found guilty, you will go to jail for at least 30 days,” William Maze, who describes himself as the state’s “leading drunk driving defense attorney,” wrote on his website. “Recently, even the Wayne County Jail has been holding people for the full term. Worse still, many courts impose longer terms. Sixty days for a garden variety OWI 3rd is not unusual, and some judges impose a six month sentence.”

    In September 2005, Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda R. Evans sentenced Kinloch to 30 days in jail and six months of non-reporting probation. During the hearing, Kinloch said he no longer drinks and pledged “there will be no problems with me, at all,” according to transcripts of the sentencing hearing.

    Evans responded, “I believe that.”

    Instead of ordering him to jail at the sentencing hearing, which is the standard practice, Evans agreed to Kinloch’s request to serve his jail time after his probation was over in September 2005. Then, the judge said, he could serve his jail time “every other weekend.”

    “In light of the fact that you’re taking a new job, this court believes that there’s a necessity that we need to have him there,” Evans said. “And that’s with the city. And so, therefore, the court is going to put that at the end.”

    “You’re going to do this 30 days,” the judge told Kinloch.

    She added, “You have to do that. That is statutorily required.”

    But that’s not what happened. At the urging of the probation department in January 2006, Evans dropped the jail requirement, allowing Kinloch to walk free.

    Then in March 2007, after a Detroit Free Press reporter inquired about the lack of jail time, Wayne Country Prosecutor Kym Worthy insisted her office was never notified of the hearing in which Kinloch’s jail sentence was waived. A day before the article was published, Assistant Prosecutor Paul Bernier filed a motion urging the judge to enforce the sentencing agreement or withdraw the plea deal.

    “A Court that accepts a plea agreement must honor said plea agreement entered into by the Defendant and the Prosecution or allow the party to withdraw the plea,” Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Wittenberg wrote to the court.

    In a follow-up filing in August 2007, the prosecutor’s office said it “was unable to object to the order of termination” and therefore has a right to intervene.

    In January 2008, Evans acknowledged the problem with waiving Kinloch’s sentence and agreed with prosecutors that they could require Kinloch to serve his jail time or withdraw the plea agreement.

    But despite the prosecutors’ harsh language and insistence on forcing Kinloch to serve his sentence, they never followed through, allowing him to dodge jail time after the media stopped asking questions, Metro Times has discovered.

    Suspecting “fraud may have been committed in court,” community activist Robert Davis sought police and court records under the Freedom of Information Act in late July. After getting no response from prosecutors, Detroit police, or the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office within the required 15 business days, Davis filed a lawsuit this week in hopes of forcing the records to be disclosed, but that may not happen.

    “Something nefarious is going on here,” Davis tells Metro Times. “The judge entered an order granting the prosecutor’s motion. Then the prosecutor’s office did nothing.”

    He adds, “Somebody committed fraud on the court. It’s quite obvious.”

    Davis also pointed out that Kinloch’s first name is misspelled in court filings — “Jonathon” — which he says makes it conveniently difficult to find his case online or in court records.

    Kinloch, 56, tells Metro Times he pulled no political strings but was relieved he didn’t have to serve his jail sentence.

    “It was a scary time, and it was 20 years ago, and I did everything the court required of me,” Kinloch says. “The probation department said I had fulfilled my obligations and recommended that [jail time] be deleted from my sentence.”

    Asked about the prosecutors’ role in the case, Kinloch says his lawyer told him that Worthy’s office could not intervene after the judge waived the jail time.

    “I don’t know,” he says. “From what I was told, there was nothing she could do.”

    But there was, and Worthy’s office didn’t act.

    It’s unclear why no action was taken because Worthy’s office declined to comment, citing the FOIA litigation with Davis. But Metro Times’ questions have nothing to do with the search for public records.

    On Friday, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Gregory C. Blackburn denied Davis’s request for records, saying, “We were unable to locate any documents related to your request.”

    City spokesman John Roach says Detroit’s law and police departments plan to disclose the records if they still exist, but finding them may not be easy.

    “DPD is in the process of researching this to see what if any records related to this incident still exist, given it took place more than two decades ago,” Roach tells Metro Times. “Once they have the answer, they share with the Law Department whatever they find — or don’t find — for a response. The city processes about 8,000 FOIA requests a year, the majority of them related to DPD.”

    After Davis’s lawsuit was filed, the sheriff’s office responded that it had no records showing that Kinloch spent time in jail.

    According to the judge, Kinloch spent just three days in jail.

    Kinloch was appointed to the Wayne County Board of Commissioners in January 2021 to replace the late Jewel Ware. He was elected to a four-year term last year.

    Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan appointed Kinloch to the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners in April 2018, a position he still holds. Kinloch is also the chairman of the Democratic Party’s 13th Congressional District, chairman of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, a member of the Wayne County Housing Commission, and a vice chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.

    He previously served as a liaison to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and held seats on the Detroit Library Commission, Wayne County Planning and Development, and Wayne County Board of Canvassers.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Detroit Marriott sued over alleged sexual assault and hostile work environment

    Detroit Marriott sued over alleged sexual assault and hostile work environment

    A former employee of the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center is suing the hotel chain after she alleges she was sexually assaulted by a manager and then forced to leave her job.

    The Dearborn woman, whom Metro Times won’t identify because she was the victim of an alleged crime, claims in the lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court that the Detroit Marriott “created a sexually hostile environment” and failed to protect her.

    According to the lawsuit, manager Dhurba Koirala invited the employee to his hotel room at the end of her shift at 1 p.m. on Aug. 8 “under the guise that other employees would be present.”

    Koirala made her drinks and food, and at 7 a.m. the next day, she woke up disoriented in his bed, the lawsuit alleges. She “discovered that her underwear was inside out, and her menstruation product was missing,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Marko Law, a prominent Michigan civil rights firm.

    Koirala “made harmful, unlawful and offensive contact” with the employee’s body, the lawsuit alleges.

    The woman filed a police report and underwent a rape testing kit, and the DNA matched the manager, according to the suit.

    Marko says Koirala has been criminally charged.

    Every employer has an “obligation to provide a safe business environment for its staff and prevent its employees from injuring others,” her attorney Jon Marko said in a statement Monday. “Not only did Marriott breach its duty when it failed to protect our client, no person should be sexually assaulted as a condition of employment.”

    She was “forced to leave her position at Marriott as a result of this incident and has not been able to work since due to the trauma she has endured,” Marko said.

    The lawsuit alleges negligence, gross negligence, direct negligence, retaliation, hostile work environment, and violations of the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

    The defendants named in the suit are Marriott International, Detroit HMS LLC, Detroit Hotel Services, Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, and Sodexo.

    According to the suit, the hotel breached its duty because “they knew or should have known that Koirala had a history of sexually assaulting and sexually harassing employees and intentionally and willfully ignored the behavior and allowed him to assault and harass employees.”

    Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach the Marriott for comment.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Judge Dana Hathaway pushes back against efforts to remove her from ballot

    Judge Dana Hathaway pushes back against efforts to remove her from ballot

    Wayne County Circuit Court

    Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway.

    Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway is firing back at an activist’s attempts to remove her from the ballot, saying she followed the directions given to her by the Michigan Bureau of Elections.

    Highland Park activist Robert Davis, who is known for disqualifying candidates from the ballot, is contesting Hathaway’s bid to run for reelection to the Wayne County Circuit Court. In a complaint filed with the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday, Davis argues Hathaway must be removed from the ballot because her affidavit of identity “contains a false statement.”

    Candidates are required to identify every county in which they ran for office. On Hathaway’s affidavit, which she submitted on March 5, the judge wrote “state” instead of the counties in which she previously ran.

    In an email to Metro Times, Hathaway says the Michigan Bureau of Elections notified her on Feb. 5 that it “is fine” to list “state” instead of the counties in which she ran.

    “An error on this line will not disqualify or cause issues for a candidate,” state officials wrote to Hathaway.

    This is proof, Hathaway says, that she did nothing wrong.

    “There was no mistake,” Hathaway said. “As you may be aware, Mr. Davis likes to create non-issues to harass candidates. … The Bureau of Election has made it clear he has no basis to challenge.”

    She added in a follow-up email on Friday morning, “This is much ado about nothing.”

    But Hathaway’s contention that Davis likes to “create non-issues” is misleading. Davis has successfully forced numerous candidates for judge, mayor, and city council off of ballots for failing to properly fill out affidavits of identities.

    In an interview with Davis on Friday, he says the Michigan Bureau of Elections does not have the final say on whether a candidate can be removed from a ballot.

    He plans to soon file a lawsuit with the Michigan Court of Claims, which he points out has the authority to remove candidates from the ballot, even if the Michigan Bureau of Elections contends a candidate is still eligible. In a lawsuit filed by Davis, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in April 2023 that the statute, not state officials, determines the eligibility of a candidate. And the statute, Davis says, clearly states that a candidate cannot make mistakes or omissions on the affidavit of identity.

    “The statute is very clear, and the case law is very clear: If you omit mandatory information, then you cannot be certified to appear on the ballot,” Davis says. “It’s quite sad when you have a judge that is ignorant of the law.”

    Davis adds that the Bureau of Elections is “overstepping their legal authority in their effort to appease and accommodate judges.”

    Davis says the courts, not state election officials, will have the final decision.

    “Ultimately it’s going to be determined by the courts,” Davis says. I gave (state election officials) a courtesy to submit a challenge to give them an opportunity to try to address it. Now that I know they are going to defend their stupidity, this is going straight to the courts.”

    State election officials didn’t return requests for comment.

    Hathaway is part of a family with strong ties to the judicial system in Michigan. At least six Hathaways are current or retired Wayne County Circuit Court judges.

    Her husband Nicholas J. Bobak Hathaway, and another relative, Bridget Hathaway, also serve on the Wayne County Circuit Court. Her husband changed his last name to Hathaway when he ran for the position in 2020.

    Her father is Richard Hathaway, a retired Wayne County Circuit judge, one-time Wayne County treasurer, and a chief assistant Wayne County prosecutor. Her mother is Diane Hathaway, a former Michigan Supreme Court justice who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to bank fraud.

    Hathaway was hospitalized on March 20 for unknown reasons. At 1:18 p.m., her husband, who was downtown at the time, called 911 and told the operator his wife was on the upper floor of their home in Grosse Pointe Park.

    “I’m very scared,” according to audio of the redacted call obtained by Metro Times.

    Hathaway was at Ascension St. John in Detroit for several days.

    She did not respond to questions from Metro Times about her hospital stay.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Bizarre mistake could force Judge Dana Hathaway from ballot

    Bizarre mistake could force Judge Dana Hathaway from ballot

    Wayne County Circuit Court

    Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway.

    Highland Park activist Robert Davis, who has a history of knocking political candidates off of ballots, is challenging the candidacy of Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway.

    Davis alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday that Hathaway, who is running for reelection, should be removed from the ballot because her affidavit of identity “contains a false statement.”

    On candidates’ affidavits, they are required to identify every county in which they ran for office. On Hathaway’s affidavit, which she submitted on March 5, the judge inexplicably wrote “state” instead of the counties in which she previously ran.

    She should have written “Wayne County” and “Oakland County,” Davis points out in his complaint to election officials, including Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

    “It’s very clear that her affidavit of identity doesn’t comply with the statute because she failed to list the counties that she previously ran in as a candidate,” Davis tells Metro Times.

    While the mistake may seem minor, the law clearly states that a candidate is not qualified to appear on the ballot if there are any false statements.

    Davis has gotten numerous other candidates removed from the ballot for similar mistakes and false statements.

    Asked whether state law allows Hathaway to fix the false statement, Davis says, “There’s not a chance.”

    Hathaway is part of a family with strong ties to the judicial system in Michigan. At least six Hathaways are current or retired Wayne County Circuit Court judges.

    Her husband Nicholas J. Bobak Hathaway, and another relative, Bridget Hathaway, also serve on the Wayne County Circuit Court. Her husband changed his last name to Hathaway when he ran for the position in 2020.

    Her father is Richard Hathaway, a retired Wayne County Circuit judge, one-time Wayne County treasurer, and a chief assistant Wayne County prosecutor. Her mother is Diane Hathaway, a former Michigan Supreme Court justice who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to bank fraud.

    Davis isn’t done trying to remove other judges from the 2024 ballot.

    “There are going to be other incumbent judges who are going to be adversely impacted as well,” Davis says, adding that he will file complaints against them in the near future.

    The deadline for an incumbent to file for candidacy or fix any false statements was the end of March.

    “It was mandatory for Hathaway’s affidavit of identity to provide the counties she previously ran in as a candidate,” Davis wrote, citing state law.

    Metro Times couldn’t reach Hathaway for comment.

    Hathaway was hospitalized on March 20 for unknown reasons. At 1:18 p.m., her husband, who was downtown at the time, called 911 and told the operator his wife was on the upper floor of their home in Grosse Pointe Park.

    “I’m very scared,” according to audio of the redacted call obtained by Metro Times.

    Hathaway was at Ascension St. John in Detroit for several days.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Lawsuit alleges Detroit police commissioners ‘sabotaged’ efforts to resolve backlog of citizen complaints

    Lawsuit alleges Detroit police commissioners ‘sabotaged’ efforts to resolve backlog of citizen complaints

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Melanie White, the former executive manager for the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit.

    A former top executive with the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners claims in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against because of her gender and that “a clique” of commissioners “sabotaged” her attempts to resolve a backlog of hundreds of citizen complaints against cops.

    The lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on Wednesday alleges Melanie White was unlawfully fired from her job as executive manager after she was tasked with eliminating a “massive citizen complaint backlog.”

    The suit, which names the city of Detroit and former Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Bryan Ferguson, claims she was subjected to “a campaign of vitriol, verbal bullying, harassment, character assassination, unequal treatment and violations.”

    According to the lawsuit, Ferguson and other commissioners sabotaged her efforts to close the backlog “to justify her suspension and later termination.”

    Ferguson later resigned in July 2023 after he was arrested for allegedly getting a blow job from a sex worker in his truck on the city’s northwest side.

    Despite reporting the sabotage to Mayor Mike Duggan, he did nothing to address a work stoppage by employees who disliked White, the lawsuit states.

    White’s attorney Carl Edwards says Ferguson was clearly biased against women and treated White unfairly because of her gender.

    “It’s tragic,” White’s attorney Carl Edwards tells Metro Times. “A woman with 20 years of experience with a sterling record of work performance lost her job because of a man who is a serial sex harasser who favors men over women. It’s an awful case.”

    White also helped several women coworkers file gender discrimination complaints because they were paid “substantially” less than their male counterparts.

    At that point, White had a target on her back, Edwards says.

    White took a mental health leave of absence from January to March 2023 “because of severe bullying, harassment, hatred, retaliation and discrimination” by Ferguson, the lawsuit states. During her absence, Ferguson ordered her belongings to be removed from her office and sent to a storage room, according to the lawsuit.

    Several days after she returned to work, White says Ferguson suspended her and escorted her from her workplace with the help of a “fully armed” cop.

    Less than a week later, a top city attorney notified Ferguson that the suspension was improper and violated board policies and procedures. The attorney ordered Ferguson to reinstate White, but he refused, the suit alleges.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizen complaints began to pile up because of a significant reduction in staff.

    Under pressure from the public, Duggan held a meeting in January 2022 with White, police Chief James White, and several commissioners to eliminate the backlog, which had “skyrocketed,” the suit states. Duggan’s staff developed a software to monitor the progress of the work.

    In another meeting with the mayor in October 2022, White complained that some police commissioners and staff members were obstructing progress on the backlog. Since the software allowed city officials to monitor the work, Duggan’s administration should have been able to identify the saboteurs, according to the suit.

    “They didn’t have to rely on anything Melanie White said,” Edwards says. “They had direct eyes on it. That’s what makes this case so egregious. The program was being sabotaged, and they took no action. To me, it’s baffling.”

    To demonstrate that White was a good employee, the lawsuit points out that the board’s three previous chairs described her as “excellent” and “outstanding.” In October 2022, Chief White called her “an amazing professional.”

    But when Ferguson became chairman in July 2022, White’s “job performance was consistently and unfairly criticized,” the suit states.

    Duggan’s office declined to comment. Metro Times couldn’t reach Ferguson for comment.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Lawsuit seeks to save trees, protect residents at contaminated AB Ford Park in Detroit

    Lawsuit seeks to save trees, protect residents at contaminated AB Ford Park in Detroit

    Three Detroit residents filed a lawsuit against the city this week in hopes of halting a controversial plan to remove more than 250 trees from AB Ford Park and cover the contaminated park in two feet of new soil.

    The lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on Monday, alleges the city violated the Michigan Environmental Protect Act and is endangering residents by exposing them to toxic pollutants.

    The residents — Terry Swafford, Brenda Gail Watson, and Emma Miller — are seeking “protection of the air, water, and other natural resources and the public trust in these resources from pollution, impairment, or destruction,” according to a lawsuit filed by their lawyer Lisa Walinske of the Detroit East Community Law Center.

    Walinske tells Metro Times that she plans to file an emergency preliminary injunction later this week to stop the work until the city pulls the proper permits and provides sufficient evidence through scientific tests that its proposed solution won’t endanger residents.

    In late February, the city announced that it was closing the waterfront park in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood to begin removing the trees, some of which are more than 100 years old and are used by bald eagles and other wildlife.

    The city insists the trees won’t survive after crews cover the 32-acre park in two feet of fresh soil.

    The plan comes nearly two years after environmental testing uncovered excessive levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, barium, cadmium, copper, zinc, volatile organic compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the soil.

    Despite this, the city kept a large portion of the park open to the public without revealing the findings. The test results weren’t disclosed until after Metro Times raised questions about why the city hadn’t been more transparent about the findings.

    Despite increasing concerns about the park, the Detroit City Council unanimously approved the renovation plan on Tuesday.

    The lawsuit also alleges the city’s plan will increase pollution in the neighborhood because an average of 20 to 30 heavy trucks will trudge through nearby streets every day from March to September to cover the park in new soil.

    In addition, the lawsuit claims the city’s plan will destroy habitat, cause soil erosion, and increase the risks of floods because the additional soil will raise the level of the river’s edge, blocking stormwater runoff.

    The city “is not taking sufficient remediation steps to ensure that the soil contamination does not harm the visitors to the park, does not harm the adjoining waterway and does not have a negative environmental effect on the Park’s ecosystem,” the lawsuit states.

    In effect, the city’s plan to cover the contaminated soil in even more dirt will “encapsulate toxic pollutants” at the edge of the Detroit River without remediating the contamination, the lawsuit alleges. Since the park is in a designated floodplain, excessive rain could cause the toxic pollutants to spread.

    The lawsuit also raises concerns about a large mound of “toxic soil” at the park’s entrance that is across the streets from homes. The dirt was dumped there during previous renovations, and the contamination is spreading “with each passing breeze.”

    After the remediation, the city plans to include walkways, a playground, basketball court, fitness and picnic areas, tennis and pickleball courts, a fishing node, beach, and waterfront plaza.

    Steve Neavling

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  • Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway hospitalized

    Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway hospitalized

    Wayne County Circuit Court

    Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway.

    Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway is in the hospital after first responders were called to her home in Grosse Pointe Park on Wednesday afternoon.

    Hathaway was still hospitalized Friday afternoon at Ascension St. John in Detroit. Her condition wasn’t immediately clear.

    First responders were called to the home on Windmill Pointe Drive at 2:10 p.m. Wednesday.

    Hathaway’s office told Metro Times that she was “out sick for a few days” and insisted her court docket would not be impacted.

    Hathaway is part of a family with strong ties to the judicial system in Michigan. At least six Hathaways are current or retired Wayne County Circuit Court judges.

    Her husband Nicholas J. Bobak Hathaway, and another relative, Bridget Hathaway, also serve on the Wayne County Circuit Court. Her husband changed his last name to Hathaway when he ran for the position in 2020.

    Her father is Richard Hathaway, a retired Wayne County Circuit judge, one-time Wayne County treasurer, and a chief assistant Wayne County prosecutor.

    Her mother is Diane Hathaway, a former Michigan Supreme Court justice who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to bank fraud.

    In 2015, Dana Hathaway made national news when she agreed to re-sentence Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe, setting the stage for his eventual release. When he was a teenager, Wershe became the youngest known FBI informant and was serving a life sentence for selling cocaine in the 1980s.

    Dana Hathaway has three children.

    Last week, her home was placed on the market for $550,000.

    Metro Times couldn’t reach Hathaway’s family for comment.

    Steve Neavling

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