Pontiac, Michigan – Although bad things can happen to good people, Melanie Rutherford is outraged about how corruption in the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office that has impacted Bishop Robert E. Joyce’s church.
“Our church is not just another church in the black community. Life Worship and Training Center is the cornerstone of the community!” she explains.
Melanie then recounts how Bishop Joyce, who is also the senior chaplain for the Detroit Pistons, led marches that closed 27 crack houses in the community. Rutherford asks, “Would the pastor of any other church take his life into his own hands like that? How dangerous would Pontiac if Bishop Joyce’s church is foreclosed out of this building?”
However, while fighting the foreclosure of his church, Bishop Joyce is again rooting out crime in his community by asking Oakland County Circuit Judge Daniel Patrick O’Brien to set aside the sheriff sale because of corruption in the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
In Oakland County Circuit Court case number 11-119411-CH, New Jerusalem Deliverance Church challenges that the sheriff foreclosure deed signed by Oakland County special deputy Thomas Rabette is invalid. New Jerusalem alleges that:
· On 12/29/2008, Bouchard appointed Thomas Rabette as a marine special deputy.
· On 1/6/2009, Thomas Rabette, who is an attorney, transmitted the Articles of Incorporation for American Process Service Inc. to the State of Michigan Corporations’ division.
· On 1/26/2009, the Michigan Inter-Governmental Trade Network (MITN) published bidding on the civil process service contract for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
· The newly-incorporated American Process Service Inc. is awarded the civil process service contract on 4/1/2009. The contract is worth at least $800,000 a year.
· On 4/1/2009, the same day that Bouchard appointed Rabette as a reserve special deputy employed by the Sheriff’s Office, Bouchard also appointed Rabette a civil process service special deputy employed by American Process Service. This violated MCL 15.321et seq., particularly MCL 15.327 that makes it a misdemeanor to violate the public servant conflict of interest statutes. New Jerusalem alleges that if it is a misdemeanor for the public servant to have a conflict of interest, then Bouchard’s appointment of Rabette is invalid and the sheriff deed signed by Rabette is also invalid.
· In 2010, American Process Service filed its annual report with the State of Michigan, listing Thomas Rabette, Roger St. Jean, and John Roehrig as the corporate officers. (In addition to Rabette, there is a pattern of conflict-of-interest corruption because Roger St. Jean, Mike Bouchard’s longtime close friend and personal driver, is another American Process Service corporate officer who is also employed with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.)
· In 2009 and 2010, all of American Process Service’s corporate officers, and their wives, made the maximum allowable contributions to Bouchard’s campaign for governor.
· On 2/1/2011, as part of a federal motion, Rabette committed perjury by stating he was never employed at the same time by both the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and American Process Service Inc. This affidavit is contradicted by Bouchard’s documented appointments and Rabette’s oaths of office.
Evidence of the above allegations was filed in the New Jerusalem case on 12/27/2011. New Jerusalem will be defending these allegations at a hearing at 8:30 a.m. on January 18, 2012 before Oakland County Circuit Judge Daniel Patrick O’Brien.
New Jerusalem believes that all citizens of Oakland County, including those going through foreclosure, deserve honest government. The sheriff, who is the chief law enforcement officer of the county, cannot be above the law.
The New Jerusalem foreclosure case should not be over-simplified as another deadbeat debtor using or abusing legal loopholes to avoid eviction. The plight of New Jerusalem’s foreclosure is bigger than another class struggle between the haves and the have-nots. To dismiss, wink at, or tolerate deputies’ crimes against the “little guys” in foreclosure gives license for the same deputies to serve and protect themselves rather than the taxpayers who pay their salaries.
For more information, please contact Anita Belle, legal assistant to New Jerusalem’s attorney Arthur Kirkland, at 313-740-4644 or ackirkland.law@gmail.com.
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