Ignoring a Corrupt Conflict of Interest

My family is still in our house, thanks to Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans’ failing to sign the special deputy appointment of Sterling Harrison. Actually, my gratitude should go to Judge Robert Ziolkowski for doing the right thing and obeying the law. Other judges turn a blind eye to the law.

Let’s take federal judge Robert Cleland for example. Oh, you thought I was going to mention Detroit’s 36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes again? Well, maybe I will: Just because litigants aren’t supposed to have ex-parte communication with the judges doesn’t mean that judges can’t talk to each other. I have no proof, but I imagine that when Judge Ziolkowski, while sitting as an appellate judge over Bryant-Weekes, he remanded our case back to Bryant-Weekes, but she played dumb, asking for clarification of his remand. I imagine his clarification was a phone call giving her a choice to either set aside her order of possession or he will do it by reversing her. Judges have egos. They don’t like to be reversed, so Judge Bryant-Weekes finally set aside the possession judgment to the bank. Now, all I need is three or more Judge Zs over Robert Cleland.

What is Judge Cleland doing now? He is ignoring a corrupt conflict of interest in the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. The Wayne County sheriff deeds were invalid because Sheriff Warren Evans improperly delegated the task of appointing special deputies to his undersheriff. The Michigan statutes don’t grant the sheriff that kind of authority. Maybe Cleland is covering up for fellow Republicans, or fellow freemasons. Whatever the reason for Cleland’s bias, it does not change the fact that Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a proud Arab American, is proving that corrupt politicians are not segregated south of 8 Mile Road.

Unlike Warren Evans, Mike Bouchard signs his own special deputy appointments, but Bouchard outsourced the task of sheriff sales to a private corporation. Because Judge Cleland denied the black Plaintiffs all discovery, as if participating in a conspiracy to cover up Bouchard’s corruption, it is unknown whether the government contract to the private corporation, American Process Service, Inc., was awarded on an exclusive, no-bid basis. That alone would violate plenty of laws and Constitutional provisions regarding equal opportunity. However, credible evidence shows the following:

1. At least as early as 2008, Bouchard appointed Attorney Thomas Rabette to work for him at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, because in 2008, Bouchard gave Rabette a commendation as “Reserve Deputy of the Year”.

2. In January 2009, Attorney Rabette filed the American Process Service incorporation papers for John Roehrig, the former Lake Angelus Police Chief.

3. In April 2009, American Process Service, a home business headquartered in Roehrig’s house, was awarded the multi-million dollar civil process contract with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

4. While Rabette was still working at the Sheriff’s Office, Bouchard appointed Rabette to be a special deputy employed with American Process Service Inc.

This appointment violates Michigan’s conflict of interest laws. Because the appointment violates state law, it should be invalid. If Rabette’s appointment is invalid, then the sheriff deeds executed by Rabette should be invalid. This might make sense to a judge like Robert Ziolkowski, but Judge Cleland seems to need clarification.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, in the 2010 Annual Report filed with the State, Rabette lists himself as secretary and registered agent of the corporation, Roehrig is President, and Roger St. Jean is Treasurer. All three are on the corporation’s board of directors. And all three, Rabette, Roehrig, and Roger St. Jean, (another Sheriff Office and American Process Service dual employee) contributed the maximum to Bouchard’s failed gubernatorial campaign. Rabette and St. Jean’s wives contributed the maximum, also.

Not too shabby, Sheriff Bouchard! That’s one way to finance political campaigns and lots of TV commercials! But didn’t former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick get charged with RICO on evidence like this? Didn’t Kilpatrick’s RICO charge spark the present (as if it ever-ended) city-suburb water war? I’m not afraid to play the race card: In one federal courtroom, black politicians are criminally indicted, but in the same courthouse, Judge Cleland lets white politicians violate state and federal laws with impunity, particularly if the ones complaining about being hurt by government corruption are black property owners. Or maybe this isn’t about black and white. Maybe it’s about Democrats versus Republicans. Or mason versus non-mason.

I wonder if the Oakland County Commission knows about Rabette and St. Jean’s conflict of interest? Or the Michigan Bar? Or the Justice Dept.? Or voters and taxpayers? Shouldn’t Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson know about and correct the corruption in his own glass house before he starts throwing stones at Detroit? If Kilpatrick’s corruption affects water, shouldn’t we care just as much if Bouchard’s corruption affects the land?