Tip for Title Insurers

The tip for title insurers is to stop insuring title for Oakland County real estate that has a sheriff deed signed between April 1, 2009-December 31, 2012. Why? Because Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard rigged a contract to go to some of his friends who also happened to be deputies at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. This violated Michigan law regarding employee conflict of interest and federal law regarding conspiracy and perjury before a federal judge. The evidence was part of an Oakland County Circuit Court case, New Jerusalem Deliverance Church v. Evangelical Christian Credit Union, case number 11-119411-CH, Judge Daniel Patrick O’Brien presiding. The case is currently on appeal, COA case number 309571.

In summary, New Jerusalem is arguing that the sheriff deed foreclosing upon its Pontiac church building is invalid because the sheriff deed was signed by a special deputy who was not properly appointed by the sheriff.

• The special deputy who signed their sheriff deed was Thomas Rabette, an attorney. Prior to 2009, Rabette served as a marine special deputy.

• In early January 2009, Rabette was the attorney who filed the articles of incorporation for American Process Service, Inc., (APS). John Roehrig was the incorporator, but Rabette’s wife, Judith Boaks, a CPA, was the registered agent for APS.

• Later in January 2009, the contract for civil processing for the sheriff’s office went up for bid. The new company, APS, won the bid.

• Sheriff Bouchard and the chairman of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners in April 2009, Bill Bullard, signed the contract. Usually, for a chairperson to sign a contract on behalf of the entire group of elected officials, the group must vote on the contract. New Jerusalem argued that Michigan’s conflict of interest laws required that the elected officials approve the contract via a 2/3 vote recorded in the minutes of a noticed public meeting. Nowhere in the 2009 minutes of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners is recorded a vote on the civil process servicing contract.

• In 2010, APS submitted an annual report that lists Rabette as the registered agent. In addition to John Roehrig, the annual report also lists Rabette and another Oakland County Sheriff’s Office deputy, Roger St. Jean, as officers of APS.

• Thomas Rabette, his wife Judith Boaks, Roger St. Jean and his wife Linda, and John Roehrig each contributed the statutory maximum to Bouchard’s failed gubernatorial campaign. New Jerusalem argued that these campaign contributions served as pay-to-play for Bouchard rigging the civil process service contract to APS. In total, APS officers contributed $17,000 to Mike Bouchard’s 2010 campaign to become the governor of Michigan.

• New Jerusalem therefore argued before Judge O’Brien and on appeal that, not only did Bouchard and Bullard misappropriate millions in taxpayers’ funds, but that the sheriff deed is invalid because Oakland County’s civil process servicing contract with APS is null and void. By implication, all the Oakland County foreclosure sales since 2009 are invalid if APS employees conducted the sheriff sale.

• New Jerusalem accused Thomas Rabette of committing perjury before federal judge Robert H. Cleland in an affidavit submitted in New Jerusalem’s predecessor federal case, case #10-cv-12566. In Rabette’s affidavit, he said that he was never contemporaneously employed by both the sheriff’s office and American Process Service. Rabette’s affidavit contradicts Bouchard’s April 1, 2009 appointments in which Rabette was appointed both a reserve special deputy employed by the sheriff’s office and a civil process service special deputy employed by American Process Service.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect title insurers to deny insurance coverage for an entire county’s foreclosed properties without proof of the cloud in the chain of titles. Moreover, if title insurers incur any losses due to clouds on title from invalid sheriff deeds, title insurers would need evidence to recover their losses from Rabette’s bond and insurance. 

For a copy of the evidence that is or has been before the courts, title insurers can use the case numbers provided above in order to download the documents from the courts.  Be advised that the courts charge for copies of their documents.  The most complete set of evidence could be found in the Oakland County Circuit Court case.  The link to its website is http://www.oakgov.com/clerkrod/pages/courtexplorer.aspx .  However, Oakland County charges $1.00 per page for court documents.  There are over 300 pages of documents, thus title insurers could pay more than $300 to Oakland County for copies of the documents.  Alternatively, New Jerusalem’s attorney, Arthur C. Kirkland Jr., can provide a digital copy from his work product for $200.  To purchase a copy, please click on the button below.

Title Insurers’ Ebook of Bouchard’s Corruption

Eviction By Any Means Necessary, Including By Invalid Sheriff Deeds

We tell children all the time that one person can make a difference, both for good and for bad.

A person who could be making the difference for bad is Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. He wanted to be Governor of Michigan. Nothing illegal about that. However, another thing we tell children is that the end doesn’t always justify the means, especially if the means by which you raise campaign finances is through kickbacks from pay-to-play schemes.

The case of New Jerusalem Deliverance Church was published recently. (See link: http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7043)

Robert Joyce, Bishop of New Jerusalem Deliverance Church, the 'private attorney general'

An example of one woman making a difference for good is Diane Bukowski. The Voice of Detroit is an independent newspaper that is truly “unbossed and unbought”. In this newspaper, Diane Bukowski published the exclusive scoop that gives hope to everyone who has gone through foreclosure in Oakland County since 2009. She told property owners that the sheriff deed in their foreclosure might be invalid, if the auctioneer who conducted the sheriff sale had a conflict of interest. The New Jerusalem case highlights the potential conflict of interest of Attorney Thomas Rabette.

If the RICO allegations in New Jerusalem’s proposed amended complaint are true, then two people can make a difference, those two people being Thomas Rabette and Sheriff Mike Bouchard. If Rabette was employed with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office when Sheriff Bouchard steered a no-bid contract to a company that Rabette represented as an attorney, and Rabette worked for that company while he was still working for the Sheriff’s Office, then Rabette had a conflict of interest. Michigan law makes it a crime for anyone, including sheriff’s, to have a conflict of interest, so if it was unlawful for Bouchard to authorize Rabette to sign sheriff deeds, then the sheriff deeds Rabette signed are invalid. But the plot thickens: What if Rabette, the company’s other officers, and their wives then all made the statutory maximum political campaign contributions to Bouchard’s bid to become Michigan’s Governor in 2010? Was the contract steering a pay-to-play scheme?

According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Annual Report for 2010, (see link: http://www.oakgov.com/sheriff/assets/docs/OCSO_annualreport2010.pdf there were 8818 foreclosures in 2009 and 9727 in 2010. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that, of the more than 18,000 foreclosures in Oakland County in 2009-2010, Thomas Rabette was the auctioneer for only 10%, or 1800 sheriff sales. According to City-Data, the median value of homes and condos in Oakland County was $186,800. (See link: http://www.city-data.com/county/Oakland_County-MI.html) If Thomas Rabette unlawfully signed the sheriff deeds for 1800 Oakland County properties valued at an average of $186,800 each, then he alone has caused more than $336 million in sheriff deeds to have clouded title. Because federal RICO laws permit civil litigants to sue for triple damages, then the economic impact of Bouchard and Rabette’s alleged pay-to-play scheme potentially exposes Oakland County to more than a billion dollars in liability! If Rabette signed more than 10% of the Oakland County sheriff deeds executed since 2009, then the economic impact of his alleged corruption increases exponentially.

Given Michigan’s fragile economy, the media outlets who are bossed and bought would not want to publicize that millions, if not billions, of dollars in Oakland County titles to banks are clouded due to Bouchard’s corruption. Only Voice of Detroit wants to tell property owners that their rights are being violated!

This is the problem. A big problem! What is the solution? It’s easy to do as federal Judge Robert Cleland seems to have done, to simply turn a blind eye to Sheriff Bouchard’s corruption, and allow people who can’t afford their mortgage to be evicted by any means necessary, including by means of invalid sheriff deeds. The end doesn’t justify the means, particularly if the means require us to compromise our standards of government integrity. You’d think the banks, just as much, (if not more than foreclosed homeowners), would want to put a stop to Bouchard if he is guilty of what New Jerusalem accuses him of. Then, the banks’ sheriff deeds wouldn’t have clouded title. Honest government isn’t a privilege. It’s everyone’s right!

Ultimately, turning a blind eye to corruption costs everyone so much more than $336 million. Even people who don’t live in Oakland County suffer if that county is bankrupted and blighted by unpunished, corrupt politicians. We all pay the price of evil triumphing because good people do nothing. It would be wise of Oakland County to investigate Bouchard and Rabette.

Synchronized Letter Writing Campaign 1

Please hand-write, in your own words, a version of the letter below. Mail it by certified mail, return receipt requested, on Monday, Feb. 28th. Bring your receipt to the Pastor on next Sunday, March 6th.

If we work together, synchronized, we have the power to make an impact!

Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, and Zip

Date

Kathryn McCarthy
Public Corruption Unit
c/o Barbara L. McQuade
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan
211 W. Fort Street, Suite 2001
Detroit, MI 48226-3277

RE: Public Corruption in the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office exposed in New Jerusalem v. Rabette, EDMI case number 10-cv-12566

Dear Ms: McCarthy:

I am a resident of southeastern Michigan and a member (or supporter) of New Jerusalem Deliverance Church. My church is suing the Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard in federal court, yet the civil case has uncovered evidence of public corruption that deserves criminal prosecution by your office.

Sheriff Bouchard outsources the county’s civil process service to a private company. The church’s federal case sought evidence about whether the outsourcing contract was awarded on an exclusive, no bid basis. The judge denied us all discovery, but we found out, from other sources that the three officers of the company donated thousands of dollars to Sheriff Bouchard’s campaign for governor. Is this a kickback for being awarded the contract? In addition, the sheriff and at least one special deputy involved in this contract, namely Thomas Rabette, are breaking Michigan’s conflict of interest laws.

Sheriff Bouchard’s government corruption has cost Oakland County taxpayers and property owners thousands and millions of dollars. Please investigate Sheriff Bouchard and prosecute him and his corrupt deputies to the fullest extent of the law. We would appreciate your office keeping our church updated on the progress of any investigation.

Sincerely,
Your signature
Your Printed Name

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?