Accident News

The Investigation Was Unable To Uncover Any Evidence Of An Accident, A Date Of The Alleged Accident 

Five weeks ago, I promised the People of Detroit and the citizens of Michigan, my office would conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations surrounding Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and members of his Executive Protection Unit.  I also promised that we would proceed as quickly as the facts would allow.  Five weeks later, I can announce that we have fulfilled those promises. Under the direct leadership of Tom Furtaw, chief of my Criminal Justice Bureau, a team of nine lawyers and investigators from my staff and the Michigan State Police have done a remarkable job conducting this investigation.   To give you some sense of the thoroughness of the investigation, a few statistics will provide perspective:  over 30 witnesses were examined under oath by investigative subpoena; over 120 witnesses were interviewed; approximately 90 subpoenas were issued for witnesses and documents; forensic analysis of computers was performed; and over 10,000 pages of documents and records were reviewed.  As you may recall, the Attorney General’s Office began this investigation on Monday, May 19, to investigate a number of charges that grew out of press reports concerning the firing of Detroit Police Deputy Chief Gary Brown, an alleged incident at the Manoogian Mansion, and allegations concerning Police Officers Loronzo Jones and Michael Martin involving overtime fraud, drunk driving and the failure to report automobile accidents involving property damage.  Additionally, the reports raised the specter of possible obstructions of justice.  

I specifically charged the investigative team with focusing the investigation on whether any criminal acts occurred.  I repeat, the focus of this team was on determining whether any criminal charges should issue; they were not assigned to examine whether civil lawsuits concerning wrongful firings are appropriate nor to audit police management decisions nor to pass political judgments.  The task was simple:  do we have evidence of crimes being committed?   The answer is “no.” Let me deal with the most inflammatory allegation first:  The allegation of a party at the Manoogian Mansion involving strippers, the Mayor and members of the Detroit Police Department.  Over 50 different witnesses who presumably were in a position to know about such an incident were directly asked about the alleged party.  Not one witness had any direct or indirect credible knowledge of such an event.  These witnesses ranged from officers assigned to guard the Mayor to civilians who called in tips.  These allegations appear to be founded solely on wild rumor and speculation.  During the course of the investigation, the Mayor voluntarily offered to talk about the allegations.  He emphatically denied any knowledge of such a party; all the evidence supports his denial.  The party has all the earmarks of an “urban legend,” and it should be treated as such.   

 A second set of allegations concerned alleged automobile accidents involving unmarked police vehicles driven by Officers Martin and Jones while they were on-duty and intoxicated.  The investigation confirmed that Officer Michael Martin’s department-issued Crown Victoria did suffer three flat tires during the early morning hours of February 7, 2003, on East Grand Boulevard near Jefferson.  Officer Martin claimed he “ran over something,” then parked the car at the curb, before getting a ride home from a friend.  The media-reported witnesses were claiming Martin was drunk at the time of the collision.  Officer Martin denied that allegation.  Witnesses who were with Martin after the accident also deny that he was intoxicated or appeared intoxicated.  Physical examination of the Crown Victoria failed to yield any of the usual indicators of a two car accident.  In short, there are no witnesses or physical evidence which contradict Officer Martin’s account. The allegation regarding Officer Jones concerned a possible accident that occurred in December 2002 or January 2003 at the Half-Past Three Club on Grand River.  Numerous witnesses were interviewed concerning this allegation: the witnesses included club owners, valet and security personnel, 13th Precinct records, and employees at three different garages.  Jones denied any accident.  The investigation was unable to uncover any evidence of an accident, a date of the alleged accident or cause of the purported accident. 

 The more serious charges involving Officers Jones and Martin involved allegations of fraudulent payment of overtime.  Officer Jones supervised the Executive Protection Unit.  As the commanding officer, Jones had the ability to assign and approve all overtime for the E.P.U officers.  It is indisputable that some officers, including Jones and Martin, received inordinate amounts of overtime pay.  Routinely, officers traveling with the Mayor on out-of-town business received overtime pay for each and every hour spent on the trip.  The extravagant payments of overtime were not limited to out-of-town trips.  As an example, in August of 2002, Jones “was on the clock” for one 64-hour stretch of time while working in Detroit.  We conducted an extensive investigation of these practices, which confirmed overtime abuses and shoddy recordkeeping within the Executive Protection Unit.  Witnesses reported and testified to a system that involved ever-changing and unwritten policies, as well as extremely relaxed oversight--in fact, no superiors ever questioned the payments.  The E.P.U. officers were not required to detail specific work activity.  Overtime was routinely granted based upon the “honor” system, with overtime slips later filled out by the timekeeper.   Against this backdrop of poor management and the lack of written policies, it is literally impossible to prove a criminal intent to defraud the Police Department by any of the E.P.U.officers. Finally, the most serious allegation as it relates to possible public corruption concerned the firing of Deputy Chief Gary Brown and whether this firing was an attempt to obstruct justice – specifically, an attempt to obstruct Deputy Chief Brown’s investigation of the Manoogian Mansion rumor and the activities of Officers Jones and Martin.

Contact our Brooklyn Accident Lawyers if you have ever experienced a personal injury and think others are at fault for the accident.

	Did You Know?
	Child Safety Seats Should Not Be Placed In The Front Seat Of Vehicles With Passenger-Side Air Bags The impact of a deploying air bag striking a rear-facing child safety seat could result in injury to the child. NHTSA also recommends that children 12 and younger sit in the rear seat away from the force of a deploying air bag.