Michigan Citizen: Columbine shooting was racist or Diane Bukowski is no Émile Zola

Thank you to 14minutes for bringing some balance to the right-wing haven of Dyspathy. Idiot.

Ms. Bukowski is a convicted felon herself. Don’t forget about that. Worthy rung her up.

“He helped Martin Luther King III maintain leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He has been a consultant for Chris Weber, the Genesee County Drain Commission, and Flint mayor Don Williamson.”

The Genesee County Drain Commission? Say no more!! There’s a high-profile gig.

I am no Sam Riddle apologist, that is for certain. However, I am concerned that the fact that Monica has not yet been sentenced will jeopardize the case against Sam. I cannot help but think that the federal prosecutors made a big mistake in not getting her sentenced first. If I were the jury I would be thinking about what Monica, a governmental official 2x, is going to get as compared to Sam; sorry, but she deserves much more punishment than her dumbass private citizen bagman. Hope this, and all the crap about Monica’s dash and dine episodes, don’t play into the jury’s fact finding about Sam’s guilt or innocence.

I think Ms. Bukowski has been messed up since she was arrested last year in that little accident escapade; here’s hoping that she gets her head screwed on straight again and stops wasting her talents on being a Monicay and Sam cheerleader. (Or, Ms. Bukowski, stay away from the TJ Swann and Wild Turkey: it’s a nasty combination that can make you do shit you regret later when you sober up.)

Even after (or if) he’s found guilty, Sam can still make a deal to sing for less time. Ya gotta wonder how far, high and deep this is going to go.

KK’s old man is going into the grinder for sure… KK, his glorified and blessed self, is likely going to need a plane ticket soon to come back up and face charges of RICO and tax evasion.

But what about Mama Cheeks? Any exposure? She’s been burrowed deeper than Punxatawny Phil lately… not a peep out of her about anything.

And definitely what about the semi-catatonic Senator Conyers? Where’d that letter of recommendation for Papas’ waste treatment plant come from, and why did Monica hand deliver it? Was he in on the payola or did Monica promise to whack his pee-pee in order to get him to sign it?

It’d be nice to see the IRS step out of the shadows and call for a forsenic audit of all their books.

So your readers can decide for themselves, Dyspathy.

American Riddle

What has Cohn done with the Constitution in Sam Riddle case?

By Diane Bukowski
Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — Out-spoken activist and political consultant Sam Riddle, 63, is waging the battle of his life as he is tried in front of U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, 86. The federal government has brought seven counts of extortion, mail fraud, and false claims against Riddle involving Synagro Technologies (a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group), bar owners and developers.

The events allegedly took place while Riddle was a contracted consultant to former City Council President Monica Conyers.

“Andrew Arena, if you’re so damn bad, why don’t you go after the Carlyle-Synagro group,” Riddle asked earlier, referring to Detroit’s FBI chief. “You can convict underlings like [Synagro executive] James Rosendall or [Synagro consultant] Rayford Jackson. They’re nothing. Deal with people on the board, like the Bush family, and then see where you get.”

Riddle faces up to 95 years in prison if convicted. Opening arguments in his trial are to begin Jan. 25 after jury selection process began Jan. 11.

Cohn ordered wiretaps of 20,000 phone calls and other conversations in Riddle’s case. It appears from Cohn’s rulings to date that he has virtually hog-tied Riddle and his co-counsels John Minock and Edward Wishnow as they fight for a fair trial.

On Jan. 11, Cohn denied their motion challenging a 100 member jury panel with nine Blacks. The nine counties comprising Detroit’s portion of Michigan’s federal Eastern District are 21.5 percent Black.

“The under-representation of African Americans in the jury venire is systematic and is in violation of the Sixth Amendment right to be tried by a jury which represents a fair cross section of the community,” Minock and Wishnow said in their brief. They also cited the federal Jury Selection and Services Act.

U.S. Prosecuting Attorneys Robert Cares and David Gardey said the Eastern District uses drivers license, voter registration, and state ID rolls, and follows up on unanswered summons. They also cited a ruling by U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts in the Alonzo Bates case, which Riddle’s attorneys claim differs from Riddle’s.

Cohn dismissed jury motion

Riddle’s attorneys asked for time to examine the entire process of federal court jury selection before an evidentiary hearing. The National Center for State Courts conducted such a study on Wayne County’s process in 2006, finding flaws resulting in systematic exclusion of Blacks. It recommended remedies including adding public assistance rolls and other source lists.

“There is no requirement that juries actually chosen must reflect a cross-section of the defendant’s community,” Cohn said in denying Riddle’s motion. He said the law applies only to the broader jury venire.

In 1999, Cohn dismissed two lawsuits against the abolition of Detroit’s Recorders Court, whose jurors and judges came from Detroit proper. The suits, brought by the NAACP and Hassan Aleem and Carl Williams, cited the National Voting Rights Act, and the 14th and 15th Amendments. They accurately foretold that Black Detroiters would thenceforth be tried by predominantly white juries and judges from the entire county.

The NAACP did not appeal, claiming they lacked funding. Aleem and Williams fought their case all the way to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear it.

“Cohn’s ruling on Recorders’ Court was a blatant violation of the Constitution,” said Williams. “But beyond that, it violated basic God-given human rights, over which Cohn has no authority.”

Cohn bars testimony on Carlyle-Synagro

Cohn has granted three government motions asking that Riddle be barred from saying he is a “fall guy” for Carlyle-Synagro or otherwise speaking about various trial matters to the media, on internet social networking sites, or during court proceedings.

The Carlyle Group is a multi-billion dollar private equity management firm, which owns companies around the world, many of which equip the U.S. war machine. Its board members, advisors and staff have included both Bush presidents, former CIA and other U.S. government officials, and former international government leaders.

The federal probe of Detroit officials coincides with probes of Black officials in Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta, also alleging bribes from Carlyle-Synagro officials. It began during the last Bush administration after Carlyle bought Synagro. In Detroit, the probe focused on Conyers’ vote for a $1.2 billion Synagro contract in 2007.

Cohn sentenced Synagro executive James Rosendall, who is white and implicated others, to 11 months in prison. He gave consultant Rayford Jackson, a local Black businessman who refused to testify against others, five years. Conyers, who took heat for opposing the sale of Cobo Hall, is to be sentenced Jan. 15 on a plea deal involving one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. She faces up to five years in prison.

In the 1980’s and 90’s, Cohn gagged Robert Kearns, who invented intermittent windshield wipers, while hearing his patent infringement lawsuits against numerous auto companies. Kearns’ poignant story is told in the recently released movie, Flash of Genius.

Kearns eventually won $10.1 million from Ford and $30 million from Chrysler despite Cohn’s gag order and hostility. But Cohn dismissed Kearns’ suits against GM, Mercedes, Ferrari, American Motors, Wood Motors, Porsche, and others.

Kearns’ son Michael Kearns has announced his support for Riddle. In a short film called, An American Riddle, the younger Kearns says, “They’re doing the same thing to somebody else, you know, time to open my mouth. I did defy him [Cohn] finally, and he dismissed all the rest of my dad’s cases the next day, and that’s billions and billions of dollars.”

The film also features rappers Tupac Shakur and Ice T, Malcolm X, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and David Straitharn, portraying newscaster Edward R. Murrow, commenting on violations of constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms.

Cohn bars selective prosecution remarks

Cohn has banned Riddle from claiming selective prosecution by the U.S. government publicly, on the internet, or during trial. Prosecutors Cares and Gardey, however, have published numerous out-of-context quotes from wiretapped conversations involving Riddle in public court documents.

There is no gag order against those who claim Riddle and Conyers extorted bribes from them. some of whom are to testify against Riddle.

Restaurateur-developer Dimitrios (Jim) Papas denied wrongdoing when he allegedly sought U.S. Congressman John Conyers’ reversal of his vote on the Romulus injection wells by bribing Conyers’ wife and Riddle.

A Papas representative told the Free Press, “Mr. Papas was looking at a couple of different projects of which he thought Riddle might be helpful based on his experience and background. Since Mr. Papas had no pending matters before the city he felt he could help Ms. Conyers without crossing any ethical or legal boundaries. Ultimately none of the projects Mr. Papas was looking at moved forward which is why he never utilized Riddle.”

Accuser Jim St. John, CEO of Déjà Vu Consulting, sought council approval to transfer a topless permit to his downtown Zoo Bar. His attorney Brad Shafer told the Detroit News, “At some point in the conversation, Sam Riddle indicated for $25,000 he could get, or we could get, Monica Conyers’ vote.” Shafer said his clients later paid $10,000. Conyers voted “No.”

Two other counts charge that Riddle and Conyers bribed Reggie Barnett, an owner of Wireless Resources, and Melvin Washington of the The Phoenix Group in exchange for Pension Board member Conyers’ support of requests for investments.

Cohn has also rejected a motion for adjournment to allow Riddle’s attorneys, who have been on the case for two months, time to sort through mountains of wiretaps and other documents, and barred Riddle from claiming he is being denied a fair trial as a result.

Ironically, with regard to unclean money matters, Cohn was exposed in a 2000 series in the Metro Times. He refused to allow testimony from developer Bernie Schrott, alleged to be a drug money launderer, in the drug trial of Felix Walls. Walls’ attorney David Steingold later revealed that Sheldon Cohn, the judge’s son, was an investor in two Schrott casino and gambling ventures. The guilty verdict in the Walls case was overturned on appeal partly because Schrott, who the Metro Times also implicated in several murders, didn’t testify.

Cohn has said he will rule on a government motion to allow testimony from a second bribery case against Riddle and his former companion Mary Waters, which has not yet been tried, after opening arguments.

“American Riddle” is at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1283526442694&ref=mf.

U.S. case against Riddle rife with racism

By Diane Bukowski
Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — Opening arguments in the federal trial of Sam Riddle Jan. 25 presented two diametrically different views of the nationally-known activist and consultant.

A jury containing only two Blacks listened, each holding a thick folder containing the prosecution’s exhibits provided by U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.

Cohn earlier barred Riddle and his attorneys from asking why Synagro Technologies and its parent company, the behemoth Carlyle Group, run by the Bush family and other former heads of state, were not charged in the bribery case.

The U.S. Attorney has charged Riddle with seven counts of extortion, mail fraud, and false claims, including alleged bribery of Synagro officials. He is the only person in a far-ranging federal investigation of City of Detroit officials to demand a trial, even though he faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the counts.

“Very simply put, the two of them [Riddle and former City Council President Monica Conyers] were shaking people down,” U.S. Assistant Attorney Robert Cares said in his opening statement. “In Sam Riddle’s own words, they were political pirates.”

Cares said after Conyers’ Council election in 2006, Riddle became her “chief of staff,” and the FBI applied for judicial orders to wiretap Riddle’s phone calls. They got approvals every 30 days from June of 2007 through Jan. 2008 to carry out 20,000 wiretaps. Cares neglected to tell the jury that it was Judge Cohn himself who approved the taps.

He described Riddle and Conyers’ alleged acts of extortion, fraud, and monetary gain using her positions on the City Council and the Detroit General Retirement System board at length. He said the victims included two small Black Detroit-based businesses, Wireless Resources and the Phoenix Group, developer and restaurateur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas, Hustler Déjà Vu strip club executives, and Synagro Technologies.

“This is the way business is done in the City of Detroit,” he told the mainly non-resident jury. Throughout his opening statement and questioning of the first witness, Cares frequently alluded to Riddle’s conversations with representatives of the Kilpatrick administration. What he did not say, however, is Riddle was known to be an adamant Kilpatrick foe, calling him “arrogant and selfish” in an interview with The Final Call and advocating his removal by Governor Jennifer Granholm.

Cares highlighted out-of-context, off-color comments by Riddle on a screen, many of them describing Conyers, including claims she was difficult to work with and had never helped enrich anyone but herself in Detroit. Conyers earlier pled guilty to one count of extortion. She was to have been sentenced Jan.15, but that has been postponed until March. She is not expected to testify at Riddle’s trial.

Riddle’s lawyer John Minock countered that Riddle was only doing his job as a consultant. He said he worked as a part-time legislative analyst for Conyers, while still running his consulting firm, Meridian Management.

“Sam Riddle is 63, with grown children, and has been in politics for many years,” said Minock. “He dropped out of high school to enlist in the military and spent four years in military intelligence. Later, he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and has made a career as a political and media consultant.”

Minock said Riddle was the consultant for the family of the only Black child who died at Columbine, and the families of the 32 students killed at Virginia Tech in 2007.

“He helped TV One become the largest Black-owned network in the country,” Minock went on. “He was the State Field Director for Jesse Jackson’s victorious campaign in the 1988 Michigan presidential primary. He helped Martin Luther King III maintain leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He has been a consultant for Chris Weber, the Genesee County Drain Commission, and Flint mayor Don Williamson. He was the media consultant for Nation of Islam (NOI) Minister Louis Farrakhan when he came to Detroit.”

The Final Call has recently published articles indicating that the FBI is currently investigating the NOI as well.

“Did Sam Riddle extort money from people?” asked Minock. “The answer is NO. Jim Papas will testify that he did nothing wrong in hiring Sam Riddle. … In the business world, having an expert on retainer is nothing unusual.” He added that Papas will also attest there was no connection between Riddle’s contract and U.S. Congressman John Conyers’ advocacy of a title transfer for the Romulus injection well.

Minock said Reggie Barnett, CEO of Wireless Resources, grew up in Flint with Riddle. Barnett hired Riddle to help his company get a loan from the Detroit General Retirement System. That system spends hundreds of millions on the stock market and at least 20 Wall Street portfolio managers, with little going to small Black-owned Detroit businesses. Minock said Melvin Washington of the Phoenix Group is a personal friend of Conyers, not connected to Riddle.

Hustler Déjà Vu executives, who are part of a national chain, are suing the City of Detroit, said Minock, because the Council did not grant their request to transfer a liquor license to their downtown strip club. He claimed they are using bribery allegations to facilitate their lawsuit. He could say little about Synagro due to Cohn’s restraining order.

Minock stressed that the FBI compiled 20,000 wiretaps on Riddle, of which the jury will only hear a small portion.

The government presented its first witness, U.S. Special Agent Michael Lubisco, who headed the Riddle investigation. He testified about Riddle’s dealings with Wireless Resources, while Cares played incomplete excerpts of phone conversations between Riddle and Barnett, Conyers, Mary Waters, former Kilpatrick mayoral aide Derrick Miller and others. Cares interspersed the tapes with copies of checks, bank statements, letters, pension board minutes and other documents.

That testimony, particularly the wiretaps, appeared primarily to show Riddle performing his duties as a consultant. Riddle guided Barnett through the pension board process, calming him about Conyers’ occasional recalcitrance in getting Wireless Resource a presentation before the board, and the length of time it was taking Adrian Anderson, CEO of North Point Advisors in Oakland, Calif., to perform a “due diligence” study of the company. Eventually the board rescinded its approval of a $7.5 million loan to the company, at the urging of Rev. Wendell Anthony and other Kilpatrick affiliates on the board, according to tapes heard during the second day of the trial.

North Point Advisors and the Pension Board are the subject of a class-action lawsuit by Coletta Estes and other city retirees, which claims that the “due diligence” performed on many investments was inadequate and resulted in losses to the retirement system. A recent series in the Detroit Free Press has criticized many board members, including Ron Gracia and Rev. Wendell Anthony, for junkets they took to cities like Dubai and Hong Kong seeking world-wide investment opportunities.

Judge Cohn, who is 86, appeared frequently forgetful during the hearing. His court clerk had to correct him when he described “opening arguments” as “oral arguments” and remind him that the jurors received only one handbook of documents, not two. She similarly shepherded him through the first day of jury selection Jan. 12.

Crooks Testify
Carlyle/Synagro, murderers, money launderers, drug traffickers and gangsters

By Diane Bukowski with Zenobia Jeffries
Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — The prosecution’s cast of witnesses in the Sam Riddle bribery trial is dominated by shady characters, with Carlyle Group subsidiary Synagro starring. Jurors have heard Synagro’s vice president of business development Pam Racey on tape apparently discussing bribes of former City Council President Monica Conyers.

Former interim Detroit Mayor and City Council member Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.’s, Chief of Staff John Clark admitted earlier to taking Synagro bribes. Nonetheless, Cockrel Jr. testified Feb. 1 about City of Detroit and General Retirement System ethics codes. Riddle’s attorneys objected that he is not being tried for conflict of interest.

Porn king Harry Mohney, founder of Déjà Vu Consulting, a national strip club chain, plays his trial role in the wings. He spent three years in prison for evading over $14 million in taxes amid allegations of money laundering and mob connections.

One Déjà Vu witness, Joe Hall, has ties to a defendant in the government’s current trial of 78 members of the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club for racketeering, drug trafficking, and numerous counts of conspiracy to commit murder. Another, Chris Jackson, is a Greektown Casino partner, Michigan Chronicle investor and chief of staff to former City Council President Gil Hill, who admitted to bribing Riddle.

It is not just illegal to accept bribes, but to offer them, too.

U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn, presiding over Riddle’s trial after authorizing the wiretaps, also has presided over the trials of several prosecution witnesses, who are testifying under grants of immunity. Some remain under his supervision.

Bombshell: Carlyle knew

Jurors may never hear key evidence regarding Synagro. Carlyle/Synagro executives at a national level likely approved, and at least knew about, Synagro’s 2007 efforts to obtain a $1.2 billion city wastewater sludge contract through bribery, according to court testimony.

“Why don’t you go after the Carlyle-Synagro group?” Riddle asked Detroit’s FBI Chief Andrew Arena in published pre-trial remarks before Cohn gagged him. “Deal with people on the board, like the Bush family.”

The Riddle wiretaps were conducted while former President George W. Bush was still in office. The U.S. Attorney’s office at that time was also Republican-led. The federal investigation began more than a year before the presidential election.

Cohn issued an order barring Riddle or his attorneys from pursuing the matter. During a cross-examination Jan. 29, he barred the defense from even asking about the Carlyle Group.

In wiretaps played for the jury that day, Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson tells restaurateur Kevin Ransom that Carlyle/Synagro warned Racey to stay away from Monica Conyers. Racey apparently disobeyed.

“How’s Monica?” Racey asks Jackson on tape Nov. 17, 2007. “She not gon’ flip,” Jackson replies. Racey also refers to James Rosendall, Synagro’s Michigan vice president, who has pled guilty to bribery.

On Nov. 20, 2007, the City Council voted 5-4 vote to approve the contract, with Conyers reversing her earlier “No” vote. Synagro and the city later voided it, but Synagro has since resurfaced with another bid.

Racey’s role was first exposed in The Michigan Citizen. She signed a memorandum with four Detroit community groups in 2007, promising them $50,000 for supporting Synagro’s contract.

Earlier, Racey was involved in giving campaign donations to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and a city council member, after the FBI had already indicted former Mayor John Street for taking $91,000 from the company. Philadelphia now has a Synagro sludge facility.

Racey has dealt with officials in Riverside County and Sacramento, Calif., Honolulu, Hawaii, New York City, and the state of Maryland, among others. Synagro spokespersons will not confirm or deny if she still works for them.

Where’s the money?

Also on Jan. 29, the jury heard Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson tell Rosendall that he paid bribes of $25, 000 to the NAACP, $40,000 to city council members, $30,000 to the water department, and $30,000 to Monica Conyers.

Jackson says he gave nothing to Riddle, but claims Conyers gave him a cut. Conyers herself is not expected to testify to confirm this.

A videotape of a meeting between Jackson, Riddle and Conyers at Metro Airport was played with no sound. An FBI agent claimed he saw Rayford Jackson pass what “looked like money” to Riddle, who then passed it to Conyers, as they were standing outside a terminal, with the agent inside. However, the videotape does not clearly show a money exchange.

Rayford Jackson’s brother, Lennie Jackson, testified under a grant of immunity that he passed “large envelopes” to Monica Conyers, sent from his brother. He said he was often not aware of the contents. Lennie Jackson took a plea deal on a 1994 drug case also heard by Cohn, and served 12 years. He said terms of the deal could be revoked if he “lied” in the case against his brother.

He said both brothers hoped to obtain permanent employment with Synagro. Rayford Jackson, who was recruited by Rosendall to obtain “minority” participation in the contract, pled guilty with the promise that his brother would not go to jail again. Cohn sentenced him to the maximum five years, while Rosendall got 11 months.

FBI provided for Synagro

According to government and defense briefs filed Jan. 27 and 28, the FBI recruited Brandon Rosenberg, who is awaiting sentencing in front of Cohn for drug conspiracy. He was to contact Jackson to have him bribe City Council members with money provided by the FBI.

“Jackson told Rosendall he had just been to see two council members, and that he had paid them expensive bribes,” says the defense brief, describing transcripts of a Sept. 2007 wiretap.

“He also made it sound as though the supposed bribes he had paid them were in connection with Synagro, not Rosenberg’s real estate project,” the brief says. “He expressed hope that Rosendall’s superior, Pam [Racey], would agree to reimburse him for the bribe money, and Rosendall assured him it would not be a problem.”

The defense contended that Jackson pocketed bribe money as part of a regular practice.

Strip club owners sue city, blame Riddle

Déjà Vu Consulting, Inc.’s President Jim St. John, aide Joe Hall, and consultant Chris Jackson also took the stand against Riddle Jan. 28. St. John and Hall testified they met with Riddle to obtain Council approval of a license transfer from the Zoo bar in downtown Detroit to their proposed strip club, and expressed shock at an alleged bribery attempt.

On cross-exam, they admitted they did not report the attempt to police, but first raised it during a court appeal of the city’s denial of the license transfer.

Hall said he was testifying under a grant of immunity. Federal prosecutors withdrew drug-dealing charges against him in 2008 for unspecified reasons, according to court records.

The U.S. said Hall delivered a large shipment of the drug Oxycontin from Kentucky to 3503 Junction in Detroit, where Gary Ball, Jr., is listed as a taxpayer. Ball, Jr., is one of 78 alleged Highwaymen Motorcycle Club members currently being tried on federal counts including racketeering, drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery, arson, vehicle theft and other charges.

Déjà Vu’s founder and true operator is Harry Mohney, whose $100 million empire is based in Lansing, Michigan. He was convicted on federal tax evasion charges in 1992 and served three years in federal prison.

Mohney’s ex-wife, porn star Gail Palmer, testified in a 1985 court deposition: “Although Mohney incorporated his business, he had total management and control over it while placing other people in positions of officers and directors to avoid being connected to the business. These named officers and directors were merely Mohney’s puppets.”

Jay Allen Sanford, a long-time Mohney associate, quoted Palmer’s statement in a semi-autobiographical history:

“Hidden paperwork reveals Mohney’s hand in more than 70 corporations,” Sanford wrote. “Evidence surfaces that he may have skimmed over a million dollars a year from some operations. The Meese Commission report on pornography (1986) links his business dealings with organized crime bosses, stating (page 1230), ‘Mohney worked closely with the La Cosa Nostra [mafia] Colombo and DeCavalcante crime families, who dominated East Coast porn distribution with the Gambinos.’ ”

Mohney himself denied any connection with the mob, says Sanford.

Federal prosecutors called Mohney the second largest purveyor of porn in the country, according to Sanford. He quotes U.S. assistant attorney Richard Delonis, “I have not encountered anyone who took cheating on their taxes to this kind of level.” A federal tax lien of over $14 million was levied against Mohney’s companies in 1993.

Chris Jackson, Gil Hill, and Greektown Casino

Chris Jackson, of Jackson Consulting, Inc., corroborated the strip club operators’ testimony, saying he met with Riddle and gave him bribes, which Riddle’s attorneys have said were consulting fees. Jackson said he continued to give Riddle money on his own even after the license transfer was voted down by the council majority, including Conyers.

Jackson said he wanted the national chain to hire his ATM processing company. He testified he served as former City Council President Gil Hill’s chief of staff in the 1990s.

The Michigan Citizen revealed in 1998 that Hill reported $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Greektown Casino in 1997. Hill voted to approve the casino deals. That year, Jackson incorporated his consulting firm and was promptly named vice-president of operations for the proposed casino. He is still a minority partner. He is also an investor in the Michigan Chronicle.

MISTRIAL!
Jurors attack lone Black woman for holding out in Riddle case

By Diane Bukowski
Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn granted a defense motion for mistrial in the Sam Riddle case Feb. 17, and cautioned the jurors not to discuss the reasons for their inability to reach agreement.

According to reports, Cohn himself said the government would re-try Riddle.

Despite Cohn’s instructions, the jury foreman Matt LeFevre told reporters that the lone Black juror held out for acquittal. A woman who appears to be in her 30s, she is a flight attendant. Lefevre claimed she refused to deliberate at all, and said he wanted Riddle re-tried.

Another juror claimed she said sarcastically, “Let’s hang the Black man.”

Instead, despite pressure from 11 jurors not of her race, which some jurors said included screaming fights, the flight attendant hung the jury.

She was not available for comment herself, but during the trial, she demonstrated cynicism about the government’s case.

During testimony against Riddle by Joe Hall, a manager of the national Déjà Vu strip club chain, she requested to ask a question. Cohn at first refused, but on the following day he allowed jurors to send written questions to him. He then read three questions to Hall, one of which was, “Have you ever danced in a strip club?”

Riddle’s defense attorneys later took testimony from Déjà Vu’s officers that women who danced in their clubs paid to do so, living on tips, a portion of which they gave to the owners. It is a relationship similar to that between prostitutes and pimps. Riddle was called a “political pimp,” a racially charged word, by the prosecution in their closing statements.

The same juror also reportedly asked government witness Dimitrios “Jim” Papas to “speak up.” In an earlier written statement, Papas said he voluntarily hired Riddle as a consultant, but on the stand testified that he was coerced.

Papas and his partner Ted Gatzaros were involved in business dealings in the 1990s, but the only person charged by the federal government was the man they recruited as a go-between.

Most prosecution witnesses used in the Riddle trial have been ensnared in federal criminal indictments and/or convictions, some of them heard by Cohn. (See The Michigan Citizen, Feb.14, 2010: “Crooks Testify.”)

“It IS about race because Synagro is not in the court,” political analyst Steve Hood said regarding the trial Feb. 14 during the Fox 2 News “Let It Rip” show, a venue which has frequently featured Riddle himself.

A subsidiary of the Carlyle Group, which is run by both George Bushes, CIA retirees, and former international leaders, Synagro Technologies was a major focus of the trial and has dominated city politics for the last several years.

The government claimed Riddle, a political consultant, and former City Council President Monica Conyers took bribes from Synagro’s “minority” business consultant Rayford Jackson as the company sought approval of a $1.2 billion contract. The prosecution also accused the two of “shaking down” other business owners.

Others besides the lone Black juror also expressed skepticism about the government’s case.

Ray Nowitzke, who is white, attended the trial each day. He told The Michigan Citizen, “There are a lot of gray areas in the testimony. The jury could make a choice either way. Monica Conyers is the one. If he’s convicted, I would like to see his sentence added to hers. I would like to see him get probation.”

Fox 2 legal analyst and attorney Charlie Langton, also white, repeatedly expressed doubts during his reports about whether the government’s case against Riddle rose “to the level of criminal bribery,” instead of simple conflict of interest.

U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn held individual meetings with jurors after their verdict as well as during the trial. They evidently told him about the lone Black hold-out then.

Cohn issued an “Allen charge” in mid-trial, instructing the jury to resume deliberations and try to reach a consensus, while preserving any individual strongly-held beliefs about the evidence.

Riddle’s attorneys objected to the “Allen charge.” The Ninth Circuit Court jury procedures manual discusses the charge.

“The judge should avoid learning the split or the identity of holdout jurors. If the judge learns of a numerical split, even inadvertently, extreme caution should be exercised before giving an Allen instruction. Similarly, an Allen charge should not be given if the court learns the identity of the holdout jurors.”

Riddle’s attorneys earlier objected to an original jury pool that was nine percent Black although drawn from a 21 percent Black area.

Riddle’s attorneys did not have him testify or present witnesses of their own, relying instead on cross-examination of the prosecution’s witnesses. Prior to closing arguments Feb. 8, they moved to have the seven counts of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud against him dismissed.

“The government has not presented sufficient evidence to make its case beyond reasonable doubt on all the elements,” attorney Edward Wishnow told Cohn.

Cohn said he would take the matter “under advisement,” but moved on without a ruling.

He refused Wishnow’s request to have a key piece of evidence replayed for the jury prior to closing arguments. A videotape of Riddle and former City Council President Monica Conyers meeting with Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson at Metro Airport in 2007 failed to show any exchange of money between the parties. Yet FBI Special Agent Tom Yessler testified that he saw what he “thought was money” change hands.

Shortly after the jury began deliberations, Cohn refused their request to have Yessler’s testimony read back to them, telling them to rely instead on their recollections.

In his closing arguments, U.S. Assistant Attorney David Cares recited a litany of allegations by witnesses, interspersing his monologue with snippets of wiretapped phone calls, particularly those in which Riddle used “street language.”

Cares said Riddle used Conyers’ positions on the City Council and the city’s General Retirement Systems to obtain $29,000 in bribes, which he split with Conyers. Riddle’s attorneys have contended that any payments were legitimate compensation for Riddle’s consulting agency, Meridian Management.

Papas testified against Riddle in the latter part of the trial. Papas and his partner Ted Gatzaros initially owned 40 percent of the Greektown Casino, but were ousted by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MCGB) due to undisclosed, unscrupulous business dealings.