8/2/17, "Half of Detroit’s 8 mayoral candidates are felons," Detroit News,
have been convicted of felony crimes involving drugs, assault or weapons, a Detroit News analysis shows.
Three
were charged with gun crimes and two for assault with intent to commit
murder. Some of the offenses date back decades, the earliest to 1977.
The most recent was in 2008.
Political consultant
Greg Bowens said there are candidates with past hardships in every
election cycle. It’s not something unique to Detroit or the political
arena in general, he said.
“Black marks on your
record show you have lived a little and have overcome some challenges,”
said Bowens, a former press secretary to Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and
NAACP activist. “They (candidates) deserve the opportunity to be heard,
but they also deserve to have the kind of scrutiny that comes along
with trying to get an important elected position.”
Tuesday’s
Detroit mayoral primary election is the first since the city exited
bankruptcy in 2014. The field of eight will be narrowed to two who will
face off in the fall.
Under state election law,
convicted felons can vote and run for office as long as they are not
incarcerated or guilty of certain fraud-related offenses, or crimes
involving a breach of the public trust.
The Detroit News reviewed the
backgrounds of all the mayoral contenders.
While
some refute circumstances that led to their criminal convictions, three
said their past is a motivating factor in their decisions to run.
The
two who have polled ahead of the field, incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan and
state Sen. Coleman A. Young II, the son of the city’s first black
mayor, have no criminal records. Nor do candidates Edward Dean and
Angelo Brown.
First-time
contender Donna Marie Pitts, 58, has multiple felony convictions dating
back to 1977, according to court records in Wayne and Oakland counties.
Although she denies wrongdoing in the past cases against her, Pitts is open about her convictions.
Pitts,
who says she has a business management degree and experience in
carpentry, told The News she wants a “better way of life” for
Detroiters.
“I don’t hide it. God has brought me
out,” said Pitts, who wants to improve health care services, and tackle
crime and work on rebuilding the community. “I hope (voters) don’t look
at it as negative but as my experience, and I can help. I want to fight
for them.”
In 1977, Pitts was convicted of receiving and concealing a stolen 1977 Oldsmobile. She was sentenced to a year of probation.
A
decade later, she was charged with two counts of assault with intent to
murder and two firearm offenses in connection with two separate
shooting incidents on March 24, 1987, Detroit Recorder’s Court records
say.
According
to transcripts, Pitts was involved in a shootout with the owner of a
collision shop and auto clinic on Greenfield in Detroit in a dispute
over a repair bill.
In September 1987, a jury
convicted Pitts of the lesser offense of assault with intent to do great
bodily harm, less than murder, in the shooting involving the shop owner
as well as a firearm offense. Jurors acquitted Pitts of charges
connected to the incident involving the officer.
Pitts
was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, plus two additional years
for the firearm offense. She served about four years and eight months
and was paroled June 1, 1992, according to the Michigan Department of
Corrections.
Pitts had another run-in with police
in Troy in September 2000 when she was stopped in a residential
neighborhood and arrested for fleeing and eluding and operating a
vehicle without a license. Pitts later pleaded
guilty to not having an operator’s license and disobeying a police
signal. She was placed on six months probation, which was discharged in
September 2001.
Most recently, Pitts was convicted
of firearm possession and carrying a concealed weapon under a March 2003
plea agreement stemming from a traffic stop in Dearborn Heights, Wayne
County Circuit Court records show.
Pitts was stopped by police on Dec. 2, 2002, on Ford near Norborne for an improper plate and failure to wear a seat belt.
A
.38 caliber handgun — which Pitts said belonged to her sister — was
found on the front floor board of the truck. She was ordered to serve 40
to 60 months in prison in April 2003. She was paroled in August 2006,
according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Pitts
contends she’s been wronged by the courts and police, and she disputes
many of the allegations in each criminal case, saying she was
discriminated against.
If elected, she said she will combat “discrimination and racism” and advocate for an overhaul of the justice system.
Despite
her past encounters, Pitts said she supports law enforcement: “There’s a
lot of good officers. I just ran into a couple bad situations.”
Fellow candidate Danetta L. Simpson has a 1996 felony conviction out of Oakland County for assault with intent to murder.
“I was a wrongfully convicted
felon, overcharged for a crime I did not commit,” said Simpson, a mother
of four, who contends the witness in the case “lied on me.”
According
to court records, Simpson pleaded no contest to assault with intent to
commit murder — any term of years up to life in prison — in exchange for
dismissal of a firearms offense.
The incident
stemmed from a complaint made by a woman who’d been living with the
father of two of Simpson’s children. The woman alleged she’d received
threatening phone calls from Simpson and court records say a
confrontation later ensued in which Simpson fired a gun. No one was
injured.
In court transcripts, the woman accused
Simpson of pulling up in a van and screaming at her to come outside. She
said Simpson then pointed a gun at her and fired, striking part of a
doorway about two feet from where the woman was standing, court records
say. Simpson pleaded no contest on the day of the
1998 trial. She later tried to withdraw it, but her attempts failed. She
was put on probation for one year and discharged Sept. 30, 1999.
Simpson said she’s running for mayor to “correct what’s wrong and make it right.”
“I’m
not out here just to run for name recognition. I’m someone different.
I’m someone new,” she said. “I want to help lift the city independently
for the people.”
Another
candidate, Articia Bomer, a document specialist who touts a culinary
background and musical talents, was charged in 2008 with carrying a
concealed weapon.
Bomer,
who put together a five-minute extended commercial and musical CD to
promote her bid for office, said she’s running for mayor on a platform
of “preservation, restoration and revitalization.” She’s pushing for tax
reform, better services for Detroit’s homeless and seniors and tougher
penalties for bad landlords.
The 45-year-old said
her conviction is “frivolous” and “wrong.” It isn’t her focus and she
doesn’t believe “that should hinder me.”
Court
records note Bomer was approached by police while sitting in a 1987
Oldsmobile Cutlass parked at the curb in the 9300 block of Whitcomb on
July 25, 2008. A search turned up a .38-caliber pistol with four live
rounds. Bomer said the weapon was not hers. She said she had just purchased the vehicle, the prior owner was a gun-carrier and several others had been driving the car.
Ultimately,
she was convicted during a bench trial in January 2009 and sentenced to
a year of probation and was successful in completing it, records say.
“I want voters to know that they should never judge a book by its cover,” she said. “I am a law-abiding citizen.”
Candidate
Curtis Christopher Greene was charged with a felony at age 19. Greene,
an author, said he’s since turned his life around by earning marketing
degrees from the University of Phoenix and writing three books.
But
Greene, now 32, said his past continues to hold him back. He struggles
to find employment and wants to implement programs that will help
ex-offenders, like himself, facing similar challenges.
Greene
was charged in 2004 with fourth-degree fleeing and eluding police
during an attempted traffic stop in Harrison Township as well as
delivering and manufacturing marijuana.
He was
sentenced to 18 months’ probation under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act,
meaning his conviction would be dismissed if he met all probationary
requirements. Under the agreement, the fleeing and eluding charge was
dropped, Macomb County Circuit Court records show.
Greene
violated probation in July 2005 when he was arrested and charged with
uttering and publishing a fraudulent check in Gratiot County, a felony.
The
case was not prosecuted. Instead, Greene pleaded guilty that September
to conspiracy for uttering and publishing and was sentenced to six
months in the Gratiot County Jail.
Greene also
pleaded guilty to violating his Macomb Circuit Court probation. The
violation triggered an extension of his probation term and his youthful
trainee status revoked, court records say. He was discharged in
September 2007.
The activist and ordained minister
previously sought a council seat and is touting a seven-point plan to
rebuild Detroit. It addresses jobs, discriminatory lending and access to
meaningful employment for convicted felons with academic achievement.
Other
areas include blight and a “pie-in-the-sky” vision for a
3-million-square-foot “Mall of Michigan” that would rival suburban
shopping centers, he said.
“I believe I’m the one to change the city,” Greene said. “Something put this in my heart to do it now.”"
..................
No comments:
Post a Comment