Year of upheaval
Pandemic, scandal, strife and elections dominated the year
When the calendar turned to 2020, chances are unless you were an epidemiologist you probably had no knowledge of COVID-19.
By mid March, this coronavirus disease would completely upend life as we know it in Macomb County and around the world.
Recently, Macomb Daily writers and editors held a meeting (virtually, of course) to sort out the top 10 news stories of 2020. Not surprisingly, the onset of COVID-19 and all that came with it was voted no. 1.
It was a pretty obvious choice in a year that came with lots of important news, including the disgraced resignation of a longtime Macomb County official, racial unrest, political strife in the county’s largest city and an election that stamped Macomb as a solidly red county with Republicans seizing control of county government.
The list of our top 10 stories of 2020 follows.
1. Our world changes overnight
As the month of March began, the grip of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was just starting to come into focus. A disease that first appeared in China in late December, 2019, the first American death was reported on Feb. 29. Also in February, a Sterling Heights woman may have been the first Macomb resident impacted by the disease as she was stranded on a quarantined cruise ship.
From that point, in a matter of two weeks, orders came that shuttered businesses, churches, schools, and anything else not deemed to be “essential.” While the U. S. was one of the last nations to be hit by the virus, by the end of March we led the world in case counts, a dubious distinction we would not relinquish throughout the year.
In Macomb County, 69 people would die in March. Testing tents were erected outside of hospitals and nearly 40 percent of those tested that month would come back as having COVID-19.
By April, the coronavirus had a firm grip on the county. With schools struggling to implement a virtual learning environment many were illprepared to put in place, unemployment was at depressionlevels with factories,
stores and other businesses closed. As testing ramped up, more than 6,000 Macomb County residents were confirmed to have the disease as 600 county residents perished.
By May, it appeared state health orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer began to work as the percentage of positive tests and deaths fell dramatically statewide and in Macomb County. Throughout the summer months, health officials warned of a second surge, predicting it would come in the fall. They were proven to be somewhat correct as both the percentage of positive tests and deaths have surged in November and December.
The changing data has resulted in a stop-start-stop mode for schools, bars and restaurants. While some county schools — primarily in the north end — attempted to initiate in-person learning, high schools around Michigan ended the year in a virtual-only format. Meanwhile, bars and restaurants that typically rely on the holiday season as their lifeblood have been reduced to only providing carryout meals and drinks to diners. Orders that went into place in mid November will remain that way until the calendar turns to 2021.
The state health orders, first issued via executive order from Whitmer, then through health orders from the Michigan Department of Health and Human
Services after the state Supreme Court ruled the executive orders to be unconstitutional, have also caused a political flap with Republicans accusing the Democratic governor of overreach.
The shutdowns were particularly impactful for small businesses and their employees. By late spring, many began to fight for their right to reopen, calling on Whitmer to allow them to do so with safety protocols in place.
On June 1, Whitmer allowed some restrictions of a stay-at-home order that had been in place for 10 weeks to be lifted, letting restaurants reopen to dine-in customers and immediately easing limits on outdoor gatherings while keeping social-distancing rules intact. During that
time, she was openly criticized by fellow Democrat Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, who said the state was not forthcoming with the numbers — including infection rates and deaths — that were driving her decisions.
Two weeks later, the last segment of shuttered businesses, including gyms, barbers, hair salons and similar close-contact locations, got the green light to reopen. Despite this move, infection rates remained in the single digits in Macomb, falling as low as 2.7% in June, while there were fewer than 150 deaths attributed to the disease from June to September.
As the year comes to a close, while infection rates and deaths have been on the rise in November and December, there is hope
as the first of two vaccines that have been granted approval by the CDC was administered at Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren. Nationally, a little more than one million people have been vaccinated — mainly frontline workers such as hospital workers, police officers and emergency medical technicians — as the U.S. government says it will have 20 million people injected by month’s end.
2.
A disgraceful exit for prosecutor
Developments in in the nearly year-long criminal investigation into thenMacomb County prosecutor Eric Smith transpired quickly when it was revealed Smith, would be criminally charged for allegedly
pilfering up to $600,000 of public funds, was arraigned on 10 felony counts and resigned all within a week last March.
Three days after his March 27 arraignment, Smith resigned under pressure from U.S. attorneys who threatened to bring additional charges against him in addition to an obstruction charge in connection with his alleged pilfering of $75,000 in campaign funds.
Smith’s fall began in summer 2018 when he resisted county Treasurer Larry Rocca’s attempt to wrest control of a forfeiture fund from Smith, contending the money – over $200,000 – should go through the treasurer and be included in the county budget.
Smith relented in November 2018. In April 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel complied with a request by Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel to investigate Smith’s use of the fund.
Smith and three associates were criminally charged. Smith was charged with five counts of embezzlement by a public official, and single counts each of operation of a criminal enterprise, official misconduct in office, tampering with evidence in a civil proceeding, accessory after the fact, and conspiracy to commit forgery.
Nessel says Smith from 2012 to 2018 treated the fund as a “slush fund.” He misspent up to $600,000 on personal or political purposes, such as holiday office parties, donations to churches and nonprofit organizations
and a security system for his home, Nessel says.
Smith’s attorneys called the charges politically motivated because he did not support Nessel’s bid for attorney general. Smith also has argued the expenditures were proper.
Also charged with fewer offenses in the case were his former chief of staff, Ben Liston, suspended chief of operations and former county treasurer and state representative Derek Miller, and Macomb Township businessman William Weber, who installed the security system.
Liston, accused of using funds to pay personal moving expenses, in September pleaded guilty to three counts of willful neglect of duty by a public official holding the public trust in front of Judge Cynthia Arvant of 41B District Court in exchange for dismissal of four felonies: two counts of embezzlement by a public official and one count each of conducting a criminal enterprise and misconduct in office. Liston also agreed to testify against Smith.
The feds, meanwhile, say from 2012 to 2018 Smith wrote checks from his campaign account to a friend supposedly for rent of a Shelby Township campaign office but instead received kickbacks from him. Smith asked the friend to lie to federal investigators and tell them the funds constituted a loan, the feds said. Smith last February asked an assistant prosecutor to say he conducted campaign research in the office, au
thorities said.
Smith in February asked assistant Macomb prosecutor Paul Bukowski to help create a fake contract with a consultant company to justify $20,000 that Smith stole in 2016 from his campaign fund, authorities said. Smith gave Bukowski $5,000 and kept the remaining $15,000 for his personal use, the feds say. Bukowski in September was suspended with pay from his job but has not been criminally charged.
Smith has agreed to plead guilty, serve 15 to 21 month prison term and pay $70,000 in restitution. A plea hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Linda Parker was originally scheduled for October and last week but has been adjourned because Smith is recovering from contracting COVID-19. It is now set for Jan. 27.
For the state charges, Smith, Miller and Weber face a three-day preliminary examination Jan. 22, 25 and 29, respectively, in 41B District Court.
3.
Racial unrest comes to Macomb
The specter of racial discord and social injustice that swept through the country following the police-related deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans led to a number of incidents in Macomb County.
The largest was a rally involving an estimated 4,000 peaceful protestors who filled the eastbound lanes of Hall Road on June 6 to raise awareness about racial inequality and police brutality.
Led by an escort of patrol units, protestors marched shouting: “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” and “Say his name, George Floyd!”
Marchers included Black and white people, young and old, parents and children such as Jill Holdstock and her 18-year-old daughter Jennifer – both white Shelby Township residents – who held a sign that read “Racism in a pandemic, too.”
Related incidents included:
• Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide was suspended for 30 days by the township’s Board of Trustees in June and ordered to undergo cultural awareness training after it was discovered that he made racist and white supremacist comments on social media.
Shelide, using a secret account, referred to protesters of George Floyd’s death as “wild savages,” “vicious subhumans,” and said they should be in “body bags.” He later apologized.
The incident sparked a number of protests – including some in support of the chief - primarily outside of the township offices at 24 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue.
During one confrontation, five people were
charged with felony and misdemeanor charges for felony resisting arrest or assaulting police, and misdemeanor disturbing the peace. They became known as “the Shelby5.”
Protestors also spoke for hours at Shelby Township board and Macomb County Board of Commissioners remote meetings, calling for Shelide’s firing, dropping criminal charges against the Shelby5 and demanding a resolution condemning the township police for alleged racist actions.
The Shelby5 face a probable cause conference in 41A District Court on Jan. 19.
• A white Warren resident was charged in October in connection for allegedly terrorizing a Black family for displaying a Black Lives Matter sign in the front window of their home.
Michael Frederick Jr., 24, was arraigned on nine criminal counts for his violent four- day campaign against Eddie and Candace Hall at their Tallman Street home in the area of Hoover and 11 Mile Road.
Frederick is accused of twice firing a total of nine shots at the home and a parked vehicle, writing graffiti on a car, and slashing the tires of another car over the course of four nights in September.
The suspect’s image was caught in a surveillance video that showed a shadowy figure creeping around the Hall house. Frederick, who confessed to police, said in court that race wasn’t a motive.
His father, Michael Frederick Sr., was charged with being an accessory after the fact for helping his son get rid of the gun.
Eddie and Candace Halls were traumatized but not physically injured in any of the incidents. Mrs. Hall said she wants to live in an inclusive community that stands for equality and believes the Tallman neighborhood is just that despite what her family has been through.
“We want to stand firm in what we believe in,” Eddie Hall said.
The younger Frederick is being held in the Macomb County Jail on a $210,000 bond. He faces a Jan. 11 pretrial conference in Macomb County Circuit Court.
• The boulder in Washington Township known as the Romeo Rock now rests
in a new home after profanity and a racial slur were painted on it.
The boulder served as de facto messaging board for decades in its previous home on private property on Van Dyke Avenue north of 30 Mile Road.
In June, someone painted “Black Lives Matter” on the rock, which was soon replaced with “all lives matter,” then changed back to “Black Lives Matter,” before a racial slur appeared.
The rock became a rallying place as residents guarded it and the message that Romeo would not tolerate racism.
The boulder was moved in early June and is located at the Romeo District’s Graubner Library, where it sits beneath one of the lights of the parking lot.
4.
GOP takes over Macomb
Coat tails are a factor in most presidential elections. The benefactors of President Donald Trump’s impact on the ballot in Macomb County was obvious as, at least for now, Macomb is clearly identified as a GOP county.
What began with sparks during the early presidential debates grew into flames, fueled by Trump’s mistrust of absentee ballots, recounts after Americans cast their ballots, and lawsuits filed by the President Trump campaign including one in Michigan citing complaints from poll watchers in Wayne County. After weeks of scrutinizing the hidden mechanics of a presidential election and with the lawsuits rejected by high-court judges, citing a lack of evidence for the claims before them, the formality of tallying electoral votes was used to declare Joe Biden the winner with 270 electoral votes. Among those in his favor were Michigan’s 16 presidential electoral counts.
Locally, Macomb County residents saw a recount of the District 12 Macomb County Board of Commissioners race that had a Democratic poll challenger accusing a Republican overseeing the count of improper use of Personnel Protection Equipment. The result there was one of a few bright spots for Democrats who were otherwise pummeled here.
Republicans took control
of much of county government. With Republicans Pete Lucido and Anthony Forlini winning for county prosecutor and clerk, respectively, and county Treasurer Larry Rocca and county Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller holding on to their seats, Republicans now hold four of the county’s six countywide partisan elected offices.
In addition, the county Board of Commissioners for the first time in its history is majority Republican, with seven GOP candidates winning seats, including upsets of two incumbents, compared to six Democrats.
Also making history during the 2020 election was Tammy Patton, a candidate who woke up the day after the election to find 39 text messages waiting to congratulate her for becoming the first Black resident elected to the Clinton Township Board of Trustees in the township’s 200year history.
5.
A life ended too soon
An early-fall triple murder in Warren that included a 6-year-old boy shot execution-style in his home was shocking.
The bodies of Tukoyo Moore, 32, Moore’s son, Tai’raz, and his girlfriend, Isis Rimson, 28, were discovered the morning of Oct. 1 hours after the slayings. Rimson’s and Tai’raz’s bodies, found in the basement of the Otis Avenue home, had gunshot wounds to their heads while Moore’s body was found with a gunshot wound to his head in a burned out rental Kia Sorrento on the near east side of Detroit.
Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer the next day called the killer a “monster” and “godless creature.”
Less than two weeks later, the commissioner announced at a news conference that investigators had arrested a suspect – Nicholas Raad Bahri, 37, of West Bloomfield Township, identified with the help of GPS and cell phone technology. Bahri is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, arson, mutilation of a body and weapons offenses.
The motives of the killings were “drugs and money,” Dwyer said. Moore was a drug dealer and kept large amounts of drugs, firearms and cash inside the home, located near Nine Mile and Dequindre roads, according to authorities.
The case is scheduled for a Jan. 7 hearing in 37th District Court in Warren. Bahri is being held without bond.
6.
Warren gets messy again
In recent years, a city known for its bare-knuckled politics had been unusually harmonious, as City Council and Mayor Jim Fouts had developed a cozy working relationship.
That all changed in late 2019 when six members of that council left office. Four of them — Robert Boccomino, Cecil St. Pierre Jr., Scott Stevens and Steven Warner — did not do so voluntarily but instead were prohibited from running based upon term limit laws that were upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled the councilmen could not run for at-large posts after serving three terms in district council seats.
With the four out of office, the body that was elected signaled, days after being sworn in, that it would be hostile toward Fouts.
In 2020, that mission was largely accomplished. The current council, with former State Rep. Patrick Green as its president, took a number of moves including:
• Hiring outside legal counsel to represent it instead of city attorneys
• Approving a motion at a rare Saturday morning session in June authorizing litigation against Fouts and any other city officials involved with what members say is an attempt to implement a budget other than what the council approved.
• Eliminating several positions in crafting the city budget that council members said were unfilled. One of those was the mayor’s executive administrator, a post longtime Fouts subordinate Amanda Mika claimed she held. Green said the executive administrator post – the No. 2 job in the Mayor’s Office – had been vacant since Louis Schimmel resigned years ago. “Everything we know is that she was the executive assistant and being paid at that ($78,494) pay rate,” Green said. “Every piece of info we have states that.” Fouts later claimed he attempted to advise council of Mika’s current role on a virtually-held meeting but was cut off and not allowed to finish. Today, Mika’s LinkedIn social media account lists her role as “executive assistant” to the mayor.
• Supporting a ballot question that easily passed, reinstating term limits for the office of Mayor. Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure by a 67.8%32.2% tally, or 42,592 to 20,226. Absent any future action, Fouts, who was narrowly reelected in 2019, will end his tenure as mayor in 2023.
• Voting earlier this month to table approving payment of the city’s general fund bills until administration pays all invoices from Plunkett Cooney law firm, the council’s special legal counsel. The matter has since been resolved but was indicative of the deteriorating relationship between council and administration.
7.
Iconic furniture business closes down
When any business closes it’s more than the owner who feels the loss. Among the losses felt by Michiganders everywhere was the closure of Art Van Furniture.
The company was founded by furniture baron and philanthropist Archie Van Elslander in 1959. It became the largest independent furniture retailer in the United States, employing more than 4,500 nationwide. A year before he died, Elslander sold the company to Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) for $550 million.
Shortly before the pandemic gutted the economy, THL announced it would be closing the stores in May following a liquidation sale. It had filed for bankruptcy March 8. However, the stores shut down suddenly on March 19, to the surprise of both employees and customers, many of whom are second and third-generation patrons.
In May, it was announced that Loves Furniture, a newly formed company, had purchased the assets of 27 Art Van stores and would reopen under the new company name in Michigan and five other states.
Loves, owned by a private equity firm, US Assets Inc. in Dallas, purchased the inventory for $6.9 million and expected to add more than 1,000 employees, in many instances looking to rehire Art Van workers who recently lost their jobs due to store closings.
8.
A four-peat for champion speller
In a calendar year filled with oddities, Brendan Pawlicki was a picture of consistency, winning the Macomb Regional Spelling Bee for the fourth straight year, an all-time record.
Pawlicki broke the record of Nate Britton, a three-time winner who also served as friend and mentor, with his victory in March.
Then an eighth grader at St. Lawrence Catholic School in Utica, Pawlicki correctly spelled “artiste” after second-place finisher Thomas Phillips misspelled “mercenary.” The win propelled him to enter his fourth- straight national championship in May.
But like so many other things in 2020, the Scripps National Spelling Bee set for late May was cancelled in April due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It marked the only time since World War II (1943-45) that the Bee had been cancelled since its inception in 1925.
9.
Resolution to scandal at De La Salle
A little more than a year after three De La Salle Collegiate football players were initially suspended due to an alleged assault in the locker room, charges against the last of seven players were dropped in early November.
The assault and battery charges for two players, accused in a hazing incident within the football team, were dropped after the teens apologized to the victims and met other conditions. Charges against the other five players had been dismissed in the previous two months.
The incident had come to light during the 2019 football season after De La Salle, a perennial football powerhouse, suddenly forfeited its first-round playoff game.
The incident exposed a culture of hazing at the school that ultimately resulted in the suspension and dismissal of football coach Mike Giannone in late 2019 and the removal of school president John Knight in March.
St. Clair County Prosecutor Mike Wending had announced in January that no criminal charges would be filed, although he felt a crime had been committed. He criticized school officials and employees for what he described as a lack of cooperation and potential evidence that he said was lost or stolen. St. Clair County was prosecuting the case after the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office had recused itself from the case due to a conflict of interest.
10.
These dogs can run!
Led by two all-state runners, Romeo won the state Division 1 boys cross country championship at Michigan International Speedway on Nov. 6. Zander Cobb and Jack Kelke made allstate and Joe Rinke, Owen Sharnas and Jack Wallace also scored for coach Mike Buslepp’s team as the Bulldogs became the second Macomb County team to win a boys state title. Sharnas’ father was a member of the first, the 1985 Eisenhower team.