Ecorse, MICHIGAN

GUILTY PLEA
December 2008 - Douglas Benit, an assistant superintendent in Ecorse until 2003 until he became Superintendent of Willow Run schools, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and bank fraud. He was fired from Willow Run for conflict of interest he had with two companies he owned that did business with the district. His company was awarded $2 million in school contracts.

He was accused of defrauding the Ecorse Public Schools and a federal program out of nearly $7.3 million. There are no charges against Benit stemming from his time as superintendent of Willow Run Community Schools.

The one count of bank fraud was for misrepresenting his income to obtain a $575,000 mortgage to refinance their home in Superior Township and to obtain equity credit lines totaling $300,000. She pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced to one day in jail and three years of supervised release.

SENTENCED
March 27, 2009 - Benit was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Ecorse is outside of Detroit. On September 25, 2009, Ecorse Mayor Herbert Worthy and city Controller Erwin Hollenquest were arrested on charges conspiracy, bribery, and fraud. See entry.

Plea agreement and indictment documents.
No political affiliation for the non-partisan office, but Benit's political donations 2000-2004 were to the Republican Congressional Committee.

Detroit, MICHIGAN

SENTENCING for Monica Conyers, the 44-year-old wife of Congressman John Conyers, 80, will be delayed until January 15.

Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with the Synagro sludge scandal and Detroit City Hall investigation. She admitted taking at least $6,000 from Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson among other undisclosed amounts to change her vote in favor of the Synagro contract in 2007.

She resigned from the Detroit City Council in June. She made $85,000-per-year at the post. First elected in 2005, she was interim president of the council as the time of her arrest. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox also had warned he would take court action against Conyers if she refused to resign by Tuesday.

She married John Conyers in 1990 when she was 25 and he was 61. On April 2009, one day after denying the relation, Conyers admitted she helped her brother, Reggie Esters, a convicted felon, obtain a city job that was originally to last four months, but was extended to two years, ending only when Esters' absenteeism became an issue. He had a long rap sheet. He has been arrested at least 14 times since 1988. In 1990, he was charged with first-degree murder but was acquitted after a jury trial. I About the time he was fired, Esters was charged with 10 felony counts related to his brandishing a shotgun at two people in Detroit. He pleaded guilty and was to have been sentenced in April.

Her booking photo is from the U.S. Marshal's Service.
John Conyers is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Highland Park, MICHIGAN

INDICTED
Arthur "Art" Blackwell, 56, described as "a longtime friend of Gov. Jennifer Granholm," was charged with embezzling $264,000 from the struggling municipality. He had been appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to rescue the town from insolvency. He was arraigned October 8.

Blackwell has been charged with embezzlement of $100,000 or more; embezzlement as a public official over $50.00; common law offenses - misconduct in office and refusing to turn over money to a successor.

Blackwell was appointed by Gov. Granholm in 2005 to bring the city of Highland Park out of financial trouble. A taxpayer lawsuit alleged that Blackwell cut a backroom deal with the state to secretly pay him $11,000 a month, or $132,000 a year.

Blackwell was removed from office in April.

It is alleged that Blackwell Blackwell has collected total payments of $187,000 from the state and $308,000 from the city. Blackwell has collected total payments of $187,000 from the state and $308,000 from the city.

Ecorse, MICHIGAN

ARRESTED
On September 26, 2009, Ecorse, Michigan, Mayor Herbert Worthy, 77, (left) and Controller Erwin "Earl" Hollenquest, (right) 62, were arrested on bribery-related charges. They are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 16. Both are Democrats.

An FBI affidavit attached to the federal charging documents lays out a tale of two businessmen plying Worthy and Hollenquest with at least $40,000 in cash, a 1998 Lexus and other favors in return for millions in municipal payments. Businessman Stacey Tarockoff and associate, Sheldon Divers, are alleged to have largely bankrolled Worthy's 2007 mayoral campaign and formed Michigan Municipal Services LLC two days after Worthy was elected.

After the mayor eliminated the city's public works department, the newly-formed company received contracts that generated more than $3.1 million in, what prosecutors say, were often inflated billings. They also hired Worthy's son and grandson, as discovered by the Detroit Free Press. Divers, FREEP reported, "has a felony criminal conviction for cocaine possession and misdemeanor convictions for drug possession, records indicate."

Worthy was reelected Mayor on November 4.

Ecorse Wikipedia entry.

Since the post-war era, the city, like most other industrial inner-ring suburbs, has fallen into economic decline. In December 1986, the Wayne County Circuit Court issued a court order appointing a receiver for the bankrupt city. The receivership would last until August 1990, but the city's finances were monitored by the state for another ten years, afterwards.

By the fall of 2009, facing a $9 million deficit and a federal corruption probe, Governor Jennifer Granholm declared a financial emergency for the city, paving the way for the appointment of an emergency financial manager.

Criminal Complaint against Worthy PDF