I wonder how long it will take Gabe to tell his tale of William Isaac Robinson?
I could facilitate the expedition of his tale, but, that would not be any fun, now would it?
I want Isaac to have his due process so he can tell his tale.
I do hope everyone understands the tale is circular, going all the way back to the unfinished business under the Kilpatrick administration where the Detroit Land Bank Authority got its start.
Detroit City Councilman Leland indicted for taking bribes
Detroit — City Councilman Gabe Leland was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on bribery charges and accused of accepting $15,000 from a businessman.
Leland, 35, was charged with bribery conspiracy and two counts of bribery one day after his campaign staffer Elisa Grubbs was charged in the alleged conspiracy.
Leland is the highest-ranking Detroit politician charged with a federal crime since former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was indicted eight years ago and eventually sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
The indictment marks the next phase of a public corruption crackdown that emerged two years ago in Macomb County before spreading to Detroit. More than 20 people have been charged and prosecutors have secured at least 14 convictions of politicians, a deputy Detroit Police chief and businessmen, including trash mogul Chuck Rizzo and Detroit towing titan Gasper Fiore.
“A sitting member of the Detroit City Council engaging in bribery is an extreme breach of the trust of the people of Detroit that badly undermines their faith in local government," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement.
The alleged conspiracy ran from May 2017 to August 2017 and Leland is accused of soliciting and accepting $15,000 in cash and free automobile repairs from a local business owner, which The News has identified as Robert Carmack. In exchange, Leland agreed to help delay or prevent the city's sale of Carmack's property, according to prosecutors.
Leland received $7,500 cash on Aug. 4, 2017, four days before he won a City Council primary election, prosecutors said.
"As was starkly demonstrated by the prosecution of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and several corrupt members of his administration, federal law enforcement is dedicated to rooting out and severely punishing corruption at every level of City governance," Schneider said.
If convicted, Leland faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each bribery count and five years for bribery conspiracy.
The $7,500 bribe described by prosecutors represents less than 10 percent of the $80,730 Leland is paid as city councilman.
“It’s always so stunning and striking about these cases that someone would sell their career for $7,500,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.
Leland could not be reached for comment immediately Thursday.
“This is old news,” his criminal defense lawyer Steve Fishman told The News. ”As The Temptations once said, ‘the further you look, the less you see.’”
Leland has lived under a cloud of suspicion for almost a year since The News obtained sealed FBI wiretap affidavits that revealed he was the target of an FBI corruption probe.
Leland was re-elected in November to his second, four-year term on Detroit’s City Council. He first took office in January 2014 after serving six years in the state House.
The councilman is the son of Burton Leland, a longtime public officeholder who served in the state House and Senate and as a Wayne County commissioner. Burton Leland died in February following a lengthy battle with cancer.
“The public demands and is entitled to honest public servants," said Timothy Slater, FBI special agent in charge of the Detroit field office. "Today’s indictment of Detroit City Council Member Gabriel Leland underscores the fact that individuals who hold a position of public trust — and who betray that trust — will be held accountable."
New questions arose in April, when Carmack sued Leland and others, claiming he delivered $7,500 cash in an envelope to a Leland campaign worker in late summer 2017.
The lawsuit’s allegations date to a few weeks before the August 2017 primary election in Detroit. Leland was running for re-election and Carmack was trying to resolve a dispute involving property he owned at 8124 Michigan Ave. Carmack alleges the city illegally demolished his commercial building using federal funds and was trying to sell the property.
Carmack feared he was being extorted so he approached the FBI, according to the lawsuit.
The day after Leland asked for $15,000, Leland called the businessman and said he would be sending someone to pick up the cash, according to the lawsuit.
That same day, a woman who Carmack believed to be a Leland campaign worker met him on a side street near a bank on East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, the lawsuit alleges.
“During the exchange, (Carmack) explains to the female campaign worker that the cash in the envelope was for defendant Leland and the female campaign worker responds by (stating) that it was not for her and that she would be delivering the money to defendant Leland immediately,” the lawsuit alleges.
The next day, Carmack said he met with Leland.
“Leland responded that he had in fact received the money from the campaign worker,” Carmack's attorney Andrew Paterson wrote in the lawsuit.
Carmack was free to do whatever he wanted with the commercial property, Leland said, according to the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, Paterson identified Grubbs as the campaign staffer who received and delivered the bribe. Carmack believes he is the unidentified businessman referenced in the criminal case, Paterson said.
Michigan Eastern District DOJ Indictment of Detroit City Councilman Gabe Leland Indictment by Beverly Tran on Scribd
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UPDATE~ Fat Ass got extracted by the cooties.
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