Cocktails & Popcorn: Detroit Police Department Public Private Partnerships With LLCs

What were they doing with those auto parts they stripped from cars?

I do not know but I have provided relevant background with the Hamtramck complaint, below, to generate plausible assumptions for rule out.

But hey, what do I know?

I know there is much more coming.

Feds charge Detroit collision shop owner with bribing cops in alleged insurance scheme

Detroit — Federal authorities for the first time have publicly named the man who allegedly bribed Detroit police officers in one of several alleged illegal towing schemes being investigated in Metro Detroit.

Danial Dabish, owner of Livernois Collision, was charged March 1 with mail fraud in a criminal information, which indicates a guilty plea is expected.

The U.S. District Court filing alleges Dabish “would submit inflated and fraudulent claims for automobile repairs purportedly performed at the shop to automotive insurance companies.”

The government further alleges in the four-page filing that Dabish bribed Detroit cops to funnel abandoned or stolen vehicles to his shop.

The March 1 charges were refiled by the U.S. Department of Justice; a criminal complained filed Jan. 24 contained allegations about four alleged schemes that weren't included in the March 1 document.

"Those earlier charges were dismissed; the refiled information has fewer charges," Dabish's attorney Steve Haney said. He declined further comment.

Three Detroit police sources told The Detroit News in 2017 that the alleged Livernois Collision scheme involved paying cops to route stolen vehicles with minimal damage to the shop. The vehicles would be stripped, and Livernois officials would then bill insurance companies to replace the parts, collect the money, and put the original parts back onto the cars.

According to the March 1 filing, "It was ... part of the scheme that the inflated, false and fraudulent claims for automotive repairs purportedly performed at the shop would contain materially false statements pertaining to the nature of the covered damages to the vehicles and the cost and nature of the replacement parts used in the repairs.

"it was further part of the scheme that, in processing these false claims, and to further the above-described scheme, Dabish sent documents to insurance companies using the U.S. Postal Service, and caused the insurance companies, to whom the false claims were made, to send payments, in the form of checks, by United States mail to the shop and their customers," the filing said.

"In order to initially get the vehicles subject to false claims into the shop, Dabish paid some Detroit Police Officers, including ... Deonne Dotson, money in exchange for their agreement to be influenced and rewarded in their official capacities as police officers to direct the towing of damaged or abandoned vehicles to the defendant's collision shop for repair," according to the filing." <=== That is hot and that is what I call a "Public Private Partnership".

Federal authorities allege that on April 23, 2014, Dabish "caused Auto-Owners Insurance Company to send, using the United States Postal Service, two checks in the amount of $3,273.64 to a vehicle owner, whose initials are L.S., who then brought the check to Dabish at his direction," the filing said.

"The check represented payment for a fraudulently inflated insurance claim that Dabish had submitted pursuant to the scheme."

Dotson is scheduled to stand trial April 29. Five other officers who were part of the scheme pleaded guilty to extortion last year.

Livernois Collision, along with Detroit companies Sam's Tires and M&M Cars, were the plaintiffs in earlier federal lawsuits alleging officers in the now-disbanded COBRA stolen car task force conducted illegal raids on the businesses and their owners’ homes, improperly seized their property, and hurled anti-Arab slurs at them.

One of the lawsuits was filed against imprisoned towing magnate Gasper Fiore, Hamtramck and Highland Park, police officers in those cities, B&G Towing of Detroit and its owner Anthony Thomas. The suit alleges the cops launched false investigations that allowed the tow company to impound vehicles and charge exorbitant storage fees.

Although Thomas, not Fiore, is listed as the owner of B&G Towing, Haney said Fiore was the shadow owner of the company. In the lawsuit, Fiore is called a "principle" of B&G.

Wasel v. Hamtramck Amended ... by on Scribd

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Cocktails & Popcorn: Carmack Fires Attorney, Gets New Attorneys & Raises The Attorney Client Privilege Possibilities

"The popcorn is popping."

On this exciting episode of Cocktails & Popcorn, we have Bob "wired up" Carmack, firing his attorneys in the criminal case that Mike Duggan & friends have put together over a criminal case of a land sale...featuring the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

But this is not the focus of this particular nugget of historic, legal enjoyment.

Neil Rockind, has a long and illustrious history in Detroit community charities, as does Steve Hanley, another prominent Detroit litigator, who is also very active in Hamtramck matters of interest.

Attorney Mark Korio sent out the following press release, January 3, 2019:

A massive federal civil rights and discrimination lawsuit has been filed by Ray Ahmed Fayad, a Lebanese-American businessman, over the seizure of 90 vehicles by the multijurisdictional COBRA auto theft unit in January 2016. It has been assigned U.S. District Court Case No. 2:18-cv-13982 in the Eastern District of Michigan. The City of Ecorse, Hamtramck, Highland Park and Investigators Stout and McMahon are among about a dozen defendants - including some police chiefs . It is assigned to Judge Terrence Berg and noted Brooklyn human rights activist and civil rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf is Plaintiff's counsel. It was filed on 12/20/18 and served on 12/27/18.
Also, in an unrelated development, following a closed session of Hamtramck City Council at the last council meeting held in December of 2018, a Muslim councilman and a non-Muslim councilperson reportedly had an altercation at City Hall resulting in police reports being made. It is expected a local Hamtramck paper may run a story on the incident to be published Friday and there is speculation as to whether attempts may be made to censure any culpable party or parties via City Council action. 3, 2019.

I just thought it wise to include the amended complaint, below, since it seems, there exists what I love to call the spurious relationship when it comes to the network of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending).

So, the police bust a man, in possession of vehicles, that may be stolen, but says that they are his because his name is on the title, the exact same legal argument of the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

Instead of using preparing for a legal defense, you can always start a "Colored" Revolution and file an Elliot Larson case, screaming discrimination, or something like that.

Wasel v. Hamtramck Amended ... by on Scribd

I wonder if Neil and Steve are going to be active participants in that pesky "attorney-client privilege" thing floating around the inner sanctum of the legal community.

Carmack fires attorneys in criminal case over land sale

Neil Rockind, Board of Directors for the
 Friends of the Israeli Defense Force – Michigan Chapter

Detroit businessman Robert Carmack fired the two attorneys representing him in a real estate fraud case Monday and asked for a delay in the preliminary examination.

During a hearing in 36th District Court, Carmack told Judge Deborah Lewis Langston he felt he would be in "better hands" with his two new lawyers, Neil Rockind and Steve Haney, than with the attorneys he dismissed, Mike Rataj and Paul Stablein.

Rataj told the judge there had been a "breakdown" in communications with Carmack and said after the brief hearing there were no hard feelings toward Carmack.

"We wish him only the best," said Rataj. "Sometimes there's just a breakdown in the relationship ... people are not on the same page. It doesn't change our opinion of Mr. Carmack. We still believe in his innocence."

Carmack said his defense will hinge on 14 years worth of records and testimony from 30 witnesses. His new court date is Feb. 11.

Steve Haney, Detroit litigator very
familiar with other high profile casesin Hamtramck.

Carmack, 59, of Woodhaven, is accused of stealing a million-dollar parcel of property from the city. He was charged last month with one count of false pretenses with intent to defraud $100,000 or more, and three counts of uttering and publishing a document affecting real property tied to a decade-old land deal.

The false pretenses charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, according to state statute. Uttering and publishing carries a penalty of up to 14 years.

The case centers around the purchase of property on Melville Street on Detroit's southwest side. The city maintains that Carmack, who sold the property for $1 million, did not legally own the site.

Carmack been locked in a legal battle with Detroit and a public feud with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Carmack made headlines in November after airing private investigator footage of the mayor's comings and goings on a billboard truck outside City Hall. The footage, obtained by a private investigator hired by Carmack, showed the mayor visiting a condominium in Novi and separately showed a woman arriving there on other occasions.

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