Clarita Po sues Sumpter Township for false arrest, conversion

On Sept. 16 Clarita Pajarillo Po filed a law suit in Wayne County Circuit Court against Sumpter Township, Sumpter Detective John Toth, and Sumpter Supervisor John Morgan.
She alleges False Arrest/False Imprisonment, Conversion, and Battery and demands a trial by jury and a judgment of no less than $1 million.
The suit was filed by Clarita Po’s attorney Ronald Ruark, with offices in Canton, and the defendants were expected to be served on Friday. They have 21 days to answer the complaint.
The case #16-011815-NO will be before Judge David J. Allen. A status conference is scheduled for Dec. 16.
According to the complaint, Clarita Po, 76, lives with her husband Nelson Po on Harris Road in Sumpter Township. She is in frail health, suffering from diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, gout, and arthritis, according to the complaint.
Her husband is a medical marijuana grower in Sumpter Township and on Aug. 16 at about 10:30 a.m., Det. Toth falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned Clarita Po as part of a drug raid, the complaint said. Police raided her husband for allegedly growing marijuana in excess of the legal amount allowed.
The complaint alleges Clarita Po was not allowed to leave her residence on her own volition beginning at 10 a.m. and at about 8 p.m. she was put in handcuffs and taken in a Michigan State Police cruiser to the Huron Township lockup used by Sumpter Trownship for its prisoners.
The complaint said Sumpter Township uses the Huron Township jail because Sumpter cannot afford a jail facility of its own.
At the time of her arrest Clarita Po informed the defendants that she was not involved in her husband’s medical marijuana business and knew nothing about it, the complaint said.
She was held against her will for three days, for the first 10 hours at her own residence, and then at the lockup until about 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19.
While they were holding her in jail, she repeatedly requested to have her medication, but was refused, putting her health at hazard, the complaint said.
Det. Toth submitted a warrant request to the Wayne County Prosecutor requesting that Wayne County find probable cause to prosecute Clarita Po, but the warrant was denied because no evidence existed that Clarita Po was involved in any illegal activity, the complaint said.
The complaint said that Nelson Po does not operate his marijuana business out of his home, but out of the outbuildings at the back of his property. Because of her health problems, Clarita Po cannot easily walk out to these outbuildings, the complaint said.
The complaint alleges that Det. Toth and the Michigan State Police did not arrest Clarita Po because she had committed a crime but because they wanted to keep her from interfering with their seizure of personal property and assets belonging to the Pos that virtually all were unrelated to Nelson Po’s medical marijuana business.
“Upon information and belief Sumpter Township seized the lawful personal property of Clarita Po and Nelson Po because Sumpter is financially stressed, close to bankruptcy, and lacks the necessary funds to pay its bills and its employees,” the complaint said.
While she was in custody, Clarita Po had $48,374.38 in Fifth Third Bank, which represented her pension and social security income, which is deposited regularly into her account.
Count Two of the complaint alleges Conversion, alleging the defendants converted, stole, and/or confiscated Clarita Po’s personal property and assets, including but not limited to two Rolex watches, a diamond wedding ring, $35,000 in cash that personally belonged to her and was kept underneath her dresser in her private bedroom, $29,050 from her personal safe in her home and $3,960 in cash in her pocket on the day of her arrest, plus another $152 in her pocket. A cellphone unrelated to her husband’s business and other personal assets were also taken by police.
Count Three in the complaint is Battery and alleges that when she was arrested they placed their hands on her in an offensive way and handcuffed her without her consent.
The complaint said that during her entire life, Clarita Po has been a law-abiding citizen. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to America in 1973, proudly earned her United States citizenship, and enjoyed her Michigan residence and American citizenship peacefully since her arrival.
She worked as a registered nurse from 1973 until 2011 at Van Buren Convalescent Home (1973-79), Annapolis Hospital in Wayne (1973-2011), and at Maple Manor Rehabilitation Center in Wayne (2011-2013), altogether a 40-year career as a registered nurse During this time she personally care for about 6,000 patients.
Attorney Ruark said this is the first of several law suits he plans to file against Sumpter Township, finishing off with a major Civil Rights suit.
“Sumpter Township brought this all upon themselves,” Ruark said, noting that instead he could have given them hundreds of thousands of dollars in their budgets with the medical marijuana business.
But, instead, all this litigation is necessary and they have to pay their lawyers, he said.
“There’s some brain-dead people in Sumpter Township,” Ruark said
“I’m a constitutional scholar and what gets me the worst is the violation of Fourth Amendment rights,” he said.
He said police took fraudulent claims to the 34th District Court to get a search warrant and they had no right to keep them in jail.
“Police won round one. Police always win round one,” Ruark said. “But, it’s going to be fought out in the courts on a fair and level playing field.”
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that “each man’s home is his castle” and reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”