Court Watching: White brings check for $25,000 to court, will be sentenced March 27

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
Thomas A. White walked into the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit on Friday, Feb. 6, with an envelope holding a cashier’s check for $25,000.
His new attorney Otis Culpepper took the envelope from White and turned it over to Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Williams.
Then White’s sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m., Friday, March 27. Sentencing originally had been set for Feb. 3, but White said he “forgot” to bring the $25,000 check and he had a new attorney that needed more time to look at the case. White was given until Friday, Feb. 6, to come up with the check, which he did.
Michigan State Police Detective / Sergeant Joseph White said based upon how much money White brings with him on March 27, Judge Dalton Arnold Roberson will determine the number of years of White’s sentence.
White had agreed to come up with $900,000 to partially reimburse his victims in exchange for a sentence of from two to three years in the county jail. If he doesn’t bring any money on March 27, he could get a sentence of from 20 to 30 years in prison.
White, 47, is a disbarred Belleville attorney who pled no-contest to 20 felonies, stating he stole at least $1.9 million from his clients. Charges include conducting a criminal enterprise and 15 charges of embezzlement, with four of those more than $100,000. He also was charged with forging a check, two counts of identity theft, and one count of larceny by conversion.
White was charged with the first five felonies on Sept. 4, 2013 and the next 15 in December 2013. The 20 felonies were combined in the spring of 2014. He pled no contest to 20 felonies on Nov. 3, 2014, the day his jury trial was to begin. The no-contest plea is treated as a guilty plea.
On Friday, defendant White, Det./Sgt. White, and the Independent waited in Judge Margaret Van Houton’s courtroom #504 where White was on the docket. Then, after about an hour of waiting, they were referred to courtroom #604 where Judge Roberson was sharing the bench. Judge Roberson had presided over several of the latest White court appearances because Judge Van Houten was recovering from surgery.
Before he was disbarred, White ran a law office in the city of Belleville for 20 years. It was located across the street from city hall.
He currently is renting a house in Sumpter Township and lives there with his two sons and two dogs. In November Jani-King terminated White’s franchise for his cleaning firm and so he is unemployed.