Court Watching: White’s sentencing postponed until April 10

Thomas White, 47, the disbarred Belleville attorney who in December pled no-contest to 20 felony charges surrounding embezzlement of more than $1.9 million from local clients, was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, but his attorney went on vacation and White didn’t show up.
That didn’t seem to be a problem for Circuit Court Judge Dalton A. Roberson and the new Wayne County assistant prosecutor on the case and so the sentencing was re-scheduled to 9 a.m., April 10.
According to the court website there also are two motions pending in the case and they were postponed until April 10, as well.
Assistant Prosecutor Trisha Gerard said her office got a call from White’s new attorney, Otis Culpepper, saying Culpepper would be leaving town March 27 for a vacation out of the country.
Culpepper had replaced attorney Michael Vincent on the case Feb. 6 and did not mention an upcoming vacation to the court when the sentencing date of March 27 was set in his presence.
Gerard got the assignment after assistant prosecutor on the case Daniel Williams left the Prosecutor’s Office to go into private practice.
Gerard said she ordered a transcript of the plea agreement, explaining, “I want to be clear on the terms of the plea.” She appreciated the extra time to get up to speed on the case, which has been creeping forward since the first five felony charges were filed Sept. 6, 2013.
Judge Roberson is a retired circuit court judge who came back for a temporary assignment and got the White case in December. He said he will be leaving the court for a vacation on April 11, but will be back to return to the bench later in the month.
Roberson is expected to leave his judge assignment in May and Prosecutor Gerard said she would like him to finish up the White case so they don’t have to start over with a new judge.
Michigan State Police Det./Sgt. Joseph White on Thursday had called the victims who were planning to be present at Friday’s sentencing to tell them not to come. Some of the victims were planning to address the judge before sentencing.
Det./Sgt. White told them that there would be a request for an adjournment and that the new prosecutor wouldn’t object because she needed time to study the case.
Although the plea White agreed to was never stated in open court, Det./Sgt. White said the term of incarceration for White was to be based on how much money he turned over to the court. The agreement called for some $900,000 to be brought to the sentencing and that would buy a maximum of two years in the county jail. If he didn’t bring money, the sentence was expected to be around 20 years in prison.
The money White turns in will be given in restitution to the victims on a proportional basis.
One attorney told the Independent that his client had $600,000 of the inheritance left by her parents that was taken by White and with the percentage agreed upon by the court, his client would get $3,000. But she also had his $2,500 attorney’s fee. He said she and her brothers will share what is left.
White is accused of 16 counts of embezzlement totaling a minimum of $1.94 million. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 19, 2013, shortly after being disbarred.
White’s lease is up
At a court session on Monday, White told 34th District Court Judge Tina Brooks Green, “I’ll do my best to get out by the 10th.”
He referred to the lease on his rental home that expires April 12, a couple of days after he is due to be sentenced to prison or jail at circuit court.
White and his two sons and two dogs live in a house on Harris Road in Sumpter Township.
White’s landlord tried to get him out earlier, but failed. Judge Green signed a consent order Monday that he must be out by April 10.
She told White’s landlord Danny Bye that since April 10 is a Friday, if White isn’t out on time Bye couldn’t come back to court until after the week end on April 13.
“Come back on Monday. He’ll be evicted,” Judge Green said.
Bye asked if he could have a walk-through on April 9 to see if there are any damages and Judge Green said he could work that out with White.
He said he just started a job and lost it when he told them he had to go to court. He said he starts another job on April 6 and doesn’t want to have to come back to court.
“I really need it the 10th,” Bye said, referring to his house.
White pointed out that Bye was holding the $1,700 security deposit White paid. White said he paid his rent on Feb. 12 and so he was good until March 12. Bye can take the $1,200 rent owed out of the security deposit and, “There’s going to be a water bill.”
Bye said there will be at least one water bill.
Judge Green said it was on the record from the last court session that White could use the security deposit for the rent. She told Bye he should list the things he is deducting from the security deposit and if there’s damage to come back to court for an order.
White said he didn’t know if there were any damages.