Shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, April 23, 33rd District Court Chief Judge James K. Kersten convened the pretrial exams for seven Romulus criminal defendants in the Van Buren Township Board meeting room.
VBT Clerk Leon Wright said the 34th District Court asked to use the township meeting room because they needed a lot of space for the exams and the 34th District courtrooms were too small. The Romulus City Chambers also were too narrow.
Clerk Wright said the three VBT full-time elected officials agreed to let the court use the township facility for two full weeks to begin the Romulus police corruption preliminary exam.
Although at the beginning of the session, Judge Kersten and Prosecuting Attorney Lorie Dawson suggested the pretrial exams for the seven defendants might take three or four full weeks of testimony, by the end of the day it was determined they would try to get it all done in two weeks, but they would start at 8:30 a.m. and run until 4:30 p.m. every weekday.
The defendants are Romulus police officers, the former police chief and his wife. Rather than use one of the 34th District Court judges, who have had contact with the defendants over the years, the visiting judge from Woodhaven was brought in.
There is no metal detector at the entrance to the VBT meeting room, but a bailiff carried a wand to use if he determines it is necessary. On Monday, the audience was sparse, but the front of the meeting area was wall-to-wall attorneys and defendants.
Long tables were lined with tightly placed chairs for the attorneys and their clients. Most clients had more than one attorney. At the far north end of the room, the prosecuting attorneys and Romulus Police Officers in Charge were seated. Behind them were camera crews from television channels 4 and 7, with a few assorted reporters sprinkled throughout the room.
Twenty thousand pages of documents in binders were lined up on another table, as part of the evidence. The judge had a matching set of the documents lined up on the township board table to his right.
Prosecutor Dawson asked the television crews to blur out the faces and all of the journalists not to release the names of the Confidential Informants who will be testifying, for their own protection since some continue to be Confidential Informants. Judge Kersten so ordered, over the objections of several defense attorneys.
Before the witnesses began being called, the attorney for Mohammad Bazzi came forward with his client to say Bazzi does not wish to testify and is taking the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. They asked that his subpoena to be a witness be quashed and he was released from the subpoena.
The beginning witnesses for the prosecution were to be Joyce Clay, administrative aide to the Romulus Chief of Police since 1995 (through four chiefs); followed by Brian Moody and Confidential Informant 180. Clay testified all day Monday and was to begin again on Tuesday, tediously answering questions about receipts and individual defendants as the prosecution went through the mountains of paper evidence.
Clay testified about her role over the years in checking out the “buy money” to the various Special Investigative Unit officers, until Chief Michael St. Andre took over the handling of the cash. She testified that when St. Andre was sworn in as chief, it was a small gathering, and included only the mayor, the clerk, St. Andre’s wife, herself, and Mo Bazzi, the owner of A&A Oil Change.
She testified from 2005 to 2010, the SIU turned in receipts for more than $70,000 in food purchased at Subway, Fishbones, and various fast food places, and also A&A Oil Changes.
She told how her draws to fill the cash box for the SIU was $2,500 in the beginning, which would last for months, and then it grew to $10,000, which would be gone in a short time.
The defendants are:
• Michael St. Andre, former Romulus Police Chief, who faces 10 charges, including conducting a criminal enterprise and acquiring or maintaining a criminal enterprise. He faces up to 20 years in prison;
• Sandra Vlaz-St. Andre, his wife, who faces up to 20 years for allegedly acquiring or maintaining a criminal enterprise and a charge of conspiracy criminal enterprise;
• Detective/Sgt. Richard Balzer who faces felony racketeering charges that carry up to 20 years in prison;
• Detective Donald Hopkins who faces felony racketeering charges that carry up to 20 years in prison;
• Detective Richard Landry who faces felony racketeering charges that carry up to 20 years in prison;
• Detective Jeremy Channells who faces charges of misconduct in office that carry up to 5 years in prison; and
• Detective Larry Droege who faces charges of misconduct in office that carry up to five years in prison.
When all the testimony is complete, Judge Kersten will decide whether there is reason to believe crimes were committed and whether these defendants might have been the ones committing the crimes. If so, he will bind the defendants over for trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.
The court sessions in the VBT board meeting room (with a black drape over the township logo) are open to the public.
During the session on Thursday, April 26, the court decided not to meet on Monday, April 30, and to reconvene on Tuesday, May 1, at 8:30 a.m. The schedule for the rest of the pretrial was to be determined at that time.