The Detroit Free Press has accused 34th District Court Judge Tina Brooks Green of holding a closed-door proceeding to protect Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Henry William Saad from the media gathered in her courtroom on March 8.
In an April 10 editorial, the newspaper said its executive editor would be filing a formal grievance asking the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission to investigate the conduct of both judges and take any disciplinary action it may deem appropriate.
According to paperwork at the court, Judge Saad was cited Feb. 21 for possessing a weapon in a sterile area of Metro Airport.
According to the Free Press, he was pulled out of line by screeners who told him he’d neglected to remove his handgun from the carry-on bag he was planning to take aboard his flight to Ft. Myers, FL. His arraignment date was set for March 8.
Judge Green said on March 8 Judge Saad asked to talk to her and came into her office with his attorney John D. Dakmak. Wayne County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Robert J. Donaldson joined them.
“I was blindsided,” Judge Green said, noting she didn’t know Judge Saad and had never met him before.
She said Judge Saad told her the prosecutor’s office called and told him if he wasn’t at court by 8:30 a.m. that day he would be arrested when he tried to get on the plane to visit his grandchildren.
Judge Green said he wanted her to close the courtroom to the public for his arraignment because of other things involved.
She didn’t want to close her courtroom, so she offered a compromise: a “by mail” plea. She said the court does a lot that way and last year handled 160 by-mail pleas for charges of weapon in a sterile area.
Judge Green said Prosecutor Donaldson didn’t object. She reports he said, “I prefer it in open court,” but did not object.
Now, according to the Free Press article, Prosecutor Donaldson objected, she noted.
Judge Green sent Judge Saad down the hall to the clerks’ windows where the plea by mail was generated. She later signed the paperwork.
“I didn’t seal the record or prevent them [Free Press] from seeing it. In fact, they had a copy before they left that morning,” she said.
“I was never trying to hide anything,” Judge Green said.
“They’re seeking something against me, so I have to be careful what I say … I may have to get an attorney,” she said.
Judge Saad waived his arraignment, pled guilty, and paid his total fine of $750 by check. He was given a delayed sentence for three months under statute 771.1 and if he has no further offenses during that time the misdemeanor is wiped from his record.
This is the same sentence given at the 34th District Court to others who have carried weapons, in one way or another, into the sterile zone of the airport.
It is unclear how the Free Press and journalists from numerous other news organizations, including television camera crews, were tipped off to Judge Saad’s arraignment in time to fill Judge Green’s courtroom.
“I interrupted their walk of shame,” she said of the media in trying to figure out why the newspaper was so upset. “I took that away from them.”
Judge Green said Judge Saad has reached the age where he can no longer run for re-election, so the newspaper’s claim that he will be up for reelection to the Appeals Court in 2021 is incorrect.