DAILY BRIEFS (March 4)

Legal Aid and Defender to conduct free clinics at H.O.P.E. Center

Legal Aid and Defender Association, Inc. (LAD) will conduct free outreach clinics on civil legal services for income-eligible residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, including the city of Detroit, on Wednesday, March 9 and Wednesday, March 23  from 9 a.m. to noon at H.O.P.E. Center, 33222 Groesbeck Highway, Fraser.

Attendees are asked to register before 10:00 a.m., as LAD staff will assist only those persons who have registered by that time.

For further information, call Shawniece Clark, paralegal at LAD's Macomb County office in Mount Clemens, at (586) 465-1344, ext. 5003.



Detroit’s former top drug prosecutor pleads guilty to misconduct

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit-area’s former top drug prosecutor pleaded guilty Wednesday to misconduct in office and agreed to a six-month jail sentence for covering up the role of a paid police informant in a major cocaine bust.

Karen Plants’ guilty plea follows deals with two former Inkster police officers, leaving a retired Wayne County judge to face trial in May.
Plants, who led the drug unit at the Wayne County prosecutor’s office, has acknowledged allowing an informant and others to lie at a 2005 trial about a 103-pound cocaine seizure. She said it was to protect the man’s safety but conceded in 2006 that “allowing false statements is wrong.”

“This was a case where if one person had done the right thing, we wouldn’t be standing here now,” said Plants’ attorney, Ben Gonek. “The police, the prosecutor, the judge, anyone could have corrected this but didn’t. It was a snowball effect of the large quantity of cocaine, the reputation of the target of the investigation as a large dealer with the potential for violence.”

The man charged in the cocaine case, Alexander Aceval, pleaded guilty after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict at his first trial.

Aceval is in prison until at least 2015. He has been trying to wipe out his guilty plea, arguing that misconduct poisoned the entire legal process, but higher courts have not granted him relief.

The informant, Chad Povish, was paid $4,500 and had hoped to get thousands more. He tipped Inkster police to the big stash and was arrested with Aceval to further cover up his role. But when Aceval went to trial, it was never disclosed to the defense or jury.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she would not comment on Plants’ guilty plea until after former Judge Mary Waterstone’s trial. The state attorney general’s office is in charge of the case.

“Jail time was a requirement for us because she was the ringleader in a case that has permanently scarred our criminal justice system,” said John Sellek, spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. “This should send the message that no one is above the law, especially those charged with upholding our laws.”

Correction
In a photo of members of the Association of Black Judges of Michigan that ran in the Feb. 24, 2011, edition of the Detroit Legal News, Wayne County Probate Court Judge Terrance A. Keith was mistakenly identified as Wayne County chief deputy treasurer.
We regret the error.

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