Daily Briefs

Straker Bar to hold Corporate Counsel Breakfast April 28


The D. Augustus Straker Bar Association announces that its annual Corporate Counsel Breakfast will be held on April 28, 2017, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., at the Skyline Club, 2000 Town Center in Southfield.  The theme is: “The Importance of Diversity and the Butterfly Effect.”

The Butterfly Effect is the concept that a small action can have a large impact. It is based on a theory that a butterfly can cause a tornado simply by flapping its wings. Thus, for example, on May 16, 1989, when Harry Pearce, former General Counsel of General Motors, wrote a letter to GM’s local counsel to discuss the issue of diversity in the profession, he could not have known the continuing impact of his letter decades later.

Pearce will be honored at this year’s breakfast because of his impact.  Additionally, a panel will discuss Pearce’s continued legacy in the legal community with Marcia Goffney as the moderator. 

The program is free to members and $25.00 for non-members.  To RSVP, visit https://strakerlaw.wildapricot.org/event-2516310

 

Man, 80, gets a year and a day in prison for Social Security fraud
 

DETROIT (AP) — An 80-year-old Detroit man has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for spending $265,000 in Social Security benefits that mistakenly went into his mother’s bank account long after her death in 1989.

Otis Wilder apologized but also told a judge Tuesday that he wasn’t sure how he got “in this mess.” He said he believed the money was an inheritance, not his late mother’s Social Security.

But federal Judge Victoria Roberts didn’t buy it. She noted that Wilder used his mother’s debit card. The judge said he still hasn’t taken responsibility.

It took 24 years, until 2014, for the government to catch up to Wilder. A 366-day sentence qualifies him for good behavior credits. He could be released in less than a year.

 

Ingham County sheriff changes story on mishandled evidence
 

MASON, Mich. (AP) — The Ingham County sheriff who previously said that no rape kits were among the county’s years of mishandled evidence has retracted that statement after seven kits were discovered missing.

The Lansing State Journal reports that Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth told media on Friday he was informed by investigators March 27 that no rape kits were among the thousands of missing items. He later said there’s been a miscommunication and that sexual assault kits are among the missing items.

A recent audit of the sheriff’s department evidence room reveals nearly 1,800 cases where evidence or property was improperly tracked or missing. The sheriff’s office says the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner kits are from cases dating to 2013 or older.

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