https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2017/08/flint_police_officer_used_mayo.html
Police Chief Tim Johnson and Mayor Karen Weaver join law enforcement officers and the community during a protest organized by Ebenezer Ministries outside the Genesee County Jail on Sunday, July 17, 2016 in downtown Flint. Tegan Johnston | MLive.com
By Oona Goodin-Smith | ogoodins@mlive.com
FLINT, MI – A Flint police officer says he was “on (his) own time” when he used a check from Mayor Karen Weaver’s campaign funds to purchase copies of the recall petitions his department is investigating.
Flint Police Officer Kristopher Jones made the petition purchase with a $194 check from “Friends of Karen Weaver” – the mayor’s campaign account – at the Genesee County Clerk’s Office at 1:11 p.m. on Friday, July 7, according to receipts obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Courthouse surveillance information – also obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request – shows Jones entering the county courthouse, where the clerk’s office is located, at 12:53 p.m. on July 7 and leaving 20 minutes later, at 1:13 p.m.
Jones, who was wearing his police badge on his belt at the time of the midday transaction, according to County Clerk John Gleason, did not deny the events and instead said through city spokesperson Kristin Moore that he was “on (his) own time” when he purchased the stack of recall petitions.
A receipt from the Genesee County Clerk’s office showing Jones’ walk-in purchase of the recall petitions using a $194 check from Mayor Karen Weaver’s campaign fund.
Nearly two weeks later, on Thursday, July 20, Gleason — who said he took notes of his office’s interactions regarding the mayoral recall petitions — said Jones returned to the clerk’s office, where the officer questioned the clerk secretary and two elections officials in connection with the investigation on the recall petitions.
Jones is often seen in close proximity to the mayor at City Hall, and was one of the officers seen arresting six people at the city’s contentious town hall meeting on the future of Flint’s water source in April.
The six were released from the city lock-up the morning after the arrests and the case was never prosecuted.
Jones did not respond to direct request for comment.
Genesee County Clerk John Gleason’s notes outlining his office’s interactions in regards to the mayoral recall petitions. Dominic Adams I MLive.com
In the midst of a criminal investigation by Flint police into the validity of the recall petitions, University of Detroit Mercy Law Professor Larry Dubin said the officer’s actions of spending money from the mayor’s campaign may overstep investigation boundaries.
“Certainly, if true, that could cross a boundary of needed independence from the police department,” said Dubin, who specializes in ethics in government and lawyers. “It would seem that the mayor’s office should not be participating financially in the investigation of the potential fraudulent inducement that possibly incurred with respect to her office. Any investigation into the mayor’s office should be conducted by an entity that is independent of the mayor’s office.”
While he declined to comment directly on any allegations being made in the potential recall of Weaver, Fred Woodhams of the Michigan Secretary of State’s office noted that, “speaking generally, state law prohibits the use of public resources, including staff time and physical items such as computers, to support or oppose a candidate or ballot question.”
Campaign documents filed by Weaver’s campaign confirm her campaign committee paid for the recall documents on July 7.
This isn’t the first time that the Flint police department’s involvement in the mayoral recall efforts has come into question.
After distributing a press release stating that the department was investigating a formal criminal complaint alleging that residents were tricked into signing the recall petition against Weaver, police were spotted knocking on doors in the community to question voters on whether they signed to remove the mayor.
For 88-year-old David Peterson, the visit to his Flint home from law enforcement on Thursday, July 27, “seemed a little odd.”
“I knew I wasn’t in trouble because I hadn’t done nothing,” said Peterson, who said that the officer joked that he was “here to arrest” him when Peterson’s daughter let him in the house.
“(The officer) said, ‘What I’m here about is signing the recall petition.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I signed it, and for my wife, too. She has dementia.’ Then he left,” said Peterson.
Flint police spokesperson Det. Tyrone Booth confirmed that the department is actively investigating the formal criminal complaint into the petitions, but declined to comment on the alleged house calls, citing an open investigation.
But Gleason – who oversaw certifying signatures on the recall petitions – called the alleged police visits “voter intimidation.”
“It scares the bejeezus out of folks when the police are knocking at their doors … that’s how they intimidate voters,” said Gleason. “You ought to be calling the cops, the cops shouldn’t be calling you.”
Despite dispersing the release to local media containing allegations against petitioners, the city refused to release a copy of a criminal complaint to MLive-The Flint Journal – requested through the Freedom of Information Act – citing the open case’s active investigation.
According to the release, it’s alleged petitioners were seeking signatures for support of a grant from the state of Michigan for water pipe replacement, recalls of Gov. Rick Snyder and President Donald Trump, reduction in water rates or other energy costs and then flipped the signature sheets to get names on the mayoral recall petitions.
In this Thursday, April 20, 2017, photo, Flint police Officer Kristopher Jones removes resident Leah Palladeno, in handcuffs, from a town hall meeting at House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, related to the city’s crisis with lead-tainted water, in Flint, Mich. Jake May I MLive.com
If true, the action could be a violation of state law and make the petitioners guilty of a misdemeanor, the police department’s release said.
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said on Tuesday, Aug. 1, that his office has received information regarding the Flint mayoral recall investigation, but declined to comment further on the matter.
The recall seeks to oust the mayor for agreeing to an emergency waste collection contract with Rizzo Environmental Services.
On Monday, July 31, Weaver submitted a letter to Genesee County Clerk John Gleason’s office stating that a forensic analyst found over 1,200 of the signatures to be forged or otherwise manipulated and that the recall efforts should be declared invalid.
The 5,951 petition signatures – previously verified by both the Flint City Clerk’s Office and the Genesee County Clerk’s Office – were scrutinized by Robert D. Kullman, a forensic document analyst at the East Lansing-based Speckin Forensic Laboratories who was hired by the embattled mayor to review the signatures, Weaver’s letter said.
“My examinations revealed changed/altered dates within the circulator signature block, dates on the signature lines that were after the date in the circulator signature block, information in the signature lines (addresses, ZIP codes, dates) that were not written by the signer,” Kullman’s analysis said.
Flint resident Arthur Woodson listens from the gallery on Monday, April 24, 2017, as Genesee Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut rules that the language put forth for recall of Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is valid and that the recall process may go forward at the Genesee County Circuit Court in downtown Flint. Jake May I MLive.com
In order to place the mayoral recall on the ballot, Woodson needed a minimum of 5,750 signatures – a figure equivalent to 25 percent of city voter turnout in the most recent governor’s election.
Gleason said he plans to finish verifying Weaver’s claims by Friday, Aug. 4.
If Weaver’s challenge of the signatures holds up, Woodson will no longer have enough to move recall efforts forward, but may take the matter to court.
However, that doesn’t bother Woodson, who said he plans to disprove the mayor’s challenge.
“We’re getting ready to go door-to-door here and figure this out,” Woodson said. “If that doesn’t work, we’re definitely taking this to court. They harassed people who signed (the recall petition), and now people who signed are afraid to do anything. City Hall is run by incompetent people – you can quote me on that.”