voiceofdetroit.net http://voiceofdetroit.net/?

p=7043

RICO CASE ALLEGES SHERIFF BOUCHARD

FORECLOSURES INVALID SINCE 2009
Diane Bukow ski

Life Worship and Training Center in Pontiac, M I

Church asks State and Federal AG’s to investigate

Bouchard

M ay 4, 2011

Detroit, M ichigan – A Pontiac church that was once the

spiritual home for a few Detroit Pistons basketball players
went through foreclosure in 2009. Yet Life Worship and
Training Center is turning their hard times into becoming
a “private attorney general” that uncovers government
corruption.

Wayne County Exec. Robert Ficano and Detroit Mayor

Dave Bing consort with Oakland County Sheriff Michael
Bouchard (second from right)

In their federal lawsuit filed in Detroit under the church’s

corporate name, New Jerusalem Deliverance Church,
Thomas Rabette and Oakland County Sheriff Mike
Bouchard are being sued regarding Bouchard’s
outsourcing of the contract for conducting foreclosure
sales. (Click on New Deliverance Church lawsuit to read
original suit, and on Bouchard Lawsuit plaintiff proposed
amended complaint for that document. Exhibits re:
Rabette are separately listed in paragraphs below.)

The lawsuit alleges that: Bouchard steered the

multimillion dollar contract to a three-month old company,
American Process Service Inc., that belonged to one of his special deputy sheriffs, Attorney Thomas
Rabette. The case then alleges that Rabette concealed his affiliation with the company from the Oakland
County Commission so the contract could bypass scrutiny of Rabette’s conflict of interest. (Click on
Bouchard Lawsuit American Process Service state fililng Thomas Rabette, resident agent to see document.)

Thomas Rabette

The case alleges that Rabette and the corporation’s

other officers then engaged in pay-to-play by donating
thousands of dollars to Bouchard’s failed campaign as a
Republican “tea party” candidate for Michigan’s
governor. (Click on Bouchard Lawsuit Thomas Rabette
donations to Mike Bouchard for Governor to see
document.)

The case alleges Attorney Thomas Rabette then lied to

the federal court in an affidavit, saying he was never
contemporaneously employed by both the Oakland
County Sheriff’s Office and American Process Service
Inc., when this affidavit contradicts Rabette’s special
deputy appointments signed by Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Foreclosures in Michigan can be done outside of the courts through sheriff sales. New Jerusalem’s federal
case uncovered that, since 2009, foreclosure sheriff deeds in Oakland County that were signed by Special
Deputy Sheriff Thomas Rabette may be invalid because it is a crime for anyone, including a sheriff, to violate
Michigan’s conflict of interest laws.

U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland

Federal Judge Robert Cleland, a Republican, denied all of New Jerusalem’s

repeated motions for discovery of evidence regarding whether fellow
Republican, Sheriff Mike Bouchard, awarded the contract between Oakland
County and American Process Service on a “no bid” basis. Despite the
evidence of government corruption, Judge Cleland closed the case in
Bouchard’s favor. New Jerusalem has moved for Judge Cleland to reconsider,
and plans to appeal.

New Jerusalem has asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Michigan
Attorney General’s Office to investigate Oakland County Sheriff Mike
Bouchard.

Go to Bouchard Lawsuit Cleland judgment and Bouchard Lawsuit plaintiff

motion for reconsideration.

Bouchard’s office had not responded to a request for comment prior to this article going to press.

For more information about New Jerusalem Deliverance Church v. Thomas Rabette et al, Eastern District
Court of Michigan case number 10-cv-12566, contact Anita Belle, legal assistant for Attorney Arthur C.
Kirkland, Jr., at (313) 736-5505 or ackirkland.law@gmail.com.