I don’t need a law professor to tell me fired Detroit cops’ lawyer Mike Stefani didn’t try to shake down Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick when he showed hizzoner’s mouthpiece those lewd and loopy text messages between the mayor and his paramour.
All would have been well for Kwame had not the Detroit Free Press got hold of the messages and begun publishing stories about them.
Until the mayor realized Stefani had the tawdry text messages, he planned to go to trial. The messages showed not only that he and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty perjured their testimony in the cops’ wrongful discharge case, but that the torrid twosome were having a lusty extramarital sexual affair to boot.
In the first days of those reports, I heard from a mayoral appointee that cops’ lawyer Stefani extorted the deal by threatening Kwame’s lawyers with revealing the messages.
And then we have Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers — who once brandished a gun at her own son — accusing Stefani of pulling a “stickup” with his fee motion.
It’s a red herring – sleight of hand meant to draw our attention away from the malefactor mayor and towards, well, any unsupportable assertion will do.But the media give credibility to the scam. The Free Press on April 30 hyped this non-story by suggesting an either-or conclusion for readers: “Mike Stefani: extortionist? Or champion for his clients?â€
The paper followed that false dichotomy with another: “So…was it a crime? Or a clever coup?â€
What if it were neither?
What if it were something far more mundane, like a lawyer simply following established rules?
Stefani wrote a motion arguing that his fees should be higher because Kwame and Beatty’s lies caused him to spend more time and money demanding — and getting — the cellphone text messages that proved the loving duo were bald-faced liars. He showed his brief to mayoral lawyer Samuel McCargo and all of a sudden the trial was off and Detroit taxpayers were out eight-point-four million.
Believe it or not, this was what was supposed to happen. Rather than file his motion with the court and force a hearing, the two lawyers settled the case. It saved the court time.
Stefani did what any other attorney would have done in Wayne Circuit Court if he didn’t want to tick off the judge. He followed Rule 2.119 for Wayne County Circuit Court titled “Motion Practice.†Section B (2), “Ascertaining Opposition,” directs that “the moving party must ascertain whether a contemplated motion will be opposed. The motion must affirmatively state that the concurrence of counsel in the relief sought has been requested on a specified date, and that concurrence has been denied or has not been acquiesced in, and hence, that it is necessary to present the motion.”
Once upon a time in Wayne Circuit Court, I’m told, lawyers were besieging judges with superfluous motions that wasted judges’ time. So Rule 2.119 was devised to make sure lawyers check their motions with opposing attorneys before dumping them on the court.
Not extortion. Not a clever coup.
Just a diligent lawyer crossing his I’s.
Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
