Detroit PD Sergeant Wedad Elhage (investigation of the Tamara Greene murder case) and her girlfriend Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Shelley Drain
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
Due to the well known corruption in Detroit, I believe it is my obligation to show the other side of the story in this case, that was presented by Journalist Wendy Clem of the Detroit City Buzz Examiner.
Due to the well known corruption in Detroit, I believe it is my obligation to show the other side of the story in this case, that was presented by Journalist Wendy Clem of the Detroit City Buzz Examiner.
Before I came across Clem's articles on this case, I found myself questioning why Elhage had received 20 months in prison for stalking. In the OIDV cases on this site, very few officers ever see the inside of a jail cell after they brutally assault their spouses. So why was Elhage given such a tough sentence, in comparison, I wondered. Why did Shelly Drain [assistant prosecuting attorney] receive such preferential treatment over all the other OIDV victims in Michigan? Here are the answers:
Numerous law enforcement officers who were involved in the investigation of Greene's murder were retaliated against. Sergeant Wedad Elhage was one of the officers who investigated Greene's murder and who was retaliated against.
To date, Tamara Greene's murder remains unsolved.
The Tamara Greene murder case details both Kilpatrick's and the City's attempt to halt the investigation of Greene's case, the retaliation the investigating officers were subjected to and the federal charges Kilpatrick was convicted of due to his other criminal actions while in office.
Journalist Wendy Clem, formerly with the Detroit City Buzz Examiner, published three remarkable series on the retaliation that Sergeant Wedad Elhage was subjected to. To date, there has been no accountability/justice for the retaliation against Elhage - just as there has been no accountability/justice in Greene's murder.
*ARTICLES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS STORY [WENDY CLEM OF THE DETROIT CITY BUZZ EXAMINER] ARE LOCATED AT THE END OF THIS POST.*
BOARD OF POLICE COMMISSIONERS
Minutes of the Regular Board of Police Commissioners Meeting
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The regular meeting of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners was held on Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 3:00 p.m., at Our Police Headquarters, 1300 Beaubien, Detroit, Michigan 48226.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 7.
SECRETARY’S REPORT – EXEC. DIR. GOSS
SUSPENSION
On Wednesday, July 13, 2005, the Internal Affairs Section was notified of an allegation of misconduct on the part of Sergeant Wedad Elhage, Badge S-505, assigned to the Eighth Precinct. More specifically, the complaint alleged that Sergeant Elhage did, while off-duty, create a disturbance at the MGM Grand Casino, threatening the well being of persons and property.
As a result, the Internal Affairs Section initiated an investigation, which revealed the following:
On July 13, 2005, at approximately 3:30 p.m. Sergeant Elhage was seated in the MGM Casino (hereinafter the Casino) at a slot machine with dollar bills scattered about the floor in and around where she was seated. This caused other patrons of the Casino to gather around her, thereby causing a security concern. Casino Security approached Sergeant Elhage and requested that she pick up her money from the area surrounding her. Sergeant Elhage refused to comply with the request. Casino Security then escorted Sergeant Elhage from the premises. Upon exiting the Casino, Sergeant Elhage threatened to kill the security personnel. As a result, Casino Security contacted the Detroit Police Department.
Initially, two (2) Detroit Police Sergeants responded to the scene of the incident, Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins. Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins attempted to talk to Sergeant Elhage who, in return, shouted racial obscenities at them; "I will kick both your black asses."
Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins continued to talk to Sergeant Elhage in an attempt to calm her. In return, Sergeant Elhage charged Sergeant Price and attempted to kick him. Sergeant Jenkins then requested additional police personnel respond to the location.
Inspector Quinn then responded to the scene of the incident.
Inspector Quinn tried to calm Sergeant Elhage and was also met with racial obscenities; "I am going to fuck-up all you Negroes."
Inspector Quinn offered Sergeant Elhage an opportunity to sit in his Detroit Police Department vehicle to allow her to calm down. Officer Elhage refused and became combative with two (2) uniform officers, Officer Erikson and Officer Patel. At one point, Sergeant Elhage stated that she was going to kill all of the officers at the scene and that she was going to "fuck up Patel's Mexican ass and all the Negroes as well." Sergeant Elhage also stated that she was going to notify the Arab community and have them all killed including Inspector Quinn's children, who she referred to by name.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 8
By this point, approximately nine (9) uniform officers responded to the scene of the incident, including one (1) Inspector and one (1) Commander, and a crowd of casino-goers gathered to observe.
Sergeant Elhage eventually complied with the order to sit in a Department vehicle.
Sergeant Elhage then began to bang her head against the right rear window and kick the window in an attempt to break the window out. While doing so, Sergeant Elhage stated that they could then arrest her for a felony. Sergeant Elhage was then let out of the vehicle. Upon doing so, in an aggressive manner, Sergeant Elhage attempted to physically assault Sergeant Price and had to be physically restrained.
Sergeant Elhage was then placed in custody and transported to the Third Precinct for processing where Sergeant Elhage continued to be combative and shout racial epithets, and threatened more officers with physical harm. Sergeant Elhage was eventually conveyed to Detroit Receiving Hospital for evaluation.
Also, on July 13, 2005, Sergeant Elhage was charged with Disorderly Conduct in violation of the Detroit City Code, Section 38-5-1, a misdemeanor punishable by ninety (90) days in jail and/or a fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00).
On July 29, 2005, Officer Elhage was arraigned on the charge of Disorderly Conduct at the State of Michigan Thirty-Sixth District Court. Sergeant Elhage pled not guilty to the charge and the one hundred dollar ($100.00) bond that was previously posted was continued. The case is scheduled for pre-trial on August 10, 2005.
Based on the above circumstances, it is recommended that Sergeant Elhage be charged with, but not limited to the following violation of the Detroit Police Department Rules and Regulations:
CHARGE: CONDUCT UNPROFESSIONAL; CONTRARY TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT CODE OF ETHICS, THIS BEING IN VIOLATION OF THE DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT MANUAL, SERIES 100, DIRECTIVE 102.3-5.7, CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN OFFICER, COMMAND 3.
Due to the seriousness of the conduct, I am requesting your concurrence with the suspension of Sergeant Wedad Elhage without pay, effective August 18, 2005.
Exec. Dir. Goss asked if there is anyone here on Sergeant Elhage’s behalf.
Atty. Fred Walker stated he is from DPLSA on behalf of Sergeant Elhage.I prepared some packages of paperwork that I would like to present. It’s my view of this matter that there is a history and precedence of the Detroit Police Department. Including references the general orders that alcoholism and alcohol abuse should be treated as a “treatable illness”. The first issue is whether her behavior can be caused from the alcohol abuse, which is my position that manifested the behavior in the first place. I...
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 9
Atty. Fred Walker...submit to you that the answer to that is emphatically no. Because the behavior on this occasion is some much at odds with her normal conducts as a human being and as a Sergeant of the Detroit Police Department.
That in of itself of course is insufficient, and I understand that the charge is not of alcohol abuse or being intoxicated. It’s the conduct that’s charged. That’s why I think it is important that the commission view the underlying symptoms as opposed to the result of the alcohol abuse.
The second issue is whether Sgt. Elhage has acknowledged her alcohol abuse, and I submit to you that the answer to that is emphatically yes. That can only be proven. She has taken concrete steps to address her behavior. I notice that when Mr. Goss read it he didn’t read everything and he kept it to a minimal. I appreciate that.
But, I understand the behavior was completely over the top and she acknowledges that as well. So, this has been building for quite some time with her. I submit to you that it is job related and everybody has stress especially police officers, but in her case this how it manifested itself, in alcohol abuse. She has never been intoxicated on the job, never drank before work and never during work. She’s a binge drinker and that’s when it comes up with this bazaar behavior that manifested itself here.
I have some paperwork in there, which shows the steps taken to address her situation. I would like to go over them briefly. She has been attending anger management through personal affairs she completed immediately. These are voluntary steps taken by Sgt. Elhage. She completed a one-week inpatient program for alcohol abuse. By the way she has never previously mentioned that she had a problem. She is continuing with outpatient therapy. There is a daily AA attendance. None of the things she had done before. She is under the care of a medical doctor.
She has made apologies to those whom she has been able to including the Inspector through an intermediary. She has worked with both of his children and knows them and apologizes for what she said.
In court we did appear at a pretrial and she pled no contest to the charges. That matter was taken under advisement for one year, by the judge. I would submit to you that her behavior since that time has be a genuine sincere admission of wrongdoing and an attempt to make things right.
Now you are here to determine whether you are going to suspend her without pay pending the trail board. The trial board is scheduled for September 21st. Even though we cannot take issue with the behavior we feel that we can show a very strong case as to her character as a normal proposition. We have a number of witnesses that we will be calling. I feel strongly that we will have a strong presentation.
This will be a real financial hardship for her. She has been able to line up another job in the event that you do suspend her. With her mortgage and home equity loan that will eat up the entire wages that she earns.
Also, she would lose her insurance, which pays for the outpatient therapy. I submit to you that her alcohol abuse is in fact job related.
I want to point out a few specific things that have occurred during her career. She came to the Department in 1987. In 1992 it was the first time she drank alcohol. She was often teased and harassed at work by her co-workers. A person who was very kind to her was murdered in 1992. In 1995 there were an accident between two scout cars that were involved in a chase and the two officers were killed. One of those officers was her scout car partner and the other officer was her jogging partner. There was the Oklahoma bombing and the thought was that it was Arabic related. She is Arabic, so there was a lot of teasing from that.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 10
Atty. Fred Walker...She has worked in a variety of departments including homicide where she would take a drink to fall asleep. I think if you look at that and consider her career as an 18 year veteran and at the trail board we will bring in a number of supervisors who we believe will testify favorable to her character and conduct as an officer.
She is an accomplished person that’s motivated and dedicated. Importantly, I think she is a kind-hearted person. I am asking that you give her a reprieve for the time being and support her. I think she is going to come out of this well and return to the department.
Chairperson Ramirez stated one of the forms that you gave does not have a letterhead it’s just written.
Atty. Fred Walker stated right those are the AA meetings.
Chairperson Ramirez stated I don’t see one from them that she has been attending; it’s just a log.
Atty. Fred Walker stated correct, just a phone number.
Atty. Nanowski stated the she just has two points to make before she starts in on her arguments.
One, in respect to the documents that Mr. Walker has provided you with concerning Sgt. Elhage, I am going to enter an objection on the record. One is to relevancy; two, I had no advanced notice that these documents were going to be entered.
I will say on August 10th I faxed to the DPLSA the documentation that I had concerning this case including a copy of the suspension petition that I filed but I did not receive the same consideration.
Second with respect to alcoholism and I wasn’t going to bring this issue up, but I think I have every right to bring this issue up because Mr. Walker has opened the door. This not the first time that we have dealt with an alcohol issue with respect to Sgt. Elhage. It is not the second time, but it’s the third time.
In two prior incidents they are very similar to what have occurred in Detroit on July 13th, only using other police jurisdictions. We have given her every consideration. Having said that we are here today to talk about her duty status. The standard is given the conduct that engaged in, should this Sergeant continue to work as a police officer?
In order to answer that question you need to look at the conduct that was involved. On July 13th Sgt Elhage was at a MGM Casino sitting at a slot machine. Nothing is wrong with that. She got money scattered around the floor and a crowd gathers. Security becomes concerned because they think it is going to cause a problem so they go over a ask her to pick up the money. She refuses and becomes combative and starts yelling racial epithets and they escort her from the casino.
In the parking lot she threatens to kill the two security officers who escorted her out of the building. They contact the Detroit Police Department and two Sergeants arrive on the scene not with the intent to arrest Sgt. Elhage, but to calm her down.
They tried to calm her down and what did she do? She yelled racial epithets and becomes combated and tries to assault one of the Sergeants. At that point an Inspector is called. He tries to calm her down and she assaults him. He wants her to get into his police car where it is nice and cool inside. She threatens him and his two children by...
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 11
Atty. Nanowski...stating that she will kill them.
At that point a commander arrives on the scene. Sgt. Elhage finally goes into a police car and tries to kick the windows out of the car and says “now can arrest me for a felony”.
They still do not arrest her but at this point you have nine DPD uniform officers there and five casino personnel. No one wants to arrest her; everybody just wants her to calm down. But she doesn’t and they end up arresting her for disorderly conduct.I guess the issue before you, does that conduct warrant a reduced status without pay? The department answer is yes.
I’ll make four points, one it’s a violation of the criminal code and a violation of the rules and regulations of this department.
Secondly, you got an issue of trust that is the basis of this department and basis of law enforcement. She is a supervisor we are not talking about a patrol officer.
Thirdly, one of the most important elements that I think you have to look at is the impact it has on the citizens of this community. They think when we send officers out that we are sending out people that we trust.
Fourth, the resources that this department poured into Sgt. Elhage on July 13th for three hours trying to calm her down before they finally arrested her. Based on the four points I would respectful request that you concur with the Chief recommendations and suspend Sgt. Elhage without pay.
Comm. Norris asked how are we doing on my project?
Atty. Nanowski stated on you project we have come up with time lines.
Comm. Norris stated let me tell you why, Mr. Walker I don’t think we had the pleasure of having you here before but we have been having an ongoing discussion.
I have no question in my mind and my fellow commissioners will exercise their own judgments that this conduct warrants a suspension without pay.
One of the things that I am very proud of and I think the Commission can only take half of the credit because I think the other half goes to the Chief and her predecessor is that we raised the bar.
There was a time when this kind of conduct, because there was no felony change would have gone without misconduct. If you take the racial slurs out of it, this conduct the violence alone will warrant a suspension without pay. I think when you add the slurs, it makes it all the more clear that this officer cannot currently carry out her duties effectively.
Having said that regardless of the history I do believe in redemption of a sort. It is clear that this officer is making efforts to turn things around. I am really pleased to hear that there is a trial board in September. That sounds we will get to some resolution on the disciplinary tract. I will support the suspension without pay knowing that before too long the disciplinary procedure will go through.
But I have an ongoing concern about officers that we suspend without pay. The conduct warrants it but then they hang out there for a very long time without the department taking disciplinary action. I think that is really unfair to the officers. I think the officer ought to have a right to have these thing reconsidered after some time has passed.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 12
Atty. Nanowski stated to Comm. Norris that the Chief does take that very seriously in terms of a suspension of a duty status without pay. And as a result of that now you see these cases are set for trial board.
Chairperson Ramirez asked I did not see does she have prior suspensions?
Atty. Nanowski stated that since the DPOA opened the door I thought I would bring that up but yes.
Exec. Dir. Goss stated that he would like to recognize Lt. Shaper and Harrison Tolliver from the Office of the Chief Investigators.
Minutes of the Regular Board of Police Commissioners Meeting
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The regular meeting of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners was held on Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 3:00 p.m., at Our Police Headquarters, 1300 Beaubien, Detroit, Michigan 48226.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 7.
SECRETARY’S REPORT – EXEC. DIR. GOSS
SUSPENSION
On Wednesday, July 13, 2005, the Internal Affairs Section was notified of an allegation of misconduct on the part of Sergeant Wedad Elhage, Badge S-505, assigned to the Eighth Precinct. More specifically, the complaint alleged that Sergeant Elhage did, while off-duty, create a disturbance at the MGM Grand Casino, threatening the well being of persons and property.
As a result, the Internal Affairs Section initiated an investigation, which revealed the following:
On July 13, 2005, at approximately 3:30 p.m. Sergeant Elhage was seated in the MGM Casino (hereinafter the Casino) at a slot machine with dollar bills scattered about the floor in and around where she was seated. This caused other patrons of the Casino to gather around her, thereby causing a security concern. Casino Security approached Sergeant Elhage and requested that she pick up her money from the area surrounding her. Sergeant Elhage refused to comply with the request. Casino Security then escorted Sergeant Elhage from the premises. Upon exiting the Casino, Sergeant Elhage threatened to kill the security personnel. As a result, Casino Security contacted the Detroit Police Department.
Initially, two (2) Detroit Police Sergeants responded to the scene of the incident, Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins. Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins attempted to talk to Sergeant Elhage who, in return, shouted racial obscenities at them; "I will kick both your black asses."
Sergeant Price and Sergeant Jenkins continued to talk to Sergeant Elhage in an attempt to calm her. In return, Sergeant Elhage charged Sergeant Price and attempted to kick him. Sergeant Jenkins then requested additional police personnel respond to the location.
Inspector Quinn then responded to the scene of the incident.
Inspector Quinn tried to calm Sergeant Elhage and was also met with racial obscenities; "I am going to fuck-up all you Negroes."
Inspector Quinn offered Sergeant Elhage an opportunity to sit in his Detroit Police Department vehicle to allow her to calm down. Officer Elhage refused and became combative with two (2) uniform officers, Officer Erikson and Officer Patel. At one point, Sergeant Elhage stated that she was going to kill all of the officers at the scene and that she was going to "fuck up Patel's Mexican ass and all the Negroes as well." Sergeant Elhage also stated that she was going to notify the Arab community and have them all killed including Inspector Quinn's children, who she referred to by name.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 8
By this point, approximately nine (9) uniform officers responded to the scene of the incident, including one (1) Inspector and one (1) Commander, and a crowd of casino-goers gathered to observe.
Sergeant Elhage eventually complied with the order to sit in a Department vehicle.
Sergeant Elhage then began to bang her head against the right rear window and kick the window in an attempt to break the window out. While doing so, Sergeant Elhage stated that they could then arrest her for a felony. Sergeant Elhage was then let out of the vehicle. Upon doing so, in an aggressive manner, Sergeant Elhage attempted to physically assault Sergeant Price and had to be physically restrained.
Sergeant Elhage was then placed in custody and transported to the Third Precinct for processing where Sergeant Elhage continued to be combative and shout racial epithets, and threatened more officers with physical harm. Sergeant Elhage was eventually conveyed to Detroit Receiving Hospital for evaluation.
Also, on July 13, 2005, Sergeant Elhage was charged with Disorderly Conduct in violation of the Detroit City Code, Section 38-5-1, a misdemeanor punishable by ninety (90) days in jail and/or a fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00).
On July 29, 2005, Officer Elhage was arraigned on the charge of Disorderly Conduct at the State of Michigan Thirty-Sixth District Court. Sergeant Elhage pled not guilty to the charge and the one hundred dollar ($100.00) bond that was previously posted was continued. The case is scheduled for pre-trial on August 10, 2005.
Based on the above circumstances, it is recommended that Sergeant Elhage be charged with, but not limited to the following violation of the Detroit Police Department Rules and Regulations:
CHARGE: CONDUCT UNPROFESSIONAL; CONTRARY TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT CODE OF ETHICS, THIS BEING IN VIOLATION OF THE DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT MANUAL, SERIES 100, DIRECTIVE 102.3-5.7, CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN OFFICER, COMMAND 3.
Due to the seriousness of the conduct, I am requesting your concurrence with the suspension of Sergeant Wedad Elhage without pay, effective August 18, 2005.
Exec. Dir. Goss asked if there is anyone here on Sergeant Elhage’s behalf.
Atty. Fred Walker stated he is from DPLSA on behalf of Sergeant Elhage.I prepared some packages of paperwork that I would like to present. It’s my view of this matter that there is a history and precedence of the Detroit Police Department. Including references the general orders that alcoholism and alcohol abuse should be treated as a “treatable illness”. The first issue is whether her behavior can be caused from the alcohol abuse, which is my position that manifested the behavior in the first place. I...
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 9
Atty. Fred Walker...submit to you that the answer to that is emphatically no. Because the behavior on this occasion is some much at odds with her normal conducts as a human being and as a Sergeant of the Detroit Police Department.
That in of itself of course is insufficient, and I understand that the charge is not of alcohol abuse or being intoxicated. It’s the conduct that’s charged. That’s why I think it is important that the commission view the underlying symptoms as opposed to the result of the alcohol abuse.
The second issue is whether Sgt. Elhage has acknowledged her alcohol abuse, and I submit to you that the answer to that is emphatically yes. That can only be proven. She has taken concrete steps to address her behavior. I notice that when Mr. Goss read it he didn’t read everything and he kept it to a minimal. I appreciate that.
But, I understand the behavior was completely over the top and she acknowledges that as well. So, this has been building for quite some time with her. I submit to you that it is job related and everybody has stress especially police officers, but in her case this how it manifested itself, in alcohol abuse. She has never been intoxicated on the job, never drank before work and never during work. She’s a binge drinker and that’s when it comes up with this bazaar behavior that manifested itself here.
I have some paperwork in there, which shows the steps taken to address her situation. I would like to go over them briefly. She has been attending anger management through personal affairs she completed immediately. These are voluntary steps taken by Sgt. Elhage. She completed a one-week inpatient program for alcohol abuse. By the way she has never previously mentioned that she had a problem. She is continuing with outpatient therapy. There is a daily AA attendance. None of the things she had done before. She is under the care of a medical doctor.
She has made apologies to those whom she has been able to including the Inspector through an intermediary. She has worked with both of his children and knows them and apologizes for what she said.
In court we did appear at a pretrial and she pled no contest to the charges. That matter was taken under advisement for one year, by the judge. I would submit to you that her behavior since that time has be a genuine sincere admission of wrongdoing and an attempt to make things right.
Now you are here to determine whether you are going to suspend her without pay pending the trail board. The trial board is scheduled for September 21st. Even though we cannot take issue with the behavior we feel that we can show a very strong case as to her character as a normal proposition. We have a number of witnesses that we will be calling. I feel strongly that we will have a strong presentation.
This will be a real financial hardship for her. She has been able to line up another job in the event that you do suspend her. With her mortgage and home equity loan that will eat up the entire wages that she earns.
Also, she would lose her insurance, which pays for the outpatient therapy. I submit to you that her alcohol abuse is in fact job related.
I want to point out a few specific things that have occurred during her career. She came to the Department in 1987. In 1992 it was the first time she drank alcohol. She was often teased and harassed at work by her co-workers. A person who was very kind to her was murdered in 1992. In 1995 there were an accident between two scout cars that were involved in a chase and the two officers were killed. One of those officers was her scout car partner and the other officer was her jogging partner. There was the Oklahoma bombing and the thought was that it was Arabic related. She is Arabic, so there was a lot of teasing from that.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 10
Atty. Fred Walker...She has worked in a variety of departments including homicide where she would take a drink to fall asleep. I think if you look at that and consider her career as an 18 year veteran and at the trail board we will bring in a number of supervisors who we believe will testify favorable to her character and conduct as an officer.
She is an accomplished person that’s motivated and dedicated. Importantly, I think she is a kind-hearted person. I am asking that you give her a reprieve for the time being and support her. I think she is going to come out of this well and return to the department.
Chairperson Ramirez stated one of the forms that you gave does not have a letterhead it’s just written.
Atty. Fred Walker stated right those are the AA meetings.
Chairperson Ramirez stated I don’t see one from them that she has been attending; it’s just a log.
Atty. Fred Walker stated correct, just a phone number.
Atty. Nanowski stated the she just has two points to make before she starts in on her arguments.
One, in respect to the documents that Mr. Walker has provided you with concerning Sgt. Elhage, I am going to enter an objection on the record. One is to relevancy; two, I had no advanced notice that these documents were going to be entered.
I will say on August 10th I faxed to the DPLSA the documentation that I had concerning this case including a copy of the suspension petition that I filed but I did not receive the same consideration.
Second with respect to alcoholism and I wasn’t going to bring this issue up, but I think I have every right to bring this issue up because Mr. Walker has opened the door. This not the first time that we have dealt with an alcohol issue with respect to Sgt. Elhage. It is not the second time, but it’s the third time.
In two prior incidents they are very similar to what have occurred in Detroit on July 13th, only using other police jurisdictions. We have given her every consideration. Having said that we are here today to talk about her duty status. The standard is given the conduct that engaged in, should this Sergeant continue to work as a police officer?
In order to answer that question you need to look at the conduct that was involved. On July 13th Sgt Elhage was at a MGM Casino sitting at a slot machine. Nothing is wrong with that. She got money scattered around the floor and a crowd gathers. Security becomes concerned because they think it is going to cause a problem so they go over a ask her to pick up the money. She refuses and becomes combative and starts yelling racial epithets and they escort her from the casino.
In the parking lot she threatens to kill the two security officers who escorted her out of the building. They contact the Detroit Police Department and two Sergeants arrive on the scene not with the intent to arrest Sgt. Elhage, but to calm her down.
They tried to calm her down and what did she do? She yelled racial epithets and becomes combated and tries to assault one of the Sergeants. At that point an Inspector is called. He tries to calm her down and she assaults him. He wants her to get into his police car where it is nice and cool inside. She threatens him and his two children by...
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 11
Atty. Nanowski...stating that she will kill them.
At that point a commander arrives on the scene. Sgt. Elhage finally goes into a police car and tries to kick the windows out of the car and says “now can arrest me for a felony”.
They still do not arrest her but at this point you have nine DPD uniform officers there and five casino personnel. No one wants to arrest her; everybody just wants her to calm down. But she doesn’t and they end up arresting her for disorderly conduct.I guess the issue before you, does that conduct warrant a reduced status without pay? The department answer is yes.
I’ll make four points, one it’s a violation of the criminal code and a violation of the rules and regulations of this department.
Secondly, you got an issue of trust that is the basis of this department and basis of law enforcement. She is a supervisor we are not talking about a patrol officer.
Thirdly, one of the most important elements that I think you have to look at is the impact it has on the citizens of this community. They think when we send officers out that we are sending out people that we trust.
Fourth, the resources that this department poured into Sgt. Elhage on July 13th for three hours trying to calm her down before they finally arrested her. Based on the four points I would respectful request that you concur with the Chief recommendations and suspend Sgt. Elhage without pay.
Comm. Norris asked how are we doing on my project?
Atty. Nanowski stated on you project we have come up with time lines.
Comm. Norris stated let me tell you why, Mr. Walker I don’t think we had the pleasure of having you here before but we have been having an ongoing discussion.
I have no question in my mind and my fellow commissioners will exercise their own judgments that this conduct warrants a suspension without pay.
One of the things that I am very proud of and I think the Commission can only take half of the credit because I think the other half goes to the Chief and her predecessor is that we raised the bar.
There was a time when this kind of conduct, because there was no felony change would have gone without misconduct. If you take the racial slurs out of it, this conduct the violence alone will warrant a suspension without pay. I think when you add the slurs, it makes it all the more clear that this officer cannot currently carry out her duties effectively.
Having said that regardless of the history I do believe in redemption of a sort. It is clear that this officer is making efforts to turn things around. I am really pleased to hear that there is a trial board in September. That sounds we will get to some resolution on the disciplinary tract. I will support the suspension without pay knowing that before too long the disciplinary procedure will go through.
But I have an ongoing concern about officers that we suspend without pay. The conduct warrants it but then they hang out there for a very long time without the department taking disciplinary action. I think that is really unfair to the officers. I think the officer ought to have a right to have these thing reconsidered after some time has passed.
Minutes of the Regular BPC Meeting Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page 12
Atty. Nanowski stated to Comm. Norris that the Chief does take that very seriously in terms of a suspension of a duty status without pay. And as a result of that now you see these cases are set for trial board.
Chairperson Ramirez asked I did not see does she have prior suspensions?
Atty. Nanowski stated that since the DPOA opened the door I thought I would bring that up but yes.
Exec. Dir. Goss stated that he would like to recognize Lt. Shaper and Harrison Tolliver from the Office of the Chief Investigators.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 1 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-1-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
It was a mutual love for and respect of the law that first brought two professional Detroit women together. And although they were each from very different backgrounds, there were similarities between them. They were, for all intents and purposes, colleagues, best friends and a devoted lesbian couple for more than eight years.
Now it is that very law that they both loved and served that is working to destroy one of them.
This is a story of commitment, ambition, destruction — and love. Hopefully, it will have a happier ending when it all plays out.
Wedad Elhage, 46, is a remarkable figure of a woman. At 6’2” and wearing dark green Wayne County Jail “scrubs,” she is still imposing — tall, strong and articulate, with a command of names, dates and places that undoubtedly arose from her 24 burgeoning years as a Detroit Police Officer.
But she now sits as an inmate behind the jail’s scratched Plexiglas shield, and as she carefully explains her life, she can’t always succeed at keeping her eyes dry.
Her voice is sometimes barely discernible as it drifts through the rusted mesh metal cover in the glass, and her posture occasionally slumps. It’s clear she sees so many aspects of that life as over.
The irony of this is it absolutely does not at all have to be that way.
This is America. This is the land of opportunity, and the home of freedom and democracy. This is the place where despite our personal struggles with race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, most of us have toiled to make acceptance a reality for centuries.
Yes, it’s still a work in progress. But, we remain at that task. We do it because the end result holds promise.
America is the place that the Elhage family, with its 14 children, chose as its adopted home, a refuge in late 1978 from the civil war in Lebanon. And Detroit is the city where the youngest daughter of that family, Elhage, chose to serve and protect, and for which her work was decorated and honored.
Elhage was even the first foreign-born female Arab-American police officer in America.
“Wedad always wanted to be a police officer; she tried other jobs, but this was her ultimate goal,” said her 44-year-old brother, Nezar “Nick” Elhage. “Even as a kid, she would stand up for kids — and to kids — and always liked people. She was soft-hearted and loyal, and if she made mistakes, she did what we all did in our family: She owned up to it.
“But, this case is wrong,” said the Dearborn Heights restaurant cook. “There never should’ve been a bond on her at all; she never hurt anyone, and there is nothing in the records that even claims that. Yet, she is locked up — and unfairly so.”
Nick Elhage says that he has wanted to intervene on behalf of the sister he refers to as “a great person and not a scammer.” After all, he says, he and his sister’s lover, Shelley Drain, were also good friends over the years, and he wants to talk to her to try and “straighten this mess out.”
“But, I was told the same things used to detain my sister would be used on me, too, if I tried to call Shelley or contact anyone connected with her,” he added. “I can’t go to jail. So I backed off.”
Still, he worries about his sister, who is now locked up with some of the very prisoners she was pivotal in helping to arrest.
Being there, she says, makes her “emotional and uncomfortable when they recognize,” her.
And, she is also one of the original officers investigating the Tamara Greene murder/Manoogian Parties case. Now that some of those luminaries are also locked up, Detroit jail is an even tougher place. And, Wedad Elhage knows tough.
“She is very strong, but how much can a person be expected to take?” Nick asked. “She never did anything wrong. She had a loving relationship; she taught law enforcement classes at Wayne State; she lived by the law; she even attended Bible study classes twice a week after her conversion to Christianity in 2005. But, when she refused to accept Shelley’s father’s offer of a large lump sum of money to go away from his daughter, the world fell in.”
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 2 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-2-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
The shadowy figure in this case seems to be Shelley Drain, who works in the Personal Protection Order (PPO) Division as a Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor in that famous office that worked to help bring down Detroit’s King, Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayor and current inmate.
Yet so far, Drain’s self-protective presence is reflected only through the input of her boss and friend, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy — who continues to inject herself into a case she was legally removed from — and Drain’s father, 3rd Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain.
The elder Drain, who points to more than 20 years’ judicial experience in his campaign rhetoric, was re-elected last fall to his position, where he finished in 18th place out of the 19 winning candidates.
As Wedad Elhage tells it, she and Shelley Drain, 41, met while serving as co-mentors at area high schools, where they worked with the young people and served as motivational speakers while Elhage recruited future officers for the police department.
They fell in love, says Elhage, and spent the next eight and a half years sharing a life as family and with family and friends. They bought a house together in 2008, and moved to Canton.
“They spent years together, went on cruises, shared holidays with family and friends, held barbecues — everything couples do,” said Elhage’s attorney Charles Busse, of Warren, and their photos bear that out.
“This is just a tragic, highly unique case in which immense resources have been expended on prosecuting Wedad. And, all she is really guilty of, is loving someone and remaining committed to that love.”
Elhage says problems began in 2008 when Drain and she decided to purchase a second home — this time in Plymouth.
“Shelley said her dad was providing $26,000 toward that purchase, but I didn’t think that was such a good idea,” said Elhage. Complications escalated, she says, when Drain insisted that only her name appear on the mortgage. “It gave me a bad feeling.”
Still, they spent the fall months fixing up and preparing the home, then moved in together during October.
“Then, on October 31, Shelley had her parents arrive at the house and meet with us, claiming that Shelley didn’t want to be with me anymore,” Elhage said.
Confused, Elhage moved out.
By November 11, when driving past the house, Elhage says a strange truck was parked in the driveway. She says she then did something she has since had to answer for: She ran the plate to check the ownership of the vehicle.
It came back as belonging to a man who had been working at the house as a painter, she says. Elhage says the plate check also revealed that he had a colorful history, including a felony warrant out on him. Inquiring of Drain the nature of her relationship with the man, Elhage was told he was merely doing routine work around the house and meant nothing to Drain.
Elhage was further confused, worried for Drain’s safety — and hurt. But, she was still hopeful that all was not lost between them. And, Drain continued to encourage their connection, she says.
After all, Drain still was relying on her both socially and as a confidante and more recently had conferred with her about having a tummy tuck and breast surgery. Elhage says she tried to understand that — and supported Drain, regardless.
“Shelley said the painter was just doing work on the house; she was having the guy do painting in preparation for Thanksgiving, and, anyway, she and I continued to date,” she said. “She accepted gifts from me, things were actually quite good between us. I always understood that she was insecure but, as always, I supported her.”
The man in the picture, however, wasn’t as understanding, says Elhage.
After she bought two tickets to Hawaii with the hope of marrying Drain, he threatened to kill Elhage.
“I called him and told him that that wasn’t such a good idea — threatening to kill a police officer,” she said.
Meanwhile, she says she only visited Drain at her invitation. One day, Drain called her, upset and asking to talk in person. Even though at that juncture Elhage had been court-ordered not to see her, she agreed to a rendezvous in a parking lot.
That’s when Drain’s parents suddenly appeared on the scene and Elhage says Shelley’s dad told Elhage: “Aha! I got you — and I got your job!”
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 3 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-3-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Meanwhile, that law that is so revered by Elhage and works so handily for the Drains was busily at work, says Elhage’s attorney, Busse.
“There was such a combination of officers in on this case, from all kinds of departments,” he said. “The Detroit Police Internal Affairs, the Wayne County Sheriff, the Wayne County Surveillance Task Force, the Plymouth Police Department, the Canton Police Department — and, of course, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.”
All the stops were pulled out, and surveillance on Elhage resulted in the epic charge of her being accused of driving down Shelley Drain’s street, leading to a charge of aggravated stalking. A broken bottle found at the end of Drain’s driveway was also blamed on Elhage, although no witnesses ever claimed to have seen her with it or throwing it. Drain’s word is that it came from Elhage, according to documentation.
That led to a $500,000 bond leveled on Elhage, and she was ordered to not have contact with Drain nor any of her associates.
It was then that one of the two men in Drain’s life, the painter, contacted Elhage, appealing to her for help. He told her, she says, that it was a matter of urgency that she call Shelley Drain.
Angsting over the potential consequences to her own future if she made that connection, Elhage nevertheless did just that.
Then, the world really fell in. She was hit with a violation of her bond terms, and that bond was remanded, says Busse.
“(The painter) later admitted on the stand that that call was made so that he could set Wedad up,” Busse said. “Yet, despite that admission, she has been in jail since December 3, held without bond.”
Constant intervention by Drain’s office on Shelley’s behalf have raised this question: Why are so many people fighting so hard to nail Elhage for loving a woman — and one who clearly does not appreciate it? In fact, Drain’s office was serving as the chief prosecution in the case until Plymouth’s 35th District Chief Judge Mike Gerou was made aware that Drain, as the complainant, worked there!
Judge Gerou, citing conflict of interest, took Drain and Worthy’s office off the case, and instead, brought in a special prosecutor, says Busse. Michael King will now oversee the case, having been appointed by the Attorney General’s office. And, although Worthy was ordered to remain hands off, she has since violated that order to intervene again, demanding Elhage’s incarceration for some unproven death threats against Drain, as evidenced by documentation with her official letterhead.
The trial is set for February 22.
For the present, Elhage sits in her cell, remembering dates, names and places, and the one she loved for what has stretched to more than 10 years now.
“I still love her,” she rather sheepishly admits.
Now, lest anyone say this has soft-balled Elhage as a fuzzy little helpless creature, let me address that assumption.
She is now the first to admit she is gay. Yet she had to, by necessity, lead a type of double life at work for many years because of that. Still — gay or straight -- who among us details their sex life at work, anyway?Well, those with any class, that is.
Although she dated other women through the years, including several, she says, from the prosecutor’s office — and later openly lived and traveled with Drain — coming out completely at work was not possible for some time.
Yet she was honest with who she was when they were together, as evidenced by the trail of photos, and she gave her heart willingly and without a hidden agenda.
“I was working in a field with a lot of tough standards and with a lot of tough people who were expected to uphold those standards,” she said. “The men were rough on me — here I was a woman, from another country originally — and I was tall, and I took a lot of teasing for it. I had to take it all in stride. And even though I was doing my job to the letter of the law, if I didn’t respond to their advances or innuendoes, they did what many men do to women who don’t flirt back in the workplace: They accused me of being a lesbian.”
Except, she adds with a laugh, she was a lesbian. So, she learned to roll with the roughness of her job and went along with the double life for the time being.
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 4 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-4-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Meanwhile, Elhage earned her bachelor’s in criminal justice from Wayne State, and finished her master’s in law enforcement from the University of Phoenix in July, 2010. She planned to teach, reaching out to affect as many people in the classroom that she had during her years on the streets of working with kids.
Countless times, her brother and attorney recount, she saved kids from drugs, prostitution, crime and other unsavory futures with her common-sensical approach and one-on-one street savvy at deterring their focus.
Academically, she consistently tested very high on departmental exams, and was one of the top 15 people out of a group of 300 there, she says.
“The department was very segregated when I first started in 1987,” she said. “People were grouped by gender and color — black male officers here, white ones there, black female officers here, white ones there. And here I came along — Lebanese-American, female, gay — where did I even begin to fit in? I’ll tell you how: I treated everyone with respect, colleagues and people on the street, and I earned respect that way. I worked hard, became educated, gradually made headway, moved up through the ranks, and eventually became a sergeant.”
There were rough patches, too, and the equality-minded Elhage was outspoken, sometimes to her own detriment — especially during political regimes in the police department. She says she was disgusted by the number of political appointees predominant, leftovers of previous mayoral staffs, some too lazy to even do the job but who gained and advanced because of who they knew, not what.
Especially put off by the controversial Former Police Chief Jerry Oliver, who she accuses of not respecting officers properly or being fair in his treatment of them, she blew up one day on the job, and leveled a racial epithet at him.
“It was not right to have said what I did, but at the time, I was just fed up with the environment and him,” she said. “Also, I was having some medical problems and was not myself to have acted that unprofessionally.”
Elhage, who was born without ovaries, was suffering from a hormone imbalance. The medical prescription of supplemental estrogen threw her body into a type of toxic state, and helped to induce deep depressions. It was not a good time for her, she says quietly.
The Oliver incident resulted in a rank demotion, followed by mandatory therapy and some rather pointed tracking that is apparent in the minutes of the Police Board of Commissioners meetings. There is a clear effort to label her in those reports, but there does not seem to be a provision for her to have sufficient input in her own case.
Reverberations and miscues followed and at the time of her incarceration, she was assigned to the uniform department.
Still, the girl who recognized that she was gay when she was about 14 was finally coming to grips with her sexuality.
“I had always been a tomboy,” Elhage said, with a laugh. “I began to realize that when I was more interested in the girls on the beach than the boys.”
She was good in sports, particularly distance running, and she focused on becoming a cop early on. It was all she ever wanted to do.
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 5 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-5-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Over her years in the Detroit Police Department, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell adage was beginning to wane for Elhage, and it seemed that her personal life was coming together, too. She thought she found the love of her life in Drain, and their acceptance by family and friends was further proof that they were to belong together. That was no small feat, given that she came from a Muslim family with traditional values, but even her religious conversion to Christianity was accepted by the Elhage family, she says.
Her brother echoes that assertion.
“Our family is a combination of people — a real blend,” he said. “Some of us are Muslim, some are Christian, we are straight, yet we still love our gay sister; some of us are tall and some are very short. But we are a family; we love one another, no matter what. We support each other, and those are the values my sister was raised with — that is why she risked everything to be there for Shelley.”
Wedad Elhage maintains that she still loves Drain. She tears up when she speaks about her, and her worry for Drain is evident, even more so than for her own safety and future.
“Her dad’s approval is key,” she said, in an attempt to explain the seemingly inexplicable. “It means everything to her.”
Two weeks ago, Elhage submitted her resignation from the force. Busse expands on that decision by saying that she stands to lose her pension if the trial goes badly. She is, understandably, afraid of losing all that she worked, and served nobly for, for so many years.
So, Detroit loses a caring and competent officer for — what, exactly?
I thought about trying to reach Judge Drain and his daughter, Shelley, or Kym Worthy — who I have always highly respected — for comments on this article, but then I asked myself: Hasn’t their side already BEEN told? It resounds, surely, in the unending suspensions without pay of Elhage, the jailing, the stupendous bond, the utter harassment of a woman who never harmed anyone but herself by loving someone.
I really don’t think I need another opinion here, and I have researched this and certainly formed my own. It comes down to this: Since when does someone who DRIVES DOWN A STREET lose their job, career and all but their life — all because other people refuse to accept certain sexual orientation?
This is the highest outrage, and we, as citizens, need to stand up and be counted in this case. After all, this is how YOUR tax dollars are being spent!
Although Busse tactfully offers, “The people involved did the best to discharge their jobs accordingly,” he is being WAY too fair to people who have been on a witch hunt unequalled in modern times.
And, Elhage has had far more distance running in this race than she ever ran in school.
Stay tuned for more; I plan to follow up.
And you should, too.
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-1-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
It was a mutual love for and respect of the law that first brought two professional Detroit women together. And although they were each from very different backgrounds, there were similarities between them. They were, for all intents and purposes, colleagues, best friends and a devoted lesbian couple for more than eight years.
Now it is that very law that they both loved and served that is working to destroy one of them.
This is a story of commitment, ambition, destruction — and love. Hopefully, it will have a happier ending when it all plays out.
Wedad Elhage, 46, is a remarkable figure of a woman. At 6’2” and wearing dark green Wayne County Jail “scrubs,” she is still imposing — tall, strong and articulate, with a command of names, dates and places that undoubtedly arose from her 24 burgeoning years as a Detroit Police Officer.
But she now sits as an inmate behind the jail’s scratched Plexiglas shield, and as she carefully explains her life, she can’t always succeed at keeping her eyes dry.
Her voice is sometimes barely discernible as it drifts through the rusted mesh metal cover in the glass, and her posture occasionally slumps. It’s clear she sees so many aspects of that life as over.
The irony of this is it absolutely does not at all have to be that way.
This is America. This is the land of opportunity, and the home of freedom and democracy. This is the place where despite our personal struggles with race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, most of us have toiled to make acceptance a reality for centuries.
Yes, it’s still a work in progress. But, we remain at that task. We do it because the end result holds promise.
America is the place that the Elhage family, with its 14 children, chose as its adopted home, a refuge in late 1978 from the civil war in Lebanon. And Detroit is the city where the youngest daughter of that family, Elhage, chose to serve and protect, and for which her work was decorated and honored.
Elhage was even the first foreign-born female Arab-American police officer in America.
“Wedad always wanted to be a police officer; she tried other jobs, but this was her ultimate goal,” said her 44-year-old brother, Nezar “Nick” Elhage. “Even as a kid, she would stand up for kids — and to kids — and always liked people. She was soft-hearted and loyal, and if she made mistakes, she did what we all did in our family: She owned up to it.
“But, this case is wrong,” said the Dearborn Heights restaurant cook. “There never should’ve been a bond on her at all; she never hurt anyone, and there is nothing in the records that even claims that. Yet, she is locked up — and unfairly so.”
Nick Elhage says that he has wanted to intervene on behalf of the sister he refers to as “a great person and not a scammer.” After all, he says, he and his sister’s lover, Shelley Drain, were also good friends over the years, and he wants to talk to her to try and “straighten this mess out.”
“But, I was told the same things used to detain my sister would be used on me, too, if I tried to call Shelley or contact anyone connected with her,” he added. “I can’t go to jail. So I backed off.”
Still, he worries about his sister, who is now locked up with some of the very prisoners she was pivotal in helping to arrest.
Being there, she says, makes her “emotional and uncomfortable when they recognize,” her.
And, she is also one of the original officers investigating the Tamara Greene murder/Manoogian Parties case. Now that some of those luminaries are also locked up, Detroit jail is an even tougher place. And, Wedad Elhage knows tough.
“She is very strong, but how much can a person be expected to take?” Nick asked. “She never did anything wrong. She had a loving relationship; she taught law enforcement classes at Wayne State; she lived by the law; she even attended Bible study classes twice a week after her conversion to Christianity in 2005. But, when she refused to accept Shelley’s father’s offer of a large lump sum of money to go away from his daughter, the world fell in.”
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 2 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-2-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
The shadowy figure in this case seems to be Shelley Drain, who works in the Personal Protection Order (PPO) Division as a Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor in that famous office that worked to help bring down Detroit’s King, Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayor and current inmate.
Yet so far, Drain’s self-protective presence is reflected only through the input of her boss and friend, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy — who continues to inject herself into a case she was legally removed from — and Drain’s father, 3rd Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain.
The elder Drain, who points to more than 20 years’ judicial experience in his campaign rhetoric, was re-elected last fall to his position, where he finished in 18th place out of the 19 winning candidates.
As Wedad Elhage tells it, she and Shelley Drain, 41, met while serving as co-mentors at area high schools, where they worked with the young people and served as motivational speakers while Elhage recruited future officers for the police department.
They fell in love, says Elhage, and spent the next eight and a half years sharing a life as family and with family and friends. They bought a house together in 2008, and moved to Canton.
“They spent years together, went on cruises, shared holidays with family and friends, held barbecues — everything couples do,” said Elhage’s attorney Charles Busse, of Warren, and their photos bear that out.
“This is just a tragic, highly unique case in which immense resources have been expended on prosecuting Wedad. And, all she is really guilty of, is loving someone and remaining committed to that love.”
Elhage says problems began in 2008 when Drain and she decided to purchase a second home — this time in Plymouth.
“Shelley said her dad was providing $26,000 toward that purchase, but I didn’t think that was such a good idea,” said Elhage. Complications escalated, she says, when Drain insisted that only her name appear on the mortgage. “It gave me a bad feeling.”
Still, they spent the fall months fixing up and preparing the home, then moved in together during October.
“Then, on October 31, Shelley had her parents arrive at the house and meet with us, claiming that Shelley didn’t want to be with me anymore,” Elhage said.
Confused, Elhage moved out.
By November 11, when driving past the house, Elhage says a strange truck was parked in the driveway. She says she then did something she has since had to answer for: She ran the plate to check the ownership of the vehicle.
It came back as belonging to a man who had been working at the house as a painter, she says. Elhage says the plate check also revealed that he had a colorful history, including a felony warrant out on him. Inquiring of Drain the nature of her relationship with the man, Elhage was told he was merely doing routine work around the house and meant nothing to Drain.
Elhage was further confused, worried for Drain’s safety — and hurt. But, she was still hopeful that all was not lost between them. And, Drain continued to encourage their connection, she says.
After all, Drain still was relying on her both socially and as a confidante and more recently had conferred with her about having a tummy tuck and breast surgery. Elhage says she tried to understand that — and supported Drain, regardless.
“Shelley said the painter was just doing work on the house; she was having the guy do painting in preparation for Thanksgiving, and, anyway, she and I continued to date,” she said. “She accepted gifts from me, things were actually quite good between us. I always understood that she was insecure but, as always, I supported her.”
The man in the picture, however, wasn’t as understanding, says Elhage.
After she bought two tickets to Hawaii with the hope of marrying Drain, he threatened to kill Elhage.
“I called him and told him that that wasn’t such a good idea — threatening to kill a police officer,” she said.
Meanwhile, she says she only visited Drain at her invitation. One day, Drain called her, upset and asking to talk in person. Even though at that juncture Elhage had been court-ordered not to see her, she agreed to a rendezvous in a parking lot.
That’s when Drain’s parents suddenly appeared on the scene and Elhage says Shelley’s dad told Elhage: “Aha! I got you — and I got your job!”
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 3 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-3-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Meanwhile, that law that is so revered by Elhage and works so handily for the Drains was busily at work, says Elhage’s attorney, Busse.
“There was such a combination of officers in on this case, from all kinds of departments,” he said. “The Detroit Police Internal Affairs, the Wayne County Sheriff, the Wayne County Surveillance Task Force, the Plymouth Police Department, the Canton Police Department — and, of course, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.”
All the stops were pulled out, and surveillance on Elhage resulted in the epic charge of her being accused of driving down Shelley Drain’s street, leading to a charge of aggravated stalking. A broken bottle found at the end of Drain’s driveway was also blamed on Elhage, although no witnesses ever claimed to have seen her with it or throwing it. Drain’s word is that it came from Elhage, according to documentation.
That led to a $500,000 bond leveled on Elhage, and she was ordered to not have contact with Drain nor any of her associates.
It was then that one of the two men in Drain’s life, the painter, contacted Elhage, appealing to her for help. He told her, she says, that it was a matter of urgency that she call Shelley Drain.
Angsting over the potential consequences to her own future if she made that connection, Elhage nevertheless did just that.
Then, the world really fell in. She was hit with a violation of her bond terms, and that bond was remanded, says Busse.
“(The painter) later admitted on the stand that that call was made so that he could set Wedad up,” Busse said. “Yet, despite that admission, she has been in jail since December 3, held without bond.”
Constant intervention by Drain’s office on Shelley’s behalf have raised this question: Why are so many people fighting so hard to nail Elhage for loving a woman — and one who clearly does not appreciate it? In fact, Drain’s office was serving as the chief prosecution in the case until Plymouth’s 35th District Chief Judge Mike Gerou was made aware that Drain, as the complainant, worked there!
Judge Gerou, citing conflict of interest, took Drain and Worthy’s office off the case, and instead, brought in a special prosecutor, says Busse. Michael King will now oversee the case, having been appointed by the Attorney General’s office. And, although Worthy was ordered to remain hands off, she has since violated that order to intervene again, demanding Elhage’s incarceration for some unproven death threats against Drain, as evidenced by documentation with her official letterhead.
The trial is set for February 22.
For the present, Elhage sits in her cell, remembering dates, names and places, and the one she loved for what has stretched to more than 10 years now.
“I still love her,” she rather sheepishly admits.
Now, lest anyone say this has soft-balled Elhage as a fuzzy little helpless creature, let me address that assumption.
She is now the first to admit she is gay. Yet she had to, by necessity, lead a type of double life at work for many years because of that. Still — gay or straight -- who among us details their sex life at work, anyway?Well, those with any class, that is.
Although she dated other women through the years, including several, she says, from the prosecutor’s office — and later openly lived and traveled with Drain — coming out completely at work was not possible for some time.
Yet she was honest with who she was when they were together, as evidenced by the trail of photos, and she gave her heart willingly and without a hidden agenda.
“I was working in a field with a lot of tough standards and with a lot of tough people who were expected to uphold those standards,” she said. “The men were rough on me — here I was a woman, from another country originally — and I was tall, and I took a lot of teasing for it. I had to take it all in stride. And even though I was doing my job to the letter of the law, if I didn’t respond to their advances or innuendoes, they did what many men do to women who don’t flirt back in the workplace: They accused me of being a lesbian.”
Except, she adds with a laugh, she was a lesbian. So, she learned to roll with the roughness of her job and went along with the double life for the time being.
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 4 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-4-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Meanwhile, Elhage earned her bachelor’s in criminal justice from Wayne State, and finished her master’s in law enforcement from the University of Phoenix in July, 2010. She planned to teach, reaching out to affect as many people in the classroom that she had during her years on the streets of working with kids.
Countless times, her brother and attorney recount, she saved kids from drugs, prostitution, crime and other unsavory futures with her common-sensical approach and one-on-one street savvy at deterring their focus.
Academically, she consistently tested very high on departmental exams, and was one of the top 15 people out of a group of 300 there, she says.
“The department was very segregated when I first started in 1987,” she said. “People were grouped by gender and color — black male officers here, white ones there, black female officers here, white ones there. And here I came along — Lebanese-American, female, gay — where did I even begin to fit in? I’ll tell you how: I treated everyone with respect, colleagues and people on the street, and I earned respect that way. I worked hard, became educated, gradually made headway, moved up through the ranks, and eventually became a sergeant.”
There were rough patches, too, and the equality-minded Elhage was outspoken, sometimes to her own detriment — especially during political regimes in the police department. She says she was disgusted by the number of political appointees predominant, leftovers of previous mayoral staffs, some too lazy to even do the job but who gained and advanced because of who they knew, not what.
Especially put off by the controversial Former Police Chief Jerry Oliver, who she accuses of not respecting officers properly or being fair in his treatment of them, she blew up one day on the job, and leveled a racial epithet at him.
“It was not right to have said what I did, but at the time, I was just fed up with the environment and him,” she said. “Also, I was having some medical problems and was not myself to have acted that unprofessionally.”
Elhage, who was born without ovaries, was suffering from a hormone imbalance. The medical prescription of supplemental estrogen threw her body into a type of toxic state, and helped to induce deep depressions. It was not a good time for her, she says quietly.
The Oliver incident resulted in a rank demotion, followed by mandatory therapy and some rather pointed tracking that is apparent in the minutes of the Police Board of Commissioners meetings. There is a clear effort to label her in those reports, but there does not seem to be a provision for her to have sufficient input in her own case.
Reverberations and miscues followed and at the time of her incarceration, she was assigned to the uniform department.
Still, the girl who recognized that she was gay when she was about 14 was finally coming to grips with her sexuality.
“I had always been a tomboy,” Elhage said, with a laugh. “I began to realize that when I was more interested in the girls on the beach than the boys.”
She was good in sports, particularly distance running, and she focused on becoming a cop early on. It was all she ever wanted to do.
Outraged Citizens Alert: Gay Policewoman Jailed on YOUR Tax Dollars (Part 5 of 5)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
February 10, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/outraged-citizens-alert-gay-policewoman-jailed-on-your-tax-dollars-part-5-of-5
Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain were a loving lesbian couple for more than eight years in Detroit.
Over her years in the Detroit Police Department, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell adage was beginning to wane for Elhage, and it seemed that her personal life was coming together, too. She thought she found the love of her life in Drain, and their acceptance by family and friends was further proof that they were to belong together. That was no small feat, given that she came from a Muslim family with traditional values, but even her religious conversion to Christianity was accepted by the Elhage family, she says.
Her brother echoes that assertion.
“Our family is a combination of people — a real blend,” he said. “Some of us are Muslim, some are Christian, we are straight, yet we still love our gay sister; some of us are tall and some are very short. But we are a family; we love one another, no matter what. We support each other, and those are the values my sister was raised with — that is why she risked everything to be there for Shelley.”
Wedad Elhage maintains that she still loves Drain. She tears up when she speaks about her, and her worry for Drain is evident, even more so than for her own safety and future.
“Her dad’s approval is key,” she said, in an attempt to explain the seemingly inexplicable. “It means everything to her.”
Two weeks ago, Elhage submitted her resignation from the force. Busse expands on that decision by saying that she stands to lose her pension if the trial goes badly. She is, understandably, afraid of losing all that she worked, and served nobly for, for so many years.
So, Detroit loses a caring and competent officer for — what, exactly?
I thought about trying to reach Judge Drain and his daughter, Shelley, or Kym Worthy — who I have always highly respected — for comments on this article, but then I asked myself: Hasn’t their side already BEEN told? It resounds, surely, in the unending suspensions without pay of Elhage, the jailing, the stupendous bond, the utter harassment of a woman who never harmed anyone but herself by loving someone.
I really don’t think I need another opinion here, and I have researched this and certainly formed my own. It comes down to this: Since when does someone who DRIVES DOWN A STREET lose their job, career and all but their life — all because other people refuse to accept certain sexual orientation?
This is the highest outrage, and we, as citizens, need to stand up and be counted in this case. After all, this is how YOUR tax dollars are being spent!
Although Busse tactfully offers, “The people involved did the best to discharge their jobs accordingly,” he is being WAY too fair to people who have been on a witch hunt unequalled in modern times.
And, Elhage has had far more distance running in this race than she ever ran in school.
Stay tuned for more; I plan to follow up.
And you should, too.
Gay Detroit cop found guilty in case that still begs closer look (Part 1 of 3)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-1-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
A guilty verdict was announced today at the trial for Detroit police officer Wedad Elhage. It’s the case being heard around the world — just not much here in Detroit.
I’ve heard from as far away as Dubai about it, but people here seem woefully unaware. Even those hearing aspects of the trial remind me of the three monkeys: See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. Except when it comes to the beleaguered defendant, that is.
Sentencing will follow later this month, in the stalking case pursued against Elhage due to her connection with former lover and Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Shelley Drain. The two shared homes and a relationship for more than eight years before Drain seems to have dumped her for a male painter, Keith Strange, who worked on their last home in Plymouth. Of course, Drain never actually seems to have broken it off; she still can’t form the words.
What most may not know is that the Drain/Strange relationship secretly bloomed all the while that Drain accepted gifts from Elhage, cashed a $9,000 check from her to have cosmetic surgery, was part of a wedding getaway plan with Elhage to Hawaii, and had Elhage break the law for her — by running Strange’s felonious background through the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), testified Elhage.
The last act brought Elhage up on charges for illegal use of the system. Then Drain, her office and father, 3rd Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain, went after Elhage.
And, supposedly, although Elhage and Drain lived together, worked together, traveled together, and spent numerous events and holidays with family/friends of both sides of the family, Drain’s parents somehow did not know their daughter was gay? It’s when that became known, and they purported that it was not Christian behavior, that the world fell in on Elhage.
A quick look at Shelley Drain’s Myspace account, however — established in 2007 — has her leading the lesbian pride parade.
But you will probably only see the details of Monday’s events here. Most of the case has been muffled by media leadership in the city — if mentioned at all — and it is still hard to sort out all facts, given the high-profile people involved. Apparently Detroit has problems with legal proceedings that entail truths and untruths, instead of smoke, mirrors and theatrics as heavy hitters prefer to weigh in on determining any outcome, rather than let justice prevail.
As Special Prosecutor from the attorney general’s office Michael King said during closing arguments Monday, the jury and all spectators were to take the witness testimony of Drain’s father, 3rd Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain, as especially important, due to his distinguished position. Oh, really?
Aren’t all witnesses considered equal in the law’s eyes? Should we really be looking at someone with a title as more credible than others, as long as all are committed to tell the truth? Kinda flies in the face of The American Way, wouldn’t you say?
This was an unfortunate case, one that hinged on revenge and punishment. And I haven’t even touched on what Elhage was accused of; I’m just mentioning the prosecution and its tightly stacked case. After all, a case that begins with the complainant’s own office handling the prosecution can’t end well for the defendant.
At least Plymouth District Court Judge Mike Gerou called them on that little detail, asking the state to step in and WCP to butt out, which documentation shows they still refused to do, violating court orders.
Then, King made his appearance at 3rd Circuit A shrill, crusty little man frosted with a shock of white hair over a blustery, red face, he is prone to incessantly interrupt and argue for the mere sake of hearing his own bark. Now retired from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, he led the charge to have media gagged in this case following my columns of commentary two weeks ago. And, I haven’t even mentioned his self-directed Monday tirades about “don’t look to ME to tell you the merits of this case — I don’t know anything!” and dizzying closing references to having forgotten his shoes that morning, as further proof of his own lack of follow-through.
The jury had convened late Monday afternoon for deliberation after the defense wrapped its case and closing arguments were heard – followed by 3rd Circuit Court Daniel Hathaway’s jury instruction. Judge Hathaway, who ruled on denying last week’s gag order, also lent confusion to the case by conveying diametrically opposed views of the bench while hearing this case.
He seemed to be the picture of balance in the gag case, yet exhibited two behaviors Monday. Following the lunch break, he admonished counsel for interruptions and raised voices. Yet, he was often part of the fray earlier, during defense testimony, hurrying Elhage and a witness to answer questions faster and with less detail than they were carefully outlining for specific answers. Not all questions, as people well know, can be answered “yes or no” and after all, the defendant’s future was in the balance. It’s understandable if some much-needed clarification is given.
Is to do otherwise a rush to judgment?
In the meantime, it’s clear that the general public, and much of the law-enforcement community, is not aware of the case’s basic facts. A simple glance at the Detroit Free Press’ stories alone on the ongoing daily trial developments reveal the same type of stupidity in comments that appeared here for the most part, and resulted in them having been shut down. Interesting that those most damning of Elhage for her role in “stalking” think nothing of obscenity, insult, taunting and harassment themselves, which carries its hallmark in the behavior exhibited in this case.
And, I haven’t even mentioned the commenting screwballs who are insistent that Elhage have gender reassignment surgery. Yes. People tend to all be experts when it comes to anonymous insult.
Gay Detroit cop found guilty in case that still begs closer look (Part 2 of 3)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-2-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
Some of Monday’s testimony was hard to hear, including Wedad Elhage’s painfully truthful own indictment of actions she took at the behest of her lover, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Shelley Drain.
Elhage, the suspended Detroit police officer who’s been incarcerated since December 3 when her $500,000 bond was remanded, shared a home, travel and committed relationship for more than eight years with Drain, the chief complainant in the case. When they purchased a second home in late 2008, Drain’s parents and Drain’s new love interest, Keith Strange — who painted some of that home — became major players in the Elhage/Drain relationship, which eventually evolved into recriminations and Elhage’s incarceration.
When Elhage bought tickets for Hawaii in June, 2009, she testified that she and Drain were preparing to marry there. The following month, Drain revealed that she had been involved with Strange and was now attached to Strange’s children from a previous marriage, whom she calls “extended family.”
Although she was continually reluctant to tell Elhage to count out a relationship with her, Drain continued to accept gifts and go on dates with Elhage during late 2008 and throughout 2009, even accepting a $9,000 check from Elhage for cosmetic surgery during that time. The two women also attended relationship counseling together.
Elhage exhibited a steady and calm demeanor during her testimony, complete with her characteristic attention to detail and matter-of-fact truth, despite the oft-unexplained and exasperated outbursts of mercurial Prosecutor Michael King.
Monday’s revelations included testimony that threatening and lurid text messages, alluding to supposed sex acts with Strange’s daughters, originated through a cell phone that was not owned by Elhage. The witness testifying to that owns a business in the 8 Mile and Dequindre area that employed Elhage for after-hours loss prevention/security purposes, and said he owns more than 100 cell phones. Subsequent revelations centered on the texts having been sent to Strange by joshing male employees at the business.
The oddest info to emerge from that is that Strange showed those texts to his daughters.
Wha-a-a? You find them so offensive and threatening that you SHOW them to your kids?
The business owner, originally one of the young people Elhage helped in the past in her police work with troubled youth, claimed he did not want to be present at the trial. He says he was worried, as he had received threats due to the high-profile people involved in the case.
When Elhage took the stand, she recounted how her love relationship suddenly soured on Halloween of 2008 when, after weeks of redecorating then moving into their Plymouth home together, she returned to find the garage door code changed by Drain.
Unable to reach her by phone, Elhage says she worried about safety issues; she subsequently found Drain calmly sitting, staring, in the backyard.
Drain’s parents soon joined the two women to tell Elhage to move out, saying that Drain didn’t want to live with her anymore.
In the years Drain and Elhage spent together sharing family and friends, the judge and Elhage played golf and she affectionately called him “Judgie.” Appealing to him for an explanation of his daughter’s bizarre mood swings, he arrived post-breakup, pulled out a checkbook, and inquired, “What’s it gonna take to get you to leave this relationship alone? Name any amount.”
Elhage says that’s when she told the judge to leave her house.
Gay Detroit cop found guilty in case that still begs closer look (Part 3 of 3)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-3-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
There is another telling trial detail that reveals the character of Shelley Drain — one that entailed yet another previous relationship Drain shared with a man. After that relationship was history, both she and Elhage referred to him as “Looney Tunes Guy,” because Drain claimed he stalked her, says Elhage.
Drain also enlisted Elhage’s help in deterring that ex-boyfriend’s attention after the fact. Part of Elhage’s testimony centered on her helping Drain with that problem.
Despite her own mistreatment, however, Elhage continued to be there for Drain and even nursed her through part of her surgical recuperation, follow-up doctor appointments, and encouraged her to include her parents when Drain had entered the hospital without even bothering to notify her parents.
Hmm. Anybody else see a pattern here? Doesn’t there have to be some culpability for people who repeatedly feign hurt, then bait and hurt others, running for cover under the law?
The sightings of a red Ford Explorer, similar to the vehicle Elhage drives, have figured prominently in the stalking sightings against Elhage when one appeared in the Plymouth neighborhood where Drain — and formally Elhage — lives. Elhage says that although she has no idea who drove the vehicle that was spotted (neither could the prosecution), it wasn’t her — and the president of the Plymouth homeowners’ association also owns one just like it. Meanwhile, a whiskey bottle supposedly thrown into Drain’s driveway and also blamed on Elhage mysteriously disappeared from the evidence.
A chance gas station meeting resulted in Drain again giving Elhage her number and chastising Elhage for not giving her a better hug, says Elhage. As the months passed, Drain continually contacted her, although the latter was ordered to not contact Drain.
An exception, says Elhage, was made when she contacted Strange as a heads up when she realized he received the lurid texts.
Later, he admitted during testimony to setting her up to meet Drain by saying the two of them had broken up and Drain needed to talk with her. That resulted in Elhage violating her bond and being jailed.
King’s allegation that Elhage accosted a police officer following a confrontation fell into one of the many prosecution holes Monday, not supported by charges having been filed or any real evidence against her. Elhage, however, did admit to telling Drain at one point in May 2009, ‘I’m going to f*** with you when I want to.“
Apparently, pushing someone to the breaking point as the Drain contingency did, is not even allowed to be verbally dealt with. Who, then, was the actual abuser here? Apparently the ones who know how to hit and run -- and hide behind the system.
However, there was never a hand raised by Elhage, a weapon brandished, any proof of simmering hatred or violence — and the prosecution couldn’t produce evidence. She was the ultimate whipping post, and it isn’t yet done.
Drain meekly winced in court as the defense spoke during closings about Elhage in constructive terms, it’s obvious she is still putting on a show.
Defense attorney Charles Busse, of Warren/Rochester/Dearborn, wrapped up his trial assessment by calling the case “raised to the level of unusual,” not only for the involvement of so many people in the couple’s “affairs of the heart,” but also the intense effort of the numbers of police agencies expended. He openly shared the following assessment of any of Elhage’s crasser moments in the case:
“We ask these officers to take a badge, take a gun…to shoot things and be shot at…
“We ask them to take those skills out onto the means streets in a mean city…and then are shocked that they might use salty language?”
Funny how not one person has openly held Shelley Drain and her calculating “extended family” responsible for exacerbating this entire case, entrapping a smitten love, and laying waste to yet another “Looney Tunes” who had the gall, and unmitigated bad taste, to love this toxic woman.
There’s more that needs fixing here than a guilty verdict — or mere surgery — can ever manage.
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-1-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
A guilty verdict was announced today at the trial for Detroit police officer Wedad Elhage. It’s the case being heard around the world — just not much here in Detroit.
I’ve heard from as far away as Dubai about it, but people here seem woefully unaware. Even those hearing aspects of the trial remind me of the three monkeys: See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. Except when it comes to the beleaguered defendant, that is.
Sentencing will follow later this month, in the stalking case pursued against Elhage due to her connection with former lover and Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Shelley Drain. The two shared homes and a relationship for more than eight years before Drain seems to have dumped her for a male painter, Keith Strange, who worked on their last home in Plymouth. Of course, Drain never actually seems to have broken it off; she still can’t form the words.
What most may not know is that the Drain/Strange relationship secretly bloomed all the while that Drain accepted gifts from Elhage, cashed a $9,000 check from her to have cosmetic surgery, was part of a wedding getaway plan with Elhage to Hawaii, and had Elhage break the law for her — by running Strange’s felonious background through the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), testified Elhage.
The last act brought Elhage up on charges for illegal use of the system. Then Drain, her office and father, 3rd Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain, went after Elhage.
And, supposedly, although Elhage and Drain lived together, worked together, traveled together, and spent numerous events and holidays with family/friends of both sides of the family, Drain’s parents somehow did not know their daughter was gay? It’s when that became known, and they purported that it was not Christian behavior, that the world fell in on Elhage.
A quick look at Shelley Drain’s Myspace account, however — established in 2007 — has her leading the lesbian pride parade.
But you will probably only see the details of Monday’s events here. Most of the case has been muffled by media leadership in the city — if mentioned at all — and it is still hard to sort out all facts, given the high-profile people involved. Apparently Detroit has problems with legal proceedings that entail truths and untruths, instead of smoke, mirrors and theatrics as heavy hitters prefer to weigh in on determining any outcome, rather than let justice prevail.
As Special Prosecutor from the attorney general’s office Michael King said during closing arguments Monday, the jury and all spectators were to take the witness testimony of Drain’s father, 3rd Circuit Court Judge Gershwin Drain, as especially important, due to his distinguished position. Oh, really?
Aren’t all witnesses considered equal in the law’s eyes? Should we really be looking at someone with a title as more credible than others, as long as all are committed to tell the truth? Kinda flies in the face of The American Way, wouldn’t you say?
This was an unfortunate case, one that hinged on revenge and punishment. And I haven’t even touched on what Elhage was accused of; I’m just mentioning the prosecution and its tightly stacked case. After all, a case that begins with the complainant’s own office handling the prosecution can’t end well for the defendant.
At least Plymouth District Court Judge Mike Gerou called them on that little detail, asking the state to step in and WCP to butt out, which documentation shows they still refused to do, violating court orders.
Then, King made his appearance at 3rd Circuit A shrill, crusty little man frosted with a shock of white hair over a blustery, red face, he is prone to incessantly interrupt and argue for the mere sake of hearing his own bark. Now retired from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, he led the charge to have media gagged in this case following my columns of commentary two weeks ago. And, I haven’t even mentioned his self-directed Monday tirades about “don’t look to ME to tell you the merits of this case — I don’t know anything!” and dizzying closing references to having forgotten his shoes that morning, as further proof of his own lack of follow-through.
The jury had convened late Monday afternoon for deliberation after the defense wrapped its case and closing arguments were heard – followed by 3rd Circuit Court Daniel Hathaway’s jury instruction. Judge Hathaway, who ruled on denying last week’s gag order, also lent confusion to the case by conveying diametrically opposed views of the bench while hearing this case.
He seemed to be the picture of balance in the gag case, yet exhibited two behaviors Monday. Following the lunch break, he admonished counsel for interruptions and raised voices. Yet, he was often part of the fray earlier, during defense testimony, hurrying Elhage and a witness to answer questions faster and with less detail than they were carefully outlining for specific answers. Not all questions, as people well know, can be answered “yes or no” and after all, the defendant’s future was in the balance. It’s understandable if some much-needed clarification is given.
Is to do otherwise a rush to judgment?
In the meantime, it’s clear that the general public, and much of the law-enforcement community, is not aware of the case’s basic facts. A simple glance at the Detroit Free Press’ stories alone on the ongoing daily trial developments reveal the same type of stupidity in comments that appeared here for the most part, and resulted in them having been shut down. Interesting that those most damning of Elhage for her role in “stalking” think nothing of obscenity, insult, taunting and harassment themselves, which carries its hallmark in the behavior exhibited in this case.
And, I haven’t even mentioned the commenting screwballs who are insistent that Elhage have gender reassignment surgery. Yes. People tend to all be experts when it comes to anonymous insult.
Gay Detroit cop found guilty in case that still begs closer look (Part 2 of 3)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-2-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
Some of Monday’s testimony was hard to hear, including Wedad Elhage’s painfully truthful own indictment of actions she took at the behest of her lover, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Shelley Drain.
Elhage, the suspended Detroit police officer who’s been incarcerated since December 3 when her $500,000 bond was remanded, shared a home, travel and committed relationship for more than eight years with Drain, the chief complainant in the case. When they purchased a second home in late 2008, Drain’s parents and Drain’s new love interest, Keith Strange — who painted some of that home — became major players in the Elhage/Drain relationship, which eventually evolved into recriminations and Elhage’s incarceration.
When Elhage bought tickets for Hawaii in June, 2009, she testified that she and Drain were preparing to marry there. The following month, Drain revealed that she had been involved with Strange and was now attached to Strange’s children from a previous marriage, whom she calls “extended family.”
Although she was continually reluctant to tell Elhage to count out a relationship with her, Drain continued to accept gifts and go on dates with Elhage during late 2008 and throughout 2009, even accepting a $9,000 check from Elhage for cosmetic surgery during that time. The two women also attended relationship counseling together.
Elhage exhibited a steady and calm demeanor during her testimony, complete with her characteristic attention to detail and matter-of-fact truth, despite the oft-unexplained and exasperated outbursts of mercurial Prosecutor Michael King.
Monday’s revelations included testimony that threatening and lurid text messages, alluding to supposed sex acts with Strange’s daughters, originated through a cell phone that was not owned by Elhage. The witness testifying to that owns a business in the 8 Mile and Dequindre area that employed Elhage for after-hours loss prevention/security purposes, and said he owns more than 100 cell phones. Subsequent revelations centered on the texts having been sent to Strange by joshing male employees at the business.
The oddest info to emerge from that is that Strange showed those texts to his daughters.
Wha-a-a? You find them so offensive and threatening that you SHOW them to your kids?
The business owner, originally one of the young people Elhage helped in the past in her police work with troubled youth, claimed he did not want to be present at the trial. He says he was worried, as he had received threats due to the high-profile people involved in the case.
When Elhage took the stand, she recounted how her love relationship suddenly soured on Halloween of 2008 when, after weeks of redecorating then moving into their Plymouth home together, she returned to find the garage door code changed by Drain.
Unable to reach her by phone, Elhage says she worried about safety issues; she subsequently found Drain calmly sitting, staring, in the backyard.
Drain’s parents soon joined the two women to tell Elhage to move out, saying that Drain didn’t want to live with her anymore.
In the years Drain and Elhage spent together sharing family and friends, the judge and Elhage played golf and she affectionately called him “Judgie.” Appealing to him for an explanation of his daughter’s bizarre mood swings, he arrived post-breakup, pulled out a checkbook, and inquired, “What’s it gonna take to get you to leave this relationship alone? Name any amount.”
Elhage says that’s when she told the judge to leave her house.
Gay Detroit cop found guilty in case that still begs closer look (Part 3 of 3)
Wendy Clem
Detroit City Buzz Examiner
March 2, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-detroit/gay-detroit-cop-found-guilty-case-that-still-begs-closer-look-part-3-of-3
Holidays, vacations and family gatherings were a large part of the life shared by Wedad Elhage and Shelley Drain. Credit: Courtesy of the Elhage Family.
There is another telling trial detail that reveals the character of Shelley Drain — one that entailed yet another previous relationship Drain shared with a man. After that relationship was history, both she and Elhage referred to him as “Looney Tunes Guy,” because Drain claimed he stalked her, says Elhage.
Drain also enlisted Elhage’s help in deterring that ex-boyfriend’s attention after the fact. Part of Elhage’s testimony centered on her helping Drain with that problem.
Despite her own mistreatment, however, Elhage continued to be there for Drain and even nursed her through part of her surgical recuperation, follow-up doctor appointments, and encouraged her to include her parents when Drain had entered the hospital without even bothering to notify her parents.
Hmm. Anybody else see a pattern here? Doesn’t there have to be some culpability for people who repeatedly feign hurt, then bait and hurt others, running for cover under the law?
The sightings of a red Ford Explorer, similar to the vehicle Elhage drives, have figured prominently in the stalking sightings against Elhage when one appeared in the Plymouth neighborhood where Drain — and formally Elhage — lives. Elhage says that although she has no idea who drove the vehicle that was spotted (neither could the prosecution), it wasn’t her — and the president of the Plymouth homeowners’ association also owns one just like it. Meanwhile, a whiskey bottle supposedly thrown into Drain’s driveway and also blamed on Elhage mysteriously disappeared from the evidence.
A chance gas station meeting resulted in Drain again giving Elhage her number and chastising Elhage for not giving her a better hug, says Elhage. As the months passed, Drain continually contacted her, although the latter was ordered to not contact Drain.
An exception, says Elhage, was made when she contacted Strange as a heads up when she realized he received the lurid texts.
Later, he admitted during testimony to setting her up to meet Drain by saying the two of them had broken up and Drain needed to talk with her. That resulted in Elhage violating her bond and being jailed.
King’s allegation that Elhage accosted a police officer following a confrontation fell into one of the many prosecution holes Monday, not supported by charges having been filed or any real evidence against her. Elhage, however, did admit to telling Drain at one point in May 2009, ‘I’m going to f*** with you when I want to.“
Apparently, pushing someone to the breaking point as the Drain contingency did, is not even allowed to be verbally dealt with. Who, then, was the actual abuser here? Apparently the ones who know how to hit and run -- and hide behind the system.
However, there was never a hand raised by Elhage, a weapon brandished, any proof of simmering hatred or violence — and the prosecution couldn’t produce evidence. She was the ultimate whipping post, and it isn’t yet done.
Drain meekly winced in court as the defense spoke during closings about Elhage in constructive terms, it’s obvious she is still putting on a show.
Defense attorney Charles Busse, of Warren/Rochester/Dearborn, wrapped up his trial assessment by calling the case “raised to the level of unusual,” not only for the involvement of so many people in the couple’s “affairs of the heart,” but also the intense effort of the numbers of police agencies expended. He openly shared the following assessment of any of Elhage’s crasser moments in the case:
“We ask these officers to take a badge, take a gun…to shoot things and be shot at…
“We ask them to take those skills out onto the means streets in a mean city…and then are shocked that they might use salty language?”
Funny how not one person has openly held Shelley Drain and her calculating “extended family” responsible for exacerbating this entire case, entrapping a smitten love, and laying waste to yet another “Looney Tunes” who had the gall, and unmitigated bad taste, to love this toxic woman.
There’s more that needs fixing here than a guilty verdict — or mere surgery — can ever manage.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 1 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
In 2011, Detroit Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage was convicted of aggravated stalking of her 8-year domestic partner, Wayne County Prosecutor Shelley Drain. In an unusual case that condemned a much-decorated and accomplished street cop, the proceedings swerved into questionable legalities.
To astute researchers, the case brims with blatant inequities as well as abuse of official power and a seamy network in the Detroit judicial and prosecutorial system.
And that atmosphere continues for Elhage.
Although official records fail to support any evidence of undeniable guilt — such as definitive license plate identification, verified IP addresses, broken bottle evidence — these and more means could, and would, have exonerated her. But, the trial featured missing physical evidence, failure to produce taped recordings or text messages used to convict by mere word of mouth, contradictory records and logs, missing facts and what the defendant says were lies told under oath.
In American jurisprudence at its worst, it merely showed that a Detroit policewoman who also happens to be a lesbian won’t get a fair trial here. The entire case seems to hinge on rumor, conflicts of interest, unsupported allegations and outright entrapment, some of which was even admitted to during depositions and on the witness stand.
It also underscores that those who cross a Detroit judge or politician will pay dearly.
Elhage’s conviction followed a case pushed to fruition by Drain’s father, Judge Gershwin Drain, a major influence in his daughter’s relationships. The case headed toward court when the elder Drain was reported to have been unsuccessful at buying off Elhage.
Gershwin Drain is also the newly appointed Detroit federal judge, who was nominated by President Barack Obama and championed for that role by 33-year incumbent Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and 11-year incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Contribution records indicate that not only has he frequently contributed to President Obama’s coffers, but also to those of both Levin and Stabenow.
Gershwin Drain was approved by the U.S. Senate on August 8, leaving his most recent stint with Detroit’s Third Circuit Court.
Since publication of previous articles about Elhage, Examiner readers and court insiders also allege other questionable cases involving Judge Drain, characterizing a dubious character while on the bench. His overall creditability comes into question repeatedly by those who have experienced his domain, as does the character of other witnesses and officials who appeared in the case against Wedad Elhage.
Elhage says his internal affairs deposition blatantly reflects his disdain for her sexuality by his referral to her as “a thing.”
“I was called ‘a thing’ rather than by my name,” she said. “I know well his viewpoint.”
That raises serious questions about bias as Judge Drain heads into hearing federal cases. Should this type of judge even serve on the bench, let alone a federal one?
Despite her sexual orientation, the 6’2” Elhage was a favorite officer in executive security detail, consistently chosen to protect high-profile figures, and she has certificates and photos to corroborate it. Those include President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and celebrity politicians, like former cop/City Council President, and sometimes Hollywood actor, Gil Hill.
She met Shelley Drain in 1999/2000 at a Dennis Archer event, where they were both introduced to the MEL program. It entailed talking to Detroit students about law enforcement, and discussing gang violence, drugs and other inner-city temptations. Through that common interest, Drain and Elhage socialized, then dated and moved in together.
“I had dated many of the women in the prosecutors’ office, and for years, although it was well known, we lived in peace,” said Elhage. “But, as this case against me progressed, I knew I had too many people coming out against me because of other things, even though they were irrelevant to my case. For instance, I had testified in a prosecutor’s divorce case years before about her drinking, and I knew well about prosecutors and other officials drinking, gambling, watching porn while on duty and more.”
Elhage says people with axes to grind came out of the woodwork to weigh in on her case, primarily because they knew Gershwin Drain was on Obama’s short list of nominees. They put, she says, their own political aspirations before her lifelong career, and the truth, to stay on Drain’s good side.
Elhage still mentions a veritable who’s who of Detroit among those she’s met or hobnobbed with, including then-Senator Barack Obama. She also says many know how hard she worked and would recommend her — people like former Police Chief Isaiah “Ike” McKinnon and current Chief Ralph Godbee, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napolean, former Mayor Dennis Archer and former U.S. Secret Service Head Reggie Ball.
“And, that list goes on,” she said. “My comrades from the police department — and I have gotten about 100 calls from them since I was released, including commanders, lieutenants and officers — my instructors who knew me from working on my master’s, people from the community who know me, too.”
Elhage was nominated by crime victims’ families in 2002 for Officer of the Year for closing the most cases, also receiving the governor’s award and a city resolution that year. She calls the latter honor unusual, with resolutions typically only given in the event of retirement or death.
Following Elhage’s release from Huron Valley Correctional Facility in August, she agreed to talk exclusively with Examiner about her experience, her background in law enforcement, the Kwame Kilpatrick investigation she worked on and her future.
They shut you up and locked you down.
Q: When it comes to hard evidence of your guilt in this case, it seems to be lacking overall. Yet, you were soundly convicted and are still subject to such limitations as having to wear a tether for 24 months, home confinement without pre-arranged permission even for medical emergencies, cannot own a computer or cell phone, had all potential household weapons confiscated and so on. Even with your release, you have compared that to prison. You have continued to try to unravel complications in your case and unfair treatment.
Recent prison stories in the news have centered on DNA evidence and defendant release, such as in the local case of the Highers brothers. What are your thoughts on being freed and cleared as a result of scientific assistance?
A: There are certainly innocent people out there who have been convicted — and I am one of them. When DNA proof can clear them, that is indisputable fact that courts must address.
However, in my case, no DNA exists, so I do not have that option.
Q: Much press has also been devoted to the cases being followed up on by The Innocence Project and in convictions such as with The West Memphis (Arkansas) 3, who have since been released through various plea arrangements and further investigation. A movie is now being made about the WM3 and its terrible police work and lying witnesses that convicted the defendants. Your thoughts?
A: It is much harder to prove that people lied under oath or cut various deals to send someone up. In my case, people would have to be willing to come forward and admit their perjury and/or they destroyed “lost” evidence or had personal agendas, and that could affect their careers.
Or, I need a person in a position of power to look at this case in its entirety to see how I was railroaded. It is a case of one thing after another to get me out of circulation, and I had a long line of people I crossed in the course of my work with the police department on the Tamara Greene murder case and other high-profile instances. I was not shy about calling corrupt situations what they were and if I felt people covered evidence up, hid things or did other unethical or illegal acts in a case, I was not quiet about it. That did not earn me any friends in the ranks of the corrupt in Detroit, which were and are many. In spite of the jailing of Kwame and others, that issue, and the hierarchy who created that environment, is only now being dealt with.
Let’s discuss the trial and being in jail.
Q: You were in custody at the Wayne County Jail from December until the trial date on February 20. Why so long?
A: They have to try you in the average of three months, 180 days, unless you are bonded out. In my case, they had two $500,000 bonds on me for an equivalent of $1 million for their charge of aggravated stalking.
Many are held for far less, even sex offenders, hit-and-runs, violent criminals and murderers, who might typically be held for $10,000, but they held me for a million.
Q: Walk me through a typical day for you during your incarceration in the Wayne County Jail and subsequent trial.
A: They had me on lock-down 24/7, in a private, high-security area. The nights were endless, the days were very long. I would try to run in place and do sit-ups, but I felt like I was going crazy; I felt depressed, and that affected my energy level. I would pace back and forth. I wasn’t in general population; they had officers come and talk to me, but it felt like being a lion or tiger (in a cage), reaching for the sky when you can’t go anywhere. I was in the cell that the former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was in — and had a private shower, private bathroom, with cameras on me the whole time. That was surreal, since I had been involved earlier in the Tamara Greene murder that investigated his involvement.
Q: How were you treated while in custody by personnel, your former coworkers, bosses and peers?
A: Most of the time, they were courteous, until the end of the trial. That’s when they used a Wayne County sheriff as a courtroom officer. He was always making prejudicial comments in front of the jurors and cracking jokes about my sexuality, rude to my family and did what he could to hurt my case. He was also abusive; he smacked me and grabbed me, shoving me around, like into the wall — and he made sure he pushed me around in front of the Drain family. Officers knew what was happening to me was wrong, but no one intervened. I’ve always thought our system is fair and just, but the people we select, elect — even the jurors — can be persuaded and manipulated.
I witnessed many things over the years as an officer, but this was unlike I ever even believed it was.
Q: Were there any repercussions of that type of rough handling?
A: Well, the jury verdict didn’t go as I had hoped. I also tried to lodge a complaint about the abuse, but never heard anything back, as a result.
Don’t miss Parts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 — spanning from life and corruption at Huron Valley, behind the scenes in the Tamara Greene shooting, other corrupt Detroit leaders and what the future holds for Wedad Elhage, the cop who was sacrificed for politics.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 2 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
The following is a continuation of Part 1 in the post-prison interview of Wedad Elhage.
Let’s discuss the trial and being in jail.
Q: How did you keep yourself sane during that event, and overall, while awaiting the outcome of the accusations?
A: I was worried about my future, my career, my family — so much that I couldn’t sleep with so much on my mind. They put me on pills at the county — Seroquel* — and the idea was to take off the edge, like with a low Valium, but it made me drowsy and numb and I couldn’t handle the courtroom lights or what was going on. I was not familiar with this medication; the nurses began giving it to me in the mornings, but then began coming at sporadic times. Often they were running late, sometimes didn’t come at all and sometimes would give me a dose at 9 or 10, other times at 11. I tried to remain coherent, but it dazed and affected me on the stand, too, and I asked my attorney for help that never came.
*(Editor’s Note: Per drugs.com, Seroquel is used in the treatment of depressive and acute manic episodes of bipolar disorder by regulating the balance of brain chemicals. Elhage was never diagnosed as bipolar, nor has she had any symptoms associated with it.)
Q: How would you characterize the attorney/client relationship with your defense counsel, Chuck Busse?
A: He was useless. We never officially prepped for my case; we barely talked about it. He’d arrive late for our appointed times to meet, and then only wanted to talk about his girlfriend, leaving us so little time. There were solid witnesses he was to call and testimony he was supposed to pursue, but he changed how we were to approach the various issues, urging different stories than the truth to be told. And, I never had the full opportunity to address the charges or tell the truth in court because the judge and prosecutor kept shooting me down and my attorney would not object.
Prior to my arrest, I kept telling him I was being followed and that I was under surveillance. Knowing that, why would I go and do something to damage my career and credibility or have to tell anything but the truth on the stand? That was never addressed.
But, the drugs given me in the county jail affected me terribly, and he took it upon himself to take control over things, like when he brokered a deal that I plead guilty and wouldn’t have to do any time. I didn’t even know he was doing things like that, although it never materialized anyway. (Detroit Police Department) Internal Affairs Commander Brian Stair created another deal — I still have this text message and those that followed — that one of my witnesses and I were to redo Stair’s kitchen as part of my plea. I was never conferred with about this, and as a result, lies were told on the stand under oath, including him claiming that I called him and said this incident with Shelley wasn’t “done.”
Stair was promoted by Kwame’s administration, and there is a real history there. In my case, lies were told by him and others; I did not follow through on that kitchen thing — I did not want the arrangement — it was corruption.
The stories told on the stand did not match with what really happened, and even other officers in on the original complaints, like some through the Canton police department, didn’t know what was being talked about when the final testimony and documents resulted. That’s because others than me devised a strategy for this case that was not based on truth.
It was my life and career in the balance. I loved my career; I’m 47 now and my entire world since age 21 was involved in criminal justice. And now I have served time for a conviction.
Q: You were convicted of aggravated stalking, but there does not seem to be recorded evidence of any acts of violence between you and the complainant. Were there any activities involving a gun, knife, fists, other weapons or other aspects of physical violence directed at her throughout your time together or the development of this case against you?
A: Never, never, never. In fact, at the preliminary exam, she testified that she never feared me. But, that fact was never raised at the trial, especially by my attorney. Like with any other couples and marriages, we argued, raised voices at times, yes. But she knew I was never a violent person. And, she still does.
Q: What kinds of feelings were exchanged between you and her during your 8-year relationship?
A: There was love between us, of course; we were a couple, even though she would spend holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, with her family. We worked together, both fulltime during our jobs and also part-time, when we did security. We bought homes together, we lived and traveled together, I bought her jewelry and other gifts. I also encouraged her, built her up, and think I made her stronger and more aware of her personal and professional appearance. I gave her confidence in her work and encouraged her to help other women during her career. Where she was passive or timid, I helped to make her feel more confident.
There was a time when she was in trouble because she used to lose a lot of cases in her court and I went and sat in her courtroom to see if I could determine why, then helped coach her to gain more confidence.
Q: Shelley’s background, her history with her father and issues that resulted from her childhood, seemed to figure into this case and your relationship from the beginning. Even after this case began, she continued to confide in you, right? About issues that impacted her adult relationships? And it was while responding to some of her problems that you dug yourself in deeper, later to be prosecuted, tried and persecuted?
A: Yes, I responded when she was in need or others told me she was, and some of those very times are how I was entrapped. There were many issues discussed between us over the years and I kept all of those confidences and was loyal to her.
I wish her the best of luck and hope she gets past her problems. But, I have moved on in my life.
Q: Yet at the end, during the trial, she stated that she was afraid of you?
A: She testified that she was holding a gun, never knowing what window I was going to come from, which was ridiculous. I got her a Glock 27 for her birthday, and used to take her to the range; we would practice target-shooting together. That’s because we used to work part-time in security for a company called LSS, Legal Strategy and Security, and that gun was for her protection on the job. She had a CCW and also used to do surveillance with me in domestic divorce cases and so on.
I was professional in my job and giving in our relationship. I never put my hands on anybody except the bad guys who resisted arrest or tried to fire at me or my department partner.
When the cops needed a cop, they called me.
Q: As a former officer, what is your take on being accused, and then convicted, of aggravated stalking?
A: As a former officer, I know full well that 98 percent of these cases involve violence and stalkers deserve to be in prison. But that never happened here. The only things we both did as this case was developing was email and talk by phone. I wished her happy birthday, happy holidays and so on, and she answered them or contacted me first. That was from about April until July. She, meanwhile, called me, too. But, no evidence was presented to illustrate this aspect in the case. Any evidence was purely circumstantial, such as the broken glass and nails in her driveway she accused me of leaving. I never did that. And, if that did happen from someone else for which I got blamed, why did she clean up the glass and then take pictures of it to the police department to make a complaint and name me as the person who did it? Wouldn’t you want it investigated IN the driveway and substantiated?
And the threats they claim came via email? They never provided the IP addresses or copies, but accused me anyway. Also, even the complainants couldn’t agree on the so-called voices on phone messages they claim were left; her dad said it was a man’s voice, Shelley said it was a woman.* They never produced the tapes, either.
Yes, at the end, I did lose my emotions as this case escalated. I admit that I called her obese, a deceiving bitch and some other names. But, (gestures toward her late father’s framed wall photo) I swear on my dad’s name and grave, none of those other things happened that I was accused of.
*(Editor’s Note: Complainant paperwork states that there were no messages left — just hang-ups — during receipt of any alleged calls. Similar contradictions reverberate throughout official documentation as well as trial testimony.)
Q: How did the day of the verdict unfold?
A: I knew it was bad because the jury came back with the verdict pretty quickly and usually that does not favor defendants. My attorney’s intern came to tell me my lawyer was running late and was unavailable for the verdict’s announcement. They only did a telephone conference with the jury to get the actual verdict.
Q: Did you plan to appeal?
A: I signed a paper to pursue an appeal, and he promised he would come and see me to strategize that, but he never did. I called him a couple of times when I was finally able to make calls after my initial 90 days’ quarantine from prison and he’d hang up the phone. He made a deal without my knowledge or approval with the case’s prosecutor, Michael King, saying that I was guilty — because he said he knew I would never go for it. I just wanted to be defended with dignity and honesty, not have people step outside of their bounds, have so much control over my future, or resort to lies in court. I feel that if the truth is told, then it is better all the way around for everyone.
I have too much respect for the system and I know it can work. It just didn’t under these circumstances in my case. They convicted an innocent person.
Don’t miss Parts 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 — spanning from life and corruption at Huron Valley, behind the scenes in the Tamara Greene shooting, other corrupt Detroit leaders and what the future holds for Wedad Elhage, the cop who was sacrificed for politics.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 3 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
The following is a continuation of Parts 1 and 2 in the post-prison interview of Wedad Elhage.
Q: Describe the prison environment at Huron Valley.
A: I shared a 4’x9’ cell and was supposed to be in low security, Level 1, but they put me in Level 2. I spent a lot of time reading; a friend was anonymously sending me books and I got caught up on all the best sellers. In prison, they watch a lot of bad TV so I usually didn’t pursue that. I kept a journal — my years of law enforcement gave me training to recall facts and details and I have a photographic memory — but the officials did a room inspection, found it and threw it away. In it, I talked about the prison corruption, including the drugs that are smuggled in by the officers, and they didn’t want that to get out. That includes marijuana, crack cocaine and heroin and more.
I had to deal with the threats of inmates on one hand and the prison officials on the other and it is chaos. There is so much corruption.
I paid $1400 per month for prison costs. You know, we treat our pets with compassion, but treat humans like animals, and nowhere is that more apparent than in prison. My two puppies got better treatment than I did in prison. Medical attention was seriously delayed, sometimes by weeks or months, even three months to see a dentist when needing a root canal or six hours to have internal bleeding looked at, and even then you have to go through four nurses before being allowed to see a doctor.
There are delays for your mail by weeks, if you get it at all. Three meals cost about $3.49 per day; but if you go to chow, you risk being drawn into prisoners fighting over relationships, drugs and other things. Still, you don’t receive a tray in your cell if you don’t go to chow or if a visitor arrives just as meals are on. And, if you do get drawn into conflicts, even to defend yourself, the minute you put your hands on someone, you lose your parole. Often, even at chow, there is not enough food, and since the officers eat the same menu, they at times run out of food for prisoners.
Prison officials manipulate cameras to create different outcomes on film — rewinding tapes or even claiming cameras are broken to build a case against prisoners they don’t like or they can’t break — and they are very verbally abusive. They tried to try me all over again, re-enact the trial right there in the unit supervisor’s office; the correction officials called me names alluding to my being a cop, and called me “racist” and lesbian names, ridiculing my education, discussing my case in front of other inmates.
Subsequently, I was threatened by inmates who wanted to cut me even more than they did others.
The educational classes are either cancelled or never happen, and the mental health program is so understaffed, they are putting everyone on pills. And, officers who smuggle drugs in blame the nurses.
One unit supervisor, whose father was supposedly a reverend, I complained about to various internal affairs inspectors within the Michigan Department of Corrections and even wrote to the director because she was so abusive. She kept sending for me to come to her office, berating me and telling me she would beat her daughter to death if she was a lesbian. Nothing came of it.
A presiding parole board officer equated being a lesbian with details of really awful criminal behavior and that prejudice appears in as conditions in my parole, surprising even my probation officer. How is that possible?
Some prison officials told the other prisoners stories about me before I even got there that set up my treatment by them as well as officials; correctional professionals try to create an environment by doing that. Some prisoners recognized me from their own arrests.
The officials will scream and yell at you as if they are on camera, as if it’s for a performance. And, even though they demand you talk to them, they basically want to name call and won’t let you speak, talk about your background, nothing. They try to break you.
When it comes to freedom, if prisoners don’t admit to guilt, they won’t get parole. Over and over, they do this, lie to the parole board, get high every day, admit to A/B/C/D and many get out without a tether, and yet they kill again. Prisoners are mixed in with cell-mates who have mental disorders or physical disabilities and then are expected to assist them for all their needs instead of them getting medical assistance or being put in mental hospitals or other locations that can deal with those disabilities.
Q: With such a hit to your self-esteem, how did you manage?
A: I stayed professional throughout the trial and at Huron Valley. Courteous and professional. Although the Seraquel given to me during my county incarceration seriously affected my awareness during the trial. I did my time there and in prison. It was tough, but I stood tall. The court’s pre-sentencing recommendation was that I go to boot camp after at least 6-12 months, but it never materialized. I needed my attorney’s help with that, but he disappeared after the trial.
There are innocent people in prison, though; I know that. However, the woman I shared a cell with had 14 personalities and had committed four stabbings, yet she got parole and went home before me, while I got treated like Jeffrey Dahmer or another serial killer.
A lady who saw me hugging my mom said she saw the emotion and anger in me was different than that in most inmates and requested to come and speak to me; I said yes. She was a Jehovah’s Witness and she would come and read the Bible with me. She came, sometimes 3-4 days a week and read the Bible with me, and even though I converted to the Baptist church some time back, the lady and I found great comfort in reading together. She was my therapy, and all that was available to me, but I will be forever grateful to her and for that. Because of her and the support of my family, I made it through.
Q: Besides discovering even more holes in the system, what did prison teach you?
A: Prison taught me how to value my freedom. It was not worth the time away from my aging mother, who is now 86, and causing me to miss the important family events I did and for the loss of my career. This is what it took for me to love me, to know who I am and not hate that.
I only fail if I allow myself to fail.
For those to “get” my case and what I went through, this takes a caring individual, one with logic and rational thinking, or it’s impossible to understand my situation, to know what it is to be in my shoes.
I grew up in Lebanon and came to the United States when I was 13. As a child I remember air attacks, bombardment in Lebanon. When I came to the United States, I never dreamed I would go to prison.
Don’t miss Parts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 — spanning from life and corruption at Huron Valley, behind the scenes in the Tamara Greene shooting, other corrupt Detroit leaders and what the future holds for Wedad Elhage, the cop who was sacrificed for politics.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 4 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
The following is a continuation of Parts 1, 2, and 3 in the post-prison interview of Wedad Elhage.
Q: What is your overview on gay political stances today?
A: I have been treated as if it’s a crime to be a lesbian. Even former Vice President Dick Cheney has a gay daughter — and every family has someone they know — a cousin, a child, a relative who faces this issue. Now we have certain sensitive issues that government is being asked to be a part of, making it part of religion and drawing that into state issues.
I loved everybody else, but unfortunately had issues with my own identity and how I was born this way. But although I’m facing some difficult times today, especially financially, and my career was taken away from me, but my life is not over.
However, in my case, they have also equated being a menace to society with being lesbian, and that is reflected in my parole. I can’t have contact with anyone 17 and younger. That will affect any public job I can try and find. I spoke in high schools, colleges, in community policing, with never a complaint about my appropriateness, never a remote complaint about me. This is sickening.
I am a liberal conservative, although a ticket splitter. As far as national politics, I think Obama is a good speaker, but when he took office, he basically backed off as gay friendly. He appointed some people who were known to be gay, but it seemed to end there. As far as gay rights, I think it’s just propaganda for this election. It is the time for issues to be discussed, but once the election is over, what will really happen? Eventually, I think it will go to the Supreme Court to determine because they are the ceiling of the law, and although I have mixed feelings about that, too, I think it will happen.
It’s sad that they took this case and ran with it and tried to destroy my integrity and character. It was primarily because I am a lesbian. But I also ruffled feathers because I called people out on their corruption, so they struck back. I know a lot about what people have done or are capable of — and they know that.
Q: What effect will being in prison have on your input on the national/international stage, let alone local, for gay rights?
A: Michigan is one of the few states that still allows convicted felons to vote. So, I still have that right. And I will take that opportunity for all local, state and federal elections. I was released in August, which wasn’t in time to register to vote this fall, but I can in the future.
Don’t miss Parts 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 — spanning from life and corruption at Huron Valley, behind the scenes in the Tamara Greene shooting, other corrupt Detroit leaders and what the future holds for Wedad Elhage, the cop who was sacrificed for politics.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 5 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
The following is a continuation of Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the post-prison interview of Wedad Elhage.
As Detroit heads into yet another saga in its unfortunate association with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the city and suburbs are still reverberating from the fallout of his reign. Currently, the trial based on a few dozen federal charges is moving forward.
A mysterious aspect of his Motown connection is the still whispered about Manoogian Mansion parties; people continue to refer to it as “the alleged parties,” despite evidence and testimony from people who claim to have been present or dealt with the collective debris afterward.
Wedad Elhage was on the front lines during the 2003 murder investigation of exotic dancer Tamara Greene, who was connected to at least one Manoogian party. Greene appeared on reports as having received a beating from Kwame’s wife, Carlita, when the latter walked in on one of the parties.
One difficulty in nailing down specifics about this sad chapter is that the high-profile people said to have attended parties included power brokers who wanted to protect their own futures. Multiple sources at both an inside local level and Lansing level have told me that the parties did, indeed, happen and the events are referred to often by political powers of yesterday and today. Some of those said to have been in attendance include former Oakland and Wayne County Prosecutor and Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, among many others.
Cox’s revelations and behavior in overseeing the Kilpatrick investigation raised more eyebrows and questions, but he has never satisfactorily answered those.
Wedad Elhage, however, has no doubts about Detroit’s guilty, corrupt and shady. She names people, places and events that very likely put her squarely in a bull’s-eye for personal persecution and sent her to prison in the process.
She has agreed to share some insights from the Tamara Greene killing, and in so doing, corroborates what others have also claimed for years.
Q: You were involved in the death investigation of Tamara Greene, the exotic dancer, who was connected through parties at the Manoogian Mansion and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Can you comment on that event, as well as your role in it?
A: The morning after the shooting that killed her, I was working in Homicide in Squad 8. Lt. Billy Jackson was our boss, and I was with Mary Ann Stevenson and Tyrone Kemp. When we got the case, we helped each other with the various details. We looked at photos, and while we waited for the autopsy report we made contact with Greene’s aunt in Toledo and her grandmother. We already knew Greene was a topless dancer, and involved with a boyfriend who was a supposed drug dealer.
I talked to the grandmother about the BMW Greene owned and owed money on. We discussed her lifestyle and that Greene was in the process of opening a lingerie business in the Wyoming and 8 Mile area in a top-floor apartment. We got many leads, talked to the people she went to high school with as well as the ones she danced with and more.
Q: I don’t think many know that Tamara’s boyfriend lived, while she died — and yet, the shooting had been blamed on a bad drug deal and that he had been the target. What can you add to that?
A: Yes, the boyfriend survived. We went to Sinai Grace Hospital to question him about what he knew, but, he was still drugged due to his surgery. Because he was not able to speak at first about the crime, we went again to question him.
We learned that Greene had talked to a mutual male friend, another drug dealer, that same night, and that there was a history there — that there was possibly a romantic relationship between the two. Later, all of them ended up at the same bar and when her boyfriend saw the other guy, there was a verbal altercation. Both men left the bar after that, then the boyfriend came back later.
The shooting occurred at 2 a.m.
Q: How sure are you that what you uncovered is accurate?
A: Through texts and phone conversations with one of her girlfriends, we know she met Kwame Kilpatrick initially at a barber shop located off 7 Mile and he invited her to dance at a party. Greene’s girlfriend was also invited to dance at the mayor’s party, but she decided about that time to get out of the business and quit dancing. The girl already had another job at the Verizon store at Eastland Mall.
But, the friend told us that Greene additionally saw Kwame on several occasions in private.
When we discovered about Greene’s connection to him and the parties, I made some noise. I was the original person who drew attention to the mayor’s involvement and said there was more to the story than what was being told. I pushed that the case involved him.
Q: What do you know about the beating of Greene by Carlita Kilpatrick, the beating that everyone says never happened and for which records disappeared?
A: The night of the beating, there was a disturbance reported at the mayor’s residence. The closest police detail was working at Belle Isle; two officers named Davis and Jackson were the first to get it and respond. Once at the Manoogian, they were directed to leave. All the police log sheets and reports were taken away the next day by an officer who worked at the chief’s office, where we later learned they were destroyed.
You have to understand how many officers were worried about their jobs, their families and their incomes. Those of us who didn’t have that immediate worry knew there were a lot of cover-ups, and we weren’t afraid to discuss it. We knew Greene was beaten by the wife, that she went to the hospital for treatment.
We also discovered that officers from the police department covered it up. And, they helped to hide the hospital bills from that beating by submitting the hospital claims under their own insurance.
Q: Is that why the trail went cold? Because insurance claims were submitted under other names?
A: We found this out in our investigation.
Q: Had you ever had any other dealings with Kwame or his ability to skirt the law?
A: I knew Kwame and I was well acquainted with his behavior and activities. I stopped him in 1992 for a traffic stop when I was working #10; he had been running lights. I’d also seen him sitting on his front porch, smoking weed with his buddies, and I knew the types of people he ran with. I mean, when he considered himself above the law back then, and he was a troublemaker who thought he could get away with things because of who his mother was, what does that say about him?
Q: What was the outcome of the beating investigation?
A: It was our case, but, our higher powers instructed us to not work on it, then it was taken away from us. Then Corporation Counselor for the City of Detroit Ruth Carter, who had been appointed by Kwame a year before and is now a 36th district judge, began to intervene. She started calling us and making demands for information. She’d call our homicide bureau each week and demand from our Inspector Greg Schwartz to provide four copies of each update on the case.
Even with high profile cases, the usual is maybe twice a week, but this was unheard of. I testified to her actions in a deposition in federal court.
Q: You have some descriptive words for others who were part of this investigation or in other corruption activities…
A: Yes, I called (then chief) Jerry Oliver a coward over his handling, which earned me some negative feedback. Ella Bully-Cummings was not the chief until late in 2003, and then took an even bigger role in the case.
And, then there was Detroit Board of Police Commissioners’ Arthur Blackwell. He is easily THE most corrupt, arrogant and racist person in the world. He’d worked under Ed McNamara , former Wayne County Executive, and McNamara was also in cahoots during private meetings with former Mayor Coleman Young. The two of them ran their own little mafia operation.
Blackwell, who worked under McNamara on the Wayne County Board, ran over me while he was on the police board didn’t like me. He had bullied me and after we had words that involved one of my bosses, he pushed to have me suspended for a year. Although he went on to be in a series of illegal dealings, including having embezzled money from the city of Highland Park that former Governor Granholm appointed him to, he still manages to slide out from having to answer for most of the stuff he has done.
Later in my trial, Blackwell’s daughter-in-law took the stand against me, and also lied in her testimony.
See how connected they are and how they get to you if you go up against them?
Don’t miss Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 — spanning from life and corruption at Huron Valley, behind the scenes in the Tamara Greene shooting, other corrupt Detroit leaders and what the future holds for Wedad Elhage, the cop who was sacrificed for politics.
The post-prison update on convicted Police Sergeant Wedad Elhage (Part 6 of 6)
Detroit Examiner
September 22, 2012
The following is a continuation of Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the post-prison interview of Wedad Elhage.
Q: There is an online blog site called Behind the Blue Wall that features the stories of officer-involved domestic violence. You are on that site, alongside murderers, abusers who beat pregnant girlfriends, law enforcement members with a long track record of violence and worse. How does that make you feel?
A: Without the ability to have access to a computer, there is no way I can see it. But, it’s sad that the system ran with this case with their lack of any evidence, and banked on the testimony of liars and schemers who manipulated the system to get their outcome.
And, for people to further repeat that online or in writing just adds to that insult and injury and shows they do not know the truth nor how to publish the truth. Of course, I don’t belong there — and there has never been any proof that I was violent with Shelley — or anyone else.
Q: Rather than actually rely on official information or a balance of input, the site quotes articles from The Detroit Free Press and published the hearing records from about seven years ago of the Board of Police Commissioners, on which Arthur Blackwell served. The latter reports allude to an instance in which you were detained and became enraged. Having done some research, I know what a lack of information there is that damns you, and nothing about domestic violence. But, can you expand on what is contained there and did it include any instances of stalking or violence against Shelley?
A: NO! That never had anything to do with her and that’s ridiculous that they would choose that to add to a site on domestic violence! What does that possibly have to do with stalking or anything else?
What happened was that on July 13, 2005, I was off duty and gambling at a Detroit casino. I was doing quite well and also had had some drinks. There was a series of events because before I had gone to the casino; Shelley and I had had words. But, I was stopped by the DPD, handcuffed, Maced and they kicked my ass. I spent the night in jail after not being able to fight them off. But, it had absolutely nothing to do with Shelley, anything with stalking, anything to do with the trial or anything else.
This needs to be mentioned, however: That is not the only instance of problems with police being rough at the casino and there is a lawsuit going on right now against the DPD from officers of the casino over that very thing.
Q: Overall, how do you feel about being characterized as an aggravated stalker? Any regrets?
A: Those who know me, know that I have always spoken out loud and clear on the issue of domestic violence. I even intervene when my brother yells at his little daughter or my sisters argue. I encourage compromise, with softer voices and calm. That’s how you solve problems.
I also have always had a reputation overseas; I am well-respected and loved there. I beat the odds. I am the first female Arab-American officer to come to the United States.
I took my badge seriously, and used to volunteer for the Arab-American women here, going to them at their mosques to talk to them about domestic violence and explaining the laws that we have to protect them in the United States.
I want to do something positive, do something about the outcomes in life. Unfortunately, I can’t be a sworn member of law enforcement anymore, but I had a dream, a vision to go on and get my PhD after my Master’s. It’s a dream to teach at a university or to be a liaison. But I want to truly make a difference for Arab-American women, and all races of women everywhere, to help them fight the domestic violence that exists globally.
My only regret is that I didn’t go to law school. Surely, I would never be in this situation with better knowledge on how to handle what was done to me.
Q: What are your activities now that you are back home?
A: I help with my sister’s care who had brain-tumor surgery in 2009. I read the newspaper, listen to music, clean house and socialize with my adult nieces and nephews. I didn’t think I could live without the department, but I see life now in a different fashion. I try every day to be optimistic.
I am very optimistic and a strong believer in my Lord, and I know it will change — but in His time, not mine. But, my life is not going to stop here. I am in my own house, even if it is a type of prison because politics played its role.
There are still people from the command who know and respect me and never talk about the case or disrespect me in any way.
The most important thing, though, is that my family has stood by me. Although they are Muslim and I no longer am, they continue to share love and concern even when they don’t believe in or understand my lifestyle. Still, it is a blessing based on love and respect.
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