Westend: February 2015

PLACES TO EAT: OUR GUIDE TO NEARLY 100 LAKES AREA RESTAURANTS FEBRUARY 2015

INNOCENCE PROJECT OVERTURNING OLD VERDICTS TO OPEN UP PRISON DOORS

DOWNSIDE OF SEXTING PERSONAL RISKS, VIOLATION OF LAW

RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS A REVIEW THAT TRULY MATTERS TO DINERS ECRWSS Postal Customer PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ROYAL OAK, MI 48068 PERMIT #792

THE VILLAGER VILLAGE OF WOLVERINE LAKE WINTER 2-2-15 EDITION

www.wolverinelake.com

2015 State of the Village As we enter 2015 the state of our village is very strong. Our finances are stable and well managed. Wolverine Lake continues to be a great place to live and to raise a family.

Our village complex has a fresh new face. We’ve nearly completed the renovation of the exterior. The old crumbling artificial stucco exterior has been replaced by new long-lasting cement siding and a new roof. The project also included much-needed renovations to our police office, a new police storage area, and a new conference room. These improvements will keep our office useful for all for years to come.

We’re going to welcome a lot of new neighbors in our village this year. The Beechcrest development in the panhandle will bring more than a hundred high quality rental homes into the village. Much of this development will be on vacant property that just a couple years ago fell into abandonment and tax foreclosure. We think you'll all be pleased with the result.

In 2014 we made great progress in our efforts to continue to improve our lake. Our new harvester began making its rounds. Thanks to its GPS navigation it targets those species and parts of the lake where harvesting will be most effective. Our lake consultant Progressive AE coordinates harvesting with our herbicide treatments to give us the greatest impact from those programs.

Last year we also began our pilot study of laminar flow aeration in the lake’s Penny Lake arm. This aeration stirs the lake’s waters to increase the oxygen levels at the lake’s bottom. This helps bacteria to break down muck and helps prevent the release of weed-growing phosphorous from sediments. If the aeration treatment proves effective over the next few years we may expand it further.

We rebuilt and repaved Glengary Road in 2014. As part of the project we extended pathways along it and South Commerce Road. Our pathway system now stretches across the Village all the way to Walled Lake Central High School. In 2015 we will continue to find ways to improve and extend our pathways.

Park and pathway projects in 2014 also included the resurfacing of the Vita Trail and the installation of new exercise equipment near the trailhead parking area.

(Stop by this year to work on those New Year’s Resolutions!) In 2015 we intend to continue to work on neighborhood parks in the village, both with the installation of new signage and landscaping in the Oak Island Park and by finding a location to build a new neighborhood park on the south side of the Village.

As you can tell, 2014 was a busy and productive year, and 2015 promises more of the same. If you want to be a part of it, our boards and commissions can always use new members and volunteers. Please contact the Village office to join in!

And that’s it. There’s tons more I’d love to tell you, but I’ve plumb run out of space. Have a great 2015 everybody!

John Magee, Village President

Time Capsule Taking advantage of the building renovation, the Historical Committee collected items to enclose into a time capsule that will be

th entombed into the Village Hall stairway wall. The Village was incorporated in 1954; therefore, the capsule will be opened on its 100 anniversary year, 2054. Many things are enclosed such as, a cell phone, DVD player with the historical and riverboat CD’s, newsletters, newspapers, a license plate and of course many pictures of the Village and its residents.

Snow Removal Strategies for Driveways One of the clear advantages of living in the Village of Wolverine Lake is the excellent job our DPW does in clearing our local streets following a snowstorm. However, this attention to the village roadways can prove frustrating for some residents who have cleared their driveways, only to have the entrance buried by a passing Village DPW snow plowing truck. Please do not blame the truck driver for doing his job. If he raised the blade every time he passes a driveway the street would become a nightmare of snow moguls for motorists.

Instead, residents should minimize the inconvenience by avoiding piling snow at the end of the driveway (left side as you face the street) where the DPW plow will likely push it back into the driveway as it passes. Instead, shovel the bulk of the snow to the right side of the driveway entrance and push snow at the left side of the entrance back away from the street leaving as little as possible at the street edge for the DPW plow to move. This won’t totally eliminate the problem but it will minimize it considerably.

Sewer Connection Currently Village Staff is accepting petitions for residents interested in connecting to sewer and developing a Special Assessment District in order to pay most of the costs over a 10 year period of time on their Village taxes. For more information contact Village Hall 248-624-1710.

Dog Tags Dog Licenses are available at the st Village Offices at regular prices through June 1 . nd There is a delinquent fee effective on June 2 .

Michigan State law requires all dogs to be licensed.

Waste Collection In order to keep the Village of Wolverine Lake a beautiful place to live, last year Village Council established new procedures and guidelines for waste collection. All refuse must be set out in proper containers or properly bundled no earlier than noon the day before collection and all refuse containers must be removed from the road edge by 9:00 am the day after collection. To review the entire list of rules and regulations please contact Village Hall or visit the web-site. www.wolverinelake.com Bagged Yard Waste pick up begins April 1st.

Operation Medicine Cabinet

Waterfront Wisdom

Dispose of your unused medications properly at the Oakland County Sherriff substation at 2401 Glengary Road.

For more info call: 248-624-0715

Warm weather is right around the corner and now is a perfect time to consider and plan the expansion of your lake front gardens in early spring. Excess nutrients from fertilizers, yard waste and pesticides from home lawn and garden activities can enter waterways in storm water runoff. Creating a garden buffer along the lake shore is not only beautiful but easy to do! It slows runoff, prevents erosion and provides added filtration to the lake. Utilize natural materials, such as wildflowers, grasses and shrubs, to stabilize shorelines. Native Michigan plants have extensive root systems that cut down watering needs, help infiltrate water back into the ground, minimize shoreline erosion and filter pollutants before entering the lake. ***Seawalls greatly reduce or eliminate riparian habitat. If you have an existing seawall, try supplementing the area in front of the structure with native aquatic vegetation to help restore lost aquatic habitat. They hold bottom sediments in place and protect the shoreline from the erosive forces of wind and ice action along with restoring aquatic habitat.

Oakland County Home Improvement Program 100% Deferred and Interest free loans are available to income qualifying residents. Only the principal is to be repaid when you sell or lease your home. Call: 248-858-5401

Winter Parking is prohibited on st

Village Streets November 1 through st March 31 between 2 am and 6 am

Above: garden buffer with native Michigan plants

Keeping Informed The Village of Wolverine Lake has an email information line available. This hot line keeps everyone up to date on news and events in the Village. There are now 1536 subscribers and the list continues to grow! To join, simply visit the web-site www.wolverinelake.com click on the envelope icon and follow the prompts.

Commerce Township Commerce Township o |$ $1,675,000 1,675,000 Resort-style home of offering ffering fering 142 feet of all-sports lake lak frontage, frontage, incredible incredible panoramic views, in-ground in-ground pool.

4 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 4 Full and 1 Half Baths | 214096653

Commerce Commer ce Township Township | $ $449,500 449,500 A uniquely styled home that sits on an outstanding front acre water fr ont lot of nearly an acr e and a half.

Bedrooms 3 Bedr ooms | 3 Full and 1 Half Baths | 214106205

White Lake T Township ownship | $ $405,000 405,000 Take T ake a advantage of this special winter pricing! This home has 80 feet of frontage frontage on a no-wake bay of Tull Tull Lake.

4 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 3 Full Baths | 215002797

Highland T Township ow ownship | $319,900 $319,900 Great Great Home- Great Great Value Value in Prestwick Prestwick Village Village - A Private Golf Community! Overlooking the fairways.

4 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 2 Full and 1 Half Baths | 215004711

$315,000 Farmington Hills | $ 315,000 Vitality from om this one of a kind lovely home.

V itality radiates fr Featuring 3,284 sqft (above grade) quality living space.

Bedrooms 3 Bedr ooms | 3 Full and 1 Half Baths | 214119897

W West est Bloomfield | $ $295,000 295,000 Pr Premium emium 1.26 acr acre, e, cul-du-sac lot in one of W West est Bloomfield’s Bloomfield’ ’s most desirable neighborhoods.

4 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 2 Full and 1 Half Baths | 214116451

Farmington Hills | $284,900 $284,900 Simply stunning home. Beautiful maple hardwood floorr,, hardwood floor, gourmet updated kitchen with granite counters.

Bedrooms | 2 Full and 1 Half Baths | 215003840 3 Bedrooms

White Lake Township Township | $ $279,000 279,000 Fabulous home with a first floor master suite in the gated Brentwood community of Br entwood Country Club. Open floor plan. ooms | 2 Full and 1 Half Baths | 214096880 Bedrooms 4 Bedr

Howell | $ $164,900 164,900 Located in historic Howell. This very quaint bungalow is waiting for you. you V Very ery lar large ge lot. Hardwood Hardwood floors.

4 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 2 Full Baths | 214071665

Commerce Township Commerce Township o | $144,900 $144,900 Stunning upper level ranch condo with great great location in Maple Crossings Crossings of Commer Commerce. ce. 1,587 square square feet.

2 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 2 Full Baths | 214126315

Waterford Waterford Township Township | $ $125,000 125,000 Beautiful wooded par parcel cel that backs up to park and lakes. Lake access. A cr creek eek running along the west side.

4 lot splits or plan unit development (PUD). 214110467

Redford T Redford Township ownship | $84,700 $84,700 This lovely ranch waits to welcome you home. Spacious community park. Remodeled bath w/jetted tub.

2 Bedrooms Bedrooms | 2 Full Bath | 214121586

Celebrating C elebratiingg H Ho Home o me 248-694-9371 71 | cbwm.com LLocally o c a ll y O Owned wned and and Operated Operated Since Since 1950.

195 0.

WEIR MANUEL

westend02.15

14

Newfound freedom: The Innocence Project It's assumed that everyone sent to prison is guilty and deserves to be incarcerated. At times, however, the justice system makes errors.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

8 While it may seem private and harmless, the growing trend of sexting – sending explicit photos – among the younger set has definite downsides.

CRIME LOCATOR

11

A recap of select categories of crime occurring in the past month in Commerce, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake and the Union Lake area, presented in map format.

32

41 Restaurant inspections Probably the most important review for any restaurant is the results of the over 17,000 inspections done annually by the Oakland County Health Division.

OVERTURNING OLD VERDICTS TO OPEN UP PRISON DOORS

DOWNSIDE OF SEXTING

MUNICIPAL New Commerce treasurer; new library location approved; township swimming pool lawsuit; Maple Road possible repairs; another new Kroger in Commerce; police officer added; plus more.

BUSINESS MATTERS

29

INNOCENCE PROJECT

PERSONAL RISKS, VIOLATION OF LAW

RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS A REVIEW THAT TRULY MATTERS TO DINERS

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ROYAL OAK, MI 48068 PERMIT #792

The dangers of sexting

FEBRUARY 2015

The Michigan Republican Party has itself to blame for the ongoing controversy over the state's Republican National Committee member Dave Agema, generally considered to be homophobic, Islamophobic and racist.

ECRWSS Postal Customer

23

PLACES TO EAT: OUR GUIDE TO NEARLY 100 LAKES AREA RESTAURANTS

Spectra Med; Puppy Love Dog Grooming Salon; Melvin's Hardware; Gin Mill Party Store; Children's Learning Center; BuckBass; Value Center Fresh Marketplace; Oasis Health Foods.

THE COVER The Mill Race Park in the Commerce Village area. Westend photo: G. Lynn Barnett.

ENDNOTE

42

Our thoughts on Oakland County's failure to put restaurant inspections online, and the ongoing legislative push for providing compensation to those wrongly sent to prison.

FACES

13 Virg Bernero 21Jean Racine Prahm 28 Dr. Kyle Anderson 35

James Scrivo

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PUBLISHER David Hohendorf NEWS EDITOR Lisa Brody NEWS Allison Batdorff Kevin Elliott | Camille Jayne

STAFF/CONTRIBUTORS | Rachel Bechard | Hillary Brody Sally Gerak | Austen Hohendorf | J. Marsh | Kathleen Meisner

PHOTOGRAPHY/CONTRIBUTORS Jean Lannen | Laurie Tennent Laurie Tennent Studio VIDEO PRODUCTION/CONTRIBUTOR Garrett Hohendorf Giant Slayer ADVERTISTING MANAGER Jill Cesarz ADVERTISING SALES Heather Marquis GRAPHICS/DESIGN G. Lynn Barnett WEBSITE/CONTRIBUTOR Chris Grammer OFFICE 124 W. Maple Birmingham MI 48009 248.792.6464 DISTRIBUTION/SUBSCRIPTIONS Mailed monthly at no charge to most homes in the Commerce, Wolverine Lake, Walled Lake and Union Lake area. Additional free copies distributed at high foot-traffic locations in west Oakland.

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RealEstateOne.com

MLS 215002041 - $309,000 Spectacular 5 bedroom colonial in Wixom’s Wexford Mews subdivision, renovated master suite including a gas fireplace, balcony overlooking in ground pool and professionally landscaped yard, kitchen with tons of oak cabinets, engineered hardwood flooring, huge family room with gorgeous stone fireplace, windows and sliding doors updated recently, 3 car garage. www.realestateone.com

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MLS 214105621- $316,000 Super sharp, super clean home has it all! First floor master or mother-in-law suite , enormous basement with egress window, 9’ height and endless possibilities, all bedrooms have en suite full baths and walk in closets, living room with vaulted ceiling and gas fireplace, Brazilian cherry wide plank hardwood floors, custom kitchen cabinets, 3 car garage. www.realestateone.com

MLS 214128862 - $289,000 Two story 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath all brick home at beginning of cul-de-sac in exclusive neighborhood of Twin Lakes Village, stunning wooded lot on Huron River, very well maintained throughout, open floor plan has great room with cathedral ceilings plus 2 story windows either side of fireplace, spacious island kitchen, hardwood floors, crown molding, covered front porch. www.realestateone.com

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ollowing the machinations and controversy over the last 12-14 months surrounding Dave Agema, Michigan’s infamous Republican National Committee (RNC) member, my first inclination was to write-off the GOP as a hopeless cause here in Michigan and quite possibly on a national level.

Agema, for those unfamiliar, was a Michigan State Representative for three terms (2007-2013) from the west side of the state, representing parts of the Grand Rapids area. I spent a couple years living/working in those environs when first out of college and conservative is probably an understatement when it comes to capturing the political sentiment of the local populace. In the case of Agema, he generally won his general elections by over 70 percent of the vote each time until he was term-limited from office.

During his time in the Michigan House, Agema was already telegraphing his far right beliefs on a number of issues, like right to life and gay civil rights.

But then he pulled off an election at the state Republican convention to become one of Michigan’s two members on the Republican National Committee, by a vote of 69 percent of the 2,100 delegates at the gathering for a term that runs from 2012 through 2016.

Agema’s victory at the convention, where he upended incumbent RNC committee member Saul Anuzis, who had served as the GOP state chairman, came despite the latter’s support by many of the state level power brokers, including the current governor.

At first blush it would be easy to say that the Tea Party support he had garnered was the reason for Agema’s ascendency to the national position. But Anuzis was also the victim of clashes between the camps of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, who were fighting over how presidential primary delegates should be divvied up in the future, and Santorum state convention delegates got their comeuppance for Anuzis’ support of Romney. Add to that mix those in attendance who backed Ron Paul, no big fan of Anuzis. When you combine those two groups of delegates with the Tea Party backers of Agema, it was the end for Anuzis who had been a player in national politics for years, including an often-mentioned possible RNC chairman contender.

Once ensconced at a national level, Agema showed his true colors, much to the chagrin of most Michigan Republicans. Through a series of social media postings, he has clearly established himself as homophobic, Islamaphobic and just simply racist. I won’t legitimize his rantings by repeating them here, but they usually take the form of posting articles from other extreme society malcontents and the publications reflecting their views, which allows Agema to deflect criticism by noting that these are

statements from others, not necessarily his own writings.

His personal views are judged so offensive that at a recent Michigan Tea Party annual PowWow, where Agema was a keynote speaker, the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Heritage Action withdrew their sponsorship, leaving sponsors like the John Birch Society, Americans for Prosperity, Rick Santorum’s Patriot Voices and the Tea Party Patriots.

To the credit of a few leaders in the Michigan GOP, Agema’s twisted views on issues and diverse population groups were denounced starting about a year ago when state party chairman and Oakland County resident Bobby Schostak first called for his resignation as an RNC member, which Agema just ignored. But the chorus of those calling Agema out for his views did not really pick up steam until recently as the RNC was preparing to meet in San Diego.

Party leaders from other states, as well as those in Michigan, have started to speak out more often. Among the Michigan voices playing into the call for his resignation are respected party leaders like Paul Welday, chairman of the GOP 14th District Committee, who took to the pages of the Detroit Free Press in a guest column recently. And we are starting to see some of the more rational members of the legislature, like Michigan Senator Mike Kowall from Oakland County, lead the effort to gather Republican lawmakers’ support for the resignation call.

My faith was restored a bit further when in a closed door meeting in California on January 16, the RNC executive committee voted to censure Agema for “harmful rhetoric” and promised to use “all available tools to remove him from the committee”, despite the fact that there is little in terms of national rules or policy that allow the RNC to accomplish this.

Which puts the onus back on Michigan Republicans who may be rendered as ineffective as national RNC members.

This all comes at a time when the GOP, nationally and in Michigan, desperately needs to implement what has become known as the Big Tent theory to build a more diverse base of voters while at the same time hold on to party faithful who have tired of the extremism that has crept into the party and its platform.

Only time will show whether Republicans here are serious enough to keep the Agema mess at the forefront and work diligently to get him removed from the national stage before he inflicts further damage on the GOP. Anything short of that will only mean that Agema’s views have a more solid following in the party, which will ultimately mean the loss of more GOP supporters.

David Hohendorf Publisher DavidHohendorf@downtownpublications.com

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FACES

Virg Bernero ong before Virg Bernero was running Michigan’s state capital, he was a just a boy from Waterford Township growing up in a lively Italian home that often held the aroma of fresh Italian fare and homemade wine.

“There would be robust discussions on the events of the day,” he said.

“There was always lots of food, especially around the holidays, and Dad had a wine cellar in the basement. I was the youngest of five kids.”

As a Waterford Mott High School alumnus, Bernero joined the debate team where he sharpened his skills in public speaking. He gives much credit to Barbara Koscierzynski, a Waterford School District educator, and Dr. Rebecca Rankin, who was principal at Waterford Mott.

“I had a great experience at Waterford Schools. It was great that they offered that opportunity. Once I latched on to (debate), I never let go. I didn’t take my academics as seriously, but I realized I was a decent writer through debate.”

At Waterford Mott, Bernero was the student body president, which he considers to be the start of what would become a political leadership career.

After graduating from high school, Bernero said he thought he could be the president of the United States. With the influence of his aunt, Betty Fortino, who was clerk of Waterford Township, he believed he could do anything.

“Aunt Betty was my political role model. I started campaigning for her at 12. She was absolutely beyond reproach. People loved her because she

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was honest and decent. That’s where I cut my political teeth.”

Bernero’s first job was writing on the Michigan House Democratic staff.

“I went to work for the legislature.”

In 2000, Bernero won a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives, serving one term before being elected to the Michigan state Senate in 2002. In 2005, he was elected mayor of Lansing.

“When I won, I was delighted and very anxious to roll up my sleeves and get at it,” he said. “I’ve been here 10 years and I love the job and I absolutely love the city.”

In 2010, Bernero won the Democratic nomination for governor. Despite a defeat to Governor Rick Snyder, Bernero works on many issues with the governor and he looks forward to graciously working together for the betterment of the state.

“I think (Snyder) is a fine human being and I believe he means the best for the state,” Bernero said. “We work together on a lot of things and I’m looking forward to working together more.”

The one constant throughout Bernero’s life and his career is his wife, Teri, and his two children.

“Teri is sort of an introvert, but she came out of her shell for and with me (while campaigning). She’s given speeches for me and she did it out of love for me and love for the state. I’m so proud of my girls. I’m blessed that they were with me every step of the way. We’ve come through as a family.”

Story: Katey Meisner

ABSOLVING THOSE WHO AREN’T GUILTY HOW THE INNOCENCE PROJECT WORKS

BY LISA BRODY

onya Davis knew he was innocent of rape, carjacking, armed robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Yet, he was still convicted in 2007 of those charges, serving almost seven years in prison before being exonerated of all charges after DNA testing of biological evidence showed that he couldn’t possibly have been the one to have raped the victim, who had lied and originally identified him as her rapist.

On November 6, 2014, the Detroit man was fully exonerated with the help of the Cooley Law School Innocence Project, when the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office acknowledged Davis could not have been the individual who committed the crime.

It’s assumed, even acknowledged, that everyone sent to prison after being convicted of a crime is guilty and deserves to be incarcerated. At times, however, the justice system makes errors and an individual is convicted of a crime they haven’t committed.

In the 1994 movie “Shawshank Redemption”, set in a Maine prison in the 1940s, a character says wryly, “Everybody’s innocent in here. Didn’t you know that?” In actuality, some really are. Misidentification, witness errors, attorney mistakes, faulty forensics and/or a lack of evidence are just some of the reasons that innocent people can be found guilty for crimes they didn’t do. Some buck up and do their time; others strive to get out and clear their name. Often, they reach out to the Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the justice system to prevent future injustice.

As of January 9, 2015, 325 people nationwide have been exonerated post-conviction through DNA acquittals by various Innocence Projects around the country. Of that number, 20 had been sentenced to death before DNA testing proved their innocence and led to their release; 70 percent of those exonerated by DNA testing were people of color; and in almost 50 percent of these cases, the actual perpetrator was able to be identified by the DNA testing. Of those exonerated, they had served average sentences of 13.6 years.

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“These stories are becoming more familiar as more innocent people gain their freedom through post-conviction testing,” the Innocence Project website states.

The Innocence Project itself was involved in about 175 of those 325 DNA exonerated cases. Other innocent individuals were helped by Innocence Network organizations, private attorneys and by defendants working on their own behalf. Exonerations have been achieved in 38 states, including Michigan, and in Washington D.C. ccording to the Innocence Project, while no one will ever know for sure how many innocent people are in prison, the few studies that have been done estimate that between 2.3 percent and 5 percent of all prisoners in the United States are innocent, meaning in real numbers between 46,000 and 100,000 incarcerated prisoners could be innocent and unjustly imprisoned. It also means the actual perpetrators are on the loose.

The national Innocence Project is affiliated with the Benjamin Cardoza School of Law at Yeshiva University; in Michigan, its affiliation is with Cooley Law School at Western Michigan University. Its director, Marla Mitchell-Cichon, said they have screened over 5,000 cases since 2001.

Out of all of those cases, they have fully exonerated just three defendants – two in Macomb County, and one in Detroit – Donya Davis.

All three of the exonerated defendants were rape cases, and each was exonerated through DNA testing.

“In all three cases, there were items from the rape cases that were retested, and the results have indicated that someone besides our client was the perpetrator,” Mitchell-Cichon said. “It’s a very, very long process to prove because we don’t have access to the evidence. We have to use the Freedom of Information Act to get us pieces of paper and the actual data from the original cases. Sometimes we can call the property rooms of police departments.”

According to the Innocence Project website, many wrongful convictions overturned with DNA testing involve multiple causes. Fully 75 percent involve eyewitness misidentification; in 50 percent of the cases, improper or invalid forensic science played a role; a false confession or admission contribute to 25 percent of wrongful convictions; in another 15 percent of cases, unreliable informants played a role.

“Prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense, police misconduct and racism are harder to quantify but were also factors in many wrongful convictions that have been overturned with DNA testing,” they state.

Only 5 to 10 percent of all criminal cases in the United States involve biological evidence. The remaining wrongful convictions are due to many of these other conditions.

All of the work on cases that they do take is handled by Cooley Law School students on a pro bono basis. Each semester, the Innocence Project takes on 8 to 10 students, each of whom spends two semesters on the project. They all must be second or third year law students, and each student is assigned six to eight cases at various levels of appeals. “We have people writing to us weekly. The cases go through different screening processes. At any time, we have 35 to 40 cases waiting to be assigned to a student,” Mitchell-Cichon said.

A participating student must have already completed 40 credits of law school, and understand that they will be handling actual cases and working with actual clients.

“We do not expect them to say ‘I have a midterm this week.’ We’re training them to be professionals in law firms,” said Mitchell-Cichon.

Kara Weisman and Stephanie Hale are currently Cooley Innocence Project interns who work under Mitchell-Cichon and staff attorney Sandy Babel for about a year.

“I like to tell students that our project is the checks and balances of the criminal justice system,” said Babel. “It’s what we look for. If DNA testing confirms the case (that the defendant is guilty), we close the case.”

“It’s been one of the most rewarding things of my life,” said Weisman, a third year law student who, among her five active cases, worked on

A

Davis’ appeal, writing his petition. “I have been able to sit from the beginning to the end of someone being exonerated. I was in court when he was exonerated. I sat in on the motion, and when he was released it was an amazing day for our program. We knew he was innocent.”

Harris is a second year student in her second term with the project.

She has three active cases, and said that it’s a passion project.

“Depending on the week, I spend 10 hours on it; other weeks, well upwards of 15 or 20 hours (on Innocence Project work). That is in addition to course work and the hours we have for our course work.”

For anyone working on one of the appeals, “The critical question that must be answered is whether the evidence still exists,” Mitchell-Cichon said. “If the evidence doesn’t exist, we can’t take the case,” because if there is no evidence to test for DNA matching, there is nothing to move forward on. “Then we have to determine if the case meets the statutory criteria to ask the court to request DNA testing.

“It’s our burden in court to show the state that the evidence still exists, and sometimes several agencies are involved. The biological evidence can be sent to several places for storage if it still exists, and we have to track it all down and prove it still exists,” she explained. To complicate their work, a number of police departments no longer exist, either having been merged or taken over by other departments. The Michigan State Police Crime Lab usually performs, and pays for, the biological testing, although Cooley’s Innocence Project or a prosecutor’s office may at times choose a private lab or pay for the testing.

“It’s not that they’re not cooperating. It’s just difficult for these agencies to determine if the evidence still even exists. It literally can take years to find out if documents or evidence exists,” she said. “Agencies are as cooperative as they can be when you’re going back and looking for old crime evidence. But it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

There are so many factors that can effect the evidence itself, and whether it’s in good shape or degraded.”

The Innocence Project never just goes by the word of a defendant, noting that they can lie, but works to resolve all doubt in favor of the defendant before they go forward to the court and prosecutors.

“Currently, we have had a high success rate gaining access to DNA testing. We’ve filed about 21 permits for DNA testing and have only been denied a couple of times,” Mitchell-Cichon said, asserting that their success is due to their thoroughness in accepting their cases and in their research.

One case they have been denied repeatedly in getting DNA testing is from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office in The People of the State of Michigan vs. Gilbert Lee Poole, Jr., a Pontiac man convicted in 1989 of murdering a man he met in a Pontiac bar on June 3, 1988. The Innocence Project is seeking DNA testing for the potential to exclude Poole as the murderer.

“There is the potential for DNA testing to exclude. It’s about conviction and integrity of the evidence,” Mitchell-Cichon said. “If the DNA testing shows Poole is involved, we close the case.”

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office has denied their motions, and so have the courts, including the Michigan Supreme Court.

“By my count, there have been 10 different times that the court has been asked, considered and denied the request to retest the blood,” said Paul Walton, chief assistant prosecutor at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office. “Just because DNA testing is available does not always show the killer. It’s a piece of the puzzle. On it’s own, it can mean nothing or everything. What was tested? How was it tested? You have to use it with all of the other facts of the case.”

In the Poole case, blood evidence in the original case excluded Poole, yet he was still convicted based on other evidence and witness testimony, including that of his girlfriend to whom he allegedly confessed. At the time, DNA testing was not yet available, so the crime lab used blood type testing to show whether Poole’s blood was at the site. The victim had type-O blood; Poole has type-AB blood. There was a great deal of type-O blood at the crime scene, as well as some type-A blood.

Walton explained that often, at a crime scene, the assailant’s blood

Let freedom ring for Davis

By Lisa Brody

Donya Davis believes he was wrongfully convicted in 2007 of rape, carjacking and gun possession as a felon “because of neighborhood rumors. I didn’t know the guy who did it. It was more of an affiliation. Anybody they could get in the neighborhood at the time.”

Davis was asleep at home at 8 Mile and Mound in Detroit with his fiancee, son and mother at 5 a.m., April 1, 2006, when a 23year-old black woman was confronted by a black man as she was moving boxes from her fire-damaged apartment. According to reports, the man ordered her into the apartment at gunpoint after demanding her car, purse and money. She said she gave him her keys, but said she didn’t have any money. He supposedly spoke to someone else outside and then led her into the kitchen where he raped her. He then locked her in a basement pantry. After he left, she broke out and called the police. She told police her attacker had a dark complexion, was 5 feet 9 or 10 inches tall, with closecropped hair. She couldn’t remember if he had facial hair.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, six days later a woman called police and implicated Davis in the crime. He had previously been charged with felonious assault and had been acquitted of a charge Donya Davis (center) with Marla Mitchell-Cichon and Cooley Innocence Project students. of sexual assault. His photo was put into a lineup, and the victim identified Davis as her attacker, even though Davis is 6 feet 1 inch tall, of medium complexion, had a short Afro and a thin mustache.

Although DNA tests were performed on a rape kit and semen was identified, no DNA profile, other than from the victim, was identified, and Davis was charged and went to trial in March 2007. The victim identified him as the rapist. Witnesses testified that he was at home sleeping at the time of the crime. A mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Davis went to trial a second time in October 2007 before Judge Leonard Thompson for a directed verdict, and on October 11, 2007, Thompson convicted him of rape, armed robbery, carjacking and use of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

“Anyone who knows the law says don’t take a bench trial, especially not before Leonard Townsend. He’s a hanging judge,” Davis said recently. “The prosecutors probably laughed when I took a bench trial. I took it, though, because of ignorance of the law and trust of my lawyer.”

Davis said Townsend discarded the DNA evidence “because the victim said it was me. I did seven years, the majority at Coldwater (Lakeland Men’s Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan). I’ve spent time in solitary. Prison is like a jungle from beginning to end. It’s not someplace you want to go.”

Davis said he immediately tried to get his conviction overturned, yet appeal after appeal was denied.

“They were just rubber stamped. They never looked at them or granted them,” he recounted. “I filed them myself. I did my own legal work. The judges would never entertain looking at them. I have the paperwork.”

Finally, Davis appealed to the Cooley Law School Innocence Project.

isn’t right there, or can be swamped by a great deal of the victim’s blood if the victim has bled a lot. Contamination or degradation from the soil, which can have numerous parasites in it, can take place, especially if the body is in a certain place for a while. It is possible that may have happened in the Poole case, as the victim’s body was not found for a couple of days, and was discovered in a field.

There are also different kinds of DNA testing. DNA is like someone’s chemical fingerprint. But while we each have a singular fingerprint, it turns out there are different kinds of DNA, and depending on the sample, different results can be discerned. Shorter strands of DNA – called STR, or short tandem repeat – is wellpopulated in the human genome, is unique to each individual and can be tested from extremely small samples. Today, Michigan State Police’s Crime Lab is able to test STR DNA when available.

Another type of testing is called YSTR, which tests the Y chromosome, sharing a father’s DNA, but the test is not as discriminating. Neither is mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) testing, which is present in hair follicles without the root attached.

Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother, and is also less discriminating.

Walton pointed out that if only YSTR or mDNA testing is done, it doesn’t always show who the killer is, because it could indicate a son, father, or a daughter, sister, mother, or another familial relative.

“To what end (would DNA testing assist Poole’s innocence)? He’s already been introduced and excluded. The jury knew the blood wasn’t his and they still convicted him. He isn’t going to be more excluded,” asserted Walton. “The defendant has the burden of showing before he can get a new trial.”

With DNA testing, Walton said, “You are not going to get a false positive. You can get a false exclusion, if it can swamp other DNA samples, and then other DNA is falsely excluded. Just because there is a DNA sample does not necessarily exclude, or identify, someone.” he defendant (and his or her attorneys), according to Michigan law, have the burden of proving the validity of new trial. The Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 770.16 deals with DNA testing, petitions, filing, the availability of biological material, court orders, findings, costs, results, granting or denying request for a new trial, the notice to petition the victim, and the preservation of biological material. It permits a defendant convicted of a felony at trial before January 8, 2001 who is serving a prison sentence to petition the circuit court to order DNA testing of biological material identified during the investigation leading to his or her conviction, and for a new trial based on the results of that testing, and it must be filed no later than January 1, 2016. A bill is pending to extend it to 2018.

There are certain conditions. They include that the evidence sought to be tested is material to the issue of the convicted person’s identity as the perpetrator or accomplice to the crime that resulted in the conviction. It must establish by clear and convincing evidence that the biological evidence had not previously been subjected to DNA testing, or DNA testing was not available when the defendant was convicted. Further, the identity of the perpetrator of the crime must have been at issue during the trial.

According to the statute, if the results of the DNA testing show that the defendant is not the source of the identified biological material, the court shall hold a hearing to determine by clear and convincing evidence that only the perpetrator of the crime or crimes for which the defendant was convicted could be the source of the identified biological material; that the material was collected, handled and preserved by procedures that allow the court to find that the material is not contaminated nor degraded; that the defendant’s purported exclusion as the source of the material, balanced against the other evidence in the case, is sufficient to justify the granting of a new trial.

The statute provides the prosecutor with the authority to order the retesting of the identified biological material and staying the defendant’s motion for a new trial, depending upon the results of the DNA retesting.

All law enforcement agencies are required by the statute to preserve any and all biological material identified during the investigation of a crime for which anyone may file a petition for DNA testing, and it has to be preserved for the entire time the person is incarcerated in connection with the case.

“We have asked all 45 law enforcement departments in Oakland County to

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preserve all evidence and samples,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. “The DNA is extremely important, but it is a piece. Our role is justice.

We’re the first to say ‘Let’s test this.’ When we go into a courtroom, we’re looking at witnesses, interviews, evidence, everything. We’re duty-bound to show everything. The standard in a criminal case is beyond a reasonable doubt, and that’s very hard in a jury trial.”

“I’m not going to rest until Mr. Poole’s DNA is tested,” Mitchell-Cichon said.

“He may be guilty. But I want the truth to come out. It’s been 25 years.”

While Mitchell-Cichon is frustrated with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Cooper and Walton are proud that they have not yet had any reversals on appeal due to Innocence Projects. They noted they have had other project requests, including from the University of Michigan Law School Innocence Clinic.

The Michigan Innocence Clinic works to exonerate defendants using non-DNA testing methods. Imran Syed, staff attorney and teaching fellow for the clinic, said their goal is to investigate, write and argue in court in defense of innocent prisoners. “The challenge in our clinic is doing non-DNA cases,” he said. “There are no magic bullets. We research multiple angles of a case. In DNA cases, there’s the DNA. In our cases, we look at many different angles, including the science and various documents to build our cases. We examine eyewitnesses who were found, or people who lied at trial initially, or attorney malpractice.”

Syed said they are the first clinic in the country to focus on non-DNA cases.

“Michigan already had an Innocence Project out of Cooley. We wanted to help exonerate other people without DNA,” he said. “Only in 5 to 10 percent of the cases does someone leave DNA. There are arson cases, bank robberies, B & E’s (breaking and entering). We wanted to serve the 90 percent that weren’t being served. If the police has some DNA, it’s really obvious.”

In the first few months after they opened in 2009, they were inundated with thousands of applications. Now, they receive a few hundred a year, all from inmates housed in Michigan, although some could be in federal prisons.

Initially, they accepted about 30 cases after reviewing 4,000 applications.

The Innocence Clinic has about 120 open investigations at any time, Syed said, with 15 to 20 active cases at some level in court. “They could be at the lower court, at appeals court, or the Supreme Court,” he said. “We have cases at all levels in Michigan or federal courts. They are all over the place.”

In its over five-year history, the Innocence Clinic has helped exonerate nine wrongfully convicted prisoners, some in conjunction with Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. “We have not lost any cases completely,” Syed said. “Some are on appeal, because we are so careful about the cases we choose.”

As at Cooley, 16 second and third year law students each year are the primary ones responsible for researching the cases, “contacting the applicant, interviewing them in prison, getting in touch with new and old witnesses, attorneys, and determining expert witnesses,” Syed explained.

Three supervisors work with the students, meeting with them weekly. “We’re always in touch with our student teams,” he said.

Rather than simply relying on one diagnostic tool, the Michigan Innocence Clinic’s cases become very complex. “For cases in court that are actively litigated, we may call 20 witnesses,” Syed said. “We may split the case up among the students. The attorneys are always in it because the students can only work in court under our supervision. In Michigan, after one year in law school, students can work in court with supervision. Most other states need two years of law school. The students do the foot work, and have the opportunity to do the active work of writing briefs, which we edit. It teaches the challenges of the legal system, how to investigate and build up your own cases, and how to strategize.

It’s an intense situation.”

Syed noted that the vast majority of those applying for assistance from the Michigan Innocence Clinic are African American. “They are the vast majority we work with, where the system is flawed,” he said. “Race and poverty often do play a large role because of the competency and interest of the attorney (assigned to the defendant) and the system.

There’s no public defender in Wayne or Oakland County.

Usually in court they’re appointed a defense attorney.

Some are good, but often they’re not. They’re appointed by the judge, they’re not paid very much, and often they’re Scan for audio more interested in pleasing the judge than working for the Innocence Project Interview. client.”

“I wrote to Marla (Mitchell-Cichon, director) and begged for help. She denied me at first because I didn’t meet the statute requirement. And then the statute changed in 2010, and she took me up. The original statute was only meant for prisoners before 2001. It changed so she took me up,” he said. “I felt it was a joy to have someone listen to me.”

The first hurdle, Davis recalled, was finding evidence and finding evidence that wasn’t contaminated. Once it was found, they had to get permission to have it tested for DNA. “Once we got it tested, we found the sperm cells of who did it, and it didn’t match me,” he said. Turns out there had been cells from the woman’s thighs that had not been introduced at trial.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office dropped the case – declining to prosecute Davis again by putting him on trial for a third time – on November 6, 2014 after Innocence Project students filed a motion to dismiss.

Today, Davis is homeless and penniless. The conundrum of being exonerated in the state of Michigan is that Davis, and others who are exonerated, receive no compensation from the state, no prisoner benefits and no help getting a job. It’s because their slate is wiped clean, and it’s as if their case never existed.

“I got no compensation, no help in finding a job,” he said. “I didn’t qualify for prisoner benefits, clothing vouchers, nothing that prisoners get when they’re released. Before, I worked for my grandfather as a garage tech, working on cars. But he passed while I was in prison. I came back to nothing. My fiancée held on as long as possible, but she’s gone... Everything is just upside down. I was just tossed out.”

Davis’ experience is unlike Jeff Deskovic’s of Manhattan, who was exonerated eight years ago, who was wrongfully convicted in 1991, at the age of 17, of murder and rape. Although there was a negative DNA identification at trial, he was still found guilty due to a coerced forced confession.

“I was 16 and naïve,” Deskovic recounted. “I made up a story based on information cops gave me. I was on the floor in a fetal position crying. When the DNA didn’t match, they should have dropped the case. Instead, the prosecutor solicited fraud from the medical examiner. My public defender never called an alibi witness, and never explained to the jury the significance of the DNA not matching. He never cross-examined the medical examiner. I ended up serving 16 years of a 50 – life sentence.”

Deskovic lost seven appeals and was turned down for parole before the Innocence Project in Manhattan took his case.

“Based on the DNA, the prosecutor’s successor permitted the DNA to be tested,” he said. “We were hoping the actual perpetrator had raped and murdered someone else, and his DNA was in the system, and that is what happened. He killed another victim three-and-a-half years later, and had been caught, and that’s how his DNA was in the databank.”

In New York, exonerated victims can sue for compensation, and Deskovic received several million dollars, of which he has used $1.5 million to develop The Deskovic Foundation, which works on both DNA and non-DNA cases to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, and for those exonerated, helps to reintegrate after years of wrongful imprisonment, and educates the public on wrongful convictions. He also received a scholarship which allowed him to attend college, where he received both his bachelors and masters degrees.

“Someone has to watch the watcher,” Davis said. I’m not the only one.”

The Innocence Project, he said, “give you hope first. They can’t promise you anything.

Without a lawyer, you mean nothing. They Scan for audio were a godsend. They gave me my freedom Donya Davis back. No one could give me my life back.”

Interview.

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WEIR MANUEL

FACES

Jean Racine Prahm lympian Jean Racine Prahm was first introduced to the luge at 13years-old by the United States Luge Association Luge Challenge when they made a stop in Waterford.

“They began this tour to introduce youths to luge (akin to bobsledding),” she said. “My parents had seen an ad in the paper. It was at Waterford Oaks and the tour had sleds with rollerblades on them.”

The experts spotted talent in Prahm.

“I received a package in the mail,” she said. “I was selected to come to upstate New York. There were 100 kids who were invited.”

From there, the Waterford Mott student soared through each level and made it to the Junior National Team.

“My senior year in high school is when I started to consider bobsledding.

I had met some of the girls who were racing. So, I got licensed as a bobsled driver in Calgary, Canada, and never looked back.”

Bobsledding was an expensive sport to compete in, but Prahm’s parents wanted to see her reach her goals. “My mom would’ve done anything to support me. She would make these lollipops and try to sell them at stores.

She would do anything to make my dream come true.”

In 2002, Prahm’s dream did come true and she traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to represent the first U.S. women’s bobsled team. Sadly, six months before she competed in the Olympics, her mother passed away.

“My family was very underrepresented,” she said. “I had some extended family there and I felt her presence there.”

O

Despite her tremendous personal loss, Prahm immersed herself in the moment. She and her partner finished fifth.

“For me, the most exciting part was the opening ceremonies in 2002,” she said. “It was the first women’s bobsledding race and we worked so hard to get our sport included in those games. To realize we were a part of it was amazing.”

In 2006, Prahm competed again in the Olympics in Italy. There she took sixth place.

Bobsledding took the two-time World Cup champion all over the country.

During that time, she met Ryan Prahm and the two settled down in Iowa.

“I met and fell in love with an Iowan,” she said. “Ryan was in law school at the University of Iowa. He was a ball player. He was drafted with the Cleveland Indians organization, but had a career-ending injury.”

Prahm knew she would not be an athlete forever. “I wanted to have some sweet kiddos,” she said.

Prahm’s husband is partner at a law firm and they have three kids.

In tandem with mothering, she has created a small business called Mommy Hips.

“It’s a post-natal recovery garment. It puts you back together and helps new moms get their shape back.”

From Waterford Mott High school to the U.S. Olympics, Prahm’s mother surely would be proud.

In the end, though, it is her own role as wife and mother that she enjoys most. “Having my kids and having my family has been the greatest journey.”

Story: Katey Meisner

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SEXTING THE HIDDEN DANGERS FOR STUDENTS

BY LISA BRODY

nthony Weiner was once a relatively unknown Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York City. Then, in 2011, he used the social media site Twitter to send a link of photos of his genitalia to several women. After initially denying media reports, he admitted having sent a link to the photo, as well as other sexually explicit photos and messages to women he had never met, both before and during his marriage. He was forced to resign, and both Anthony Weiner and the term “sexting” entered the popular lexicon.

Kim Kardashian recently “broke the Internet” by posing nude for the cover of a magazine with a glass of champagne on her derrière, and received wide recognition and celebration – at least from some quarters.

Just this month in photos in V magazine, Miley Cyrus, who last year rode a giant wrecking ball in a music video without any clothes on, is seen completely naked, both in and out of the bathtub. Singer Justin Bieber took pictures of his penis and put them on Instagram.

Teens are barraged with images of celebrities who have either become famous by taking off their clothes, or who think it’s no big deal to show themselves with little or no clothes on. Welcome to the new normal for today’s teens.

For a generation who see celebrities living out their lives in front of the camera lens, it’s a matter of fact to live similarly, documenting every moment of life on social media for others to share. And that includes sexting, which they often believe is private – until it’s not.

“Kids don’t see privacy the same way we do. They don’t value privacy. You are to share and document your life moment by moment. The motivation is to get as many likes on Instagram,” noted Stacy Rivard, director of the Girls’ Middle School at Cranbrook Kingswood. “I’m constantly talking to the kids about how do you want to be remembered. What do you want your digital footprint to be?”

“I tell parents and kids that Anthony Weiner must have been smart. He became a congressman. Now he will never be looked at the same way,” said Marybeth Reader, registered nurse and health teacher at Detroit County Day School. “Students’ reputations can be gone in a click. It is child pornography.”

Sexting can have many risks, most notably that it can be illegal — it’s child pornography

exting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or pictures by mobile phone or other device. Sexting also occurs online with social media websites for the public to view. Newer technology can allow people to send pictures, as well as videos, which are often more explicit and have a greater impact. A Pew study in 2009 said that those who text were more likely to have received a sexually suggestive image on their cell phone, and those who have unlimited text messaging plans are more likely to receive sexually suggestive texts.

According to a 2008 survey of 1,280 teenagers and young adults of both sexes on Cosmogirl.com, which was sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20 percent of teens aged 13 to 20, and 33 percent of young adults aged 20 to 26 had sent nude or semi-nude photos photos of themselves electronically. Additionally, 39 percent of teens and 59 percent of young adults had sent sexually explicit text messages.

However, sexting can have many risks, most notably that it can be illegal. For those who are under the age of 18, who create it, for those who view it, as well as who pass photos on, it is child pornography, and law enforcement treats it as such.

Despite many teens believing otherwise, once an image is sent, no matter what the platform, it can never be erased, and the sender has no control over who receives it. According to Operation Keepsake, which works to help young people develop healthy relationships, sexting can lead to feelings of regret and shame, and someone included in a sexting photo might be targeted for bullying.

“Anyone involved in sending or furthering the message could also destroy relationships or inspire feelings of guilt. Legally, that person might be subject to child pornography charges. Once an image is sent, it cannot be erased, and the person has no control over who receives it,” they note.

Further, a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics points out that sexting is not separate from physical behaviors, with teens who send or receive sexts reporting higher levels of sexual activity and sexually risky behavior.

“Some good kids do engage in harmful behaviors, because they want to become popular, for sexual experimentation, for attention. It’s pervasive,” noted Sharon Peacock, Upper School Dean of Girls at Cranbrook Kingswood. “There’s peer pressure.

They think they’ll be cool, or as a joke. Others think doing it will give them a certain caché.

“Kids are taking these pictures in their bedrooms, and because it’s on their cell phones, they think it’s private. There’s a disinhibition when they’re doing it in a private place in their bedroom, when they think they’re safe,” Peacock continued.

“They think these websites are private and anonymous, and they’re not. Anyone can access them, and then it’s, ‘Oh no, what have I done!’”

“It’s often in middle school, when they like the opposite sex, they want attention, they’re going through puberty and the hormones are raging and they don’t think about the ramifications,” said Det. Jerry Hall of the Birmingham Police Department. “They want to show all of their friends that they’re ‘showing skin.’”

While Hall, and most other local police departments, noted that they have few criminal incidents each year, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Schools and police liaison officers work proactively to educate both students and parents about the risks, as well as the dangers, of sexting.

“We’re pretty good at keeping them and their parents informed,” Hall said. He goes into both Seaholm and Groves high schools at the beginning of each school year to talk about sexting, as well as at the middle schools.

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper speaks to middle schools and ninth graders in high schools around the county about the dangers of sexting. “We talk to 200, 300, 600 kids in a day, and I’ll come and talk to PTA meetings at night, and maybe 10 parents show up. It’s more important to get the parents to understand the issue,” she said. “Teens and preteens want to push buttons, and it’s natural.

“The first thing I ask them is how many of you have something on them that your grandmother should see? You should see their faces. They’re shocked. There shouldn’t be anything on that device that your grandmother or your parents or your clergy shouldn’t see,” Cooper emphasized. “Then we talk about permanence. At any crime scene, on any TV show, you always see police taking out computers and they want the cell phones. That’s because you can delete all you want, but if there’s a memory chip, we can get it.

“They respond they have Snapchat. You’ll never find it. I explain to them, you’re sending it out there. Someone takes a shot and they’re saving it. You’re placing your trust in someone on the other end. You think you ‘love’ them. I ask them, ‘Have you ever broken up with anyone?’ Or when they get mad at someone. I get involved because something always goes wrong,” she said. “Young girls share their passwords, and then girls have a fight and go into their ‘friends’ account, and go into mean girls mode, and go into the account and send out the photo to all of the contacts in the phone. It’s bullying. It might be as a result of young love or experimenting, but it’s bullying. Under the law, young girls do things because they’re foolish or in love, and that guy then downloads it and sends it to his friends, and the school, or the football team, and then it’s out there.”

“Snapchat is supposed to disappear. The problem is, kids don’t realize someone can take a screen shot before it disappears which can be sent on,” said Rivard.

Snapchat is a photo messaging application where users can take photos, record videos, add texts and drawings, which are known as “Snaps”, and send them to a controlled group of recipients, who view them for up to 10 seconds, and then they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from Snapchat’s server. Snapchat notes its demographic of users is between 13 and 23 years of age.

However, nothing in the digital world, or the cloud, is ever gone forever. Cell phone users, particularly those with iPhones, can take a screen shot of a Snap image and save it to their cell phone, and voila’ – that sexting image is here to stay.

In a Forbes article from May 9, 2013, it was reported that Snapchat photos don’t actually disappear, and images can actually be retrieved with minimal technological knowledge after the time limit expires. After that, the Federal Privacy Information Center filed a complaint against Snapchat with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), stating that Snapchat deceived its customers by leading them to believe that pictures are destroyed within seconds of viewing. Snapchat settled with the FTC on May 7, 2014, over allegations it deceived users over the amount of personal data it collected and was responsible for a security breach impacting 4.6 million customers. It will face privacy monitoring for the next 20 years.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said, “There’s this false sense of security that it (the sext) will never come out or be seen by anyone but the person it was meant for. But it does.

There’s no erasing it. There are no safe apps, like Snapchat.

There’s no such thing. I recently spoke at an all-girls parochial school, and I told them that. I said, ‘If you think it will disappear from that Internet, you are totally wrong.’ I told them stories about other local girls. You should have seen the looks on their faces. The color just drained from their faces.”

He said Snapchat is one of the most popular apps, with a lot of activity, but it is not the only one. “Texting is huge. Some are into Facebook, and some are into Instagram. E-mail is not a big thing for teens. There are many different instant apps. When you use Snapchat and others like it, here’s what you know for sure. That it will never be private. It will never be seen only by the person it was meant for. It will be gone and erased. Because it won’t be.

There’s no such thing.”

Despite what some parents may want to believe, both sexes are equally active in participating in sexting.

“Girls are very active in doing this,” Bouchard said. “Most people cannot wrap their heads around this and are shocked at how girls act today.”

The penalty for the girl creating the selfie is more severe than for the boys who receive it

loomfield Hills defense attorney Shannon Smith whose whole practice is in sex crimes, said that most of the time girls are sending topless and fully nude photos of themselves to boys. “And they’re selfies,” she said.

“They’re taking them in front of their mirrors.” Boys also participate, “they take pictures of their penis and then send them to girls,” she said. She said the age range of her clients is from 10 to 17. “They’re so used to the ease of cell phones and taking photos,” Smith said. “A lot of kids are doing it using Snapchat. It doesn’t disappear, and it doesn’t protect them. Most of the photos start out pretty innocently. They’re trying to be cool. Then in about half the cases, they get bullied and harassed after by kids who know about it.”

“There’s so much bullying and harassment, to the point of teen suicides,” noted Bouchard. “We really caution teens, and everyone, don’t send out anything on the Internet you don’t want people to see. It’s not just celebrities. People who have things on their devices, they will likely be seen by others. If Sony can be hacked, so can you.”

“There are kids who are humiliated, who change schools, who can’t take it and commit suicide. The suicide rate is increasing from it,” Cooper said. “Bullying online is terrible. It’s the nasty of the nasty, and the person doing it sees that, and keeps e-mailing and e-mailing.”

The Michigan legislature, during the 2014 lame duck session, passed Senate Bill 74 on December 19, which includes cyber bullying as an official type of bullying. All public school bullying policies must be updated within six months to include cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is being defined as “any electronic

communication intended to harm one or more students by interfering with education opportunities, adversely affecting a student’s ability to participate in school or district education programs, having an actual or substantial negative effect on a student’s mental or physical health or causing a substantial disruption the operation of the school.” The law also requires local school districts to report to the Michigan Department of Education the number of instances of bullying they discipline based upon the policy. It also ensures confidentiality to the student who reports the cyber bullying. Sexting as bullying falls into the category of cyber bullying.

Sexting is also illegal, although most schools, and even law enforcement agencies, prefer not to press charges if they can avoid it. Sexting can also expose teens to child predators because the photos or texts are out there in the public for others to see – and predators know how to access it and skillfully lure teens in.

“They’re posting about it on Facebook and new social medias,” Cooper said. “We explain that the only people who keep track of those sites are predators and child molesters. They can talk to you about what you’re interested in because you’re posting everything about yourself, and anyone can see, and they will just put down a different name and age. They’ll ask if you’d like to meet. We have some cases pending, including in Rochester. We talk about how a girl was not just raped, but murdered, and we show them pictures of convicted men. Some look weird, but some look really normal.”

“Law enforcement and the legal system are treating these kids as adults and treating them as sex offenders if they share their photos. It’s a serious situation,” noted Cranbrook Kingswood’s Rivard. “What’s interesting is that developmentally, the frontal lobes of kids’ brains, which are the gatekeeper, of what you should or shouldn’t do, don’t fully develop until about 25 years of age. There’s also a problem with impulse control. So you have kids without a filter, problems with impulse control, and them trying to be adults. It’s a trifecta of risky behavior. Technology has advanced in the last 10 years. They’ve grown up with it, and they’re very comfortable with it. Adults have to protect kids from themselves.”

“It’s another dilemma for school districts because it often happens when they’re not in school,” said Daniel Nerad, superintendent of Birmingham Public Schools. “Most districts take it as a case-by-case basis. We investigate it and handle it individually. We view the problem of sexting very seriously. We intervene and address the problem aggressively, both socially and educationally.”

Shannon Smith, the sex crimes attorney, said that often parents inadvertently make the situation worse for their children.

“Parents tend to become very emotional and unfortunately, it drives them to start a case against their own child, forcing law enforcement to charge their own child,” she said. “The school will call the parent involved, and the parent approaches their child, who then will emotionally confess. The parent has the student say, yes, I did it, telling the school and the police, and passing on the names of the other students – not realizing they’re confessing to the crime of sending nude photos. Most often it’s girls, where a daughter has sent the photo. The parents think they’re reporting their daughter as the victim of all these boys passing around the photo of their daughter, but instead, they are setting up their daughter to be convicted of a crime because she is the one who took the selfie and sent it out.”

Smith explained that the penalty for the girl who created the selfie is more severe than for the boy or boys who received it.

“A girl who takes a nude selfie is guilty of a 20-year felony, because she is creating child pornography, versus a boy who receives the photo, who is guilty of a four-year felony for each photo received. If he forwards it on, then it’s a seven-year felony for forwarding it on,” she said.

“Most of the situations I’ve seen, the kids are stone cold guilty,” Smith said. “Girlfriends and boyfriends share photos, and then parents or friends discover it, and then it comes to the attention of the school or law enforcement. I have had situations where the girlfriend gets mad at the boyfriend, and reports it to the school or her parents, but that gets them into trouble.

“Other situations are where boys flirt with girls to send them pictures, and they do. The boys then flip on the girls. It’s calls ‘slut shaming’, and it makes the girls feel really bad about sending the photos,” she said.

“The best thing they can do in any of these situations is hire a lawyer because anything they say – to parents, the school, other students, the police – can be reported and used against them.”

Consequences they can face include incarceration and being placed on the sex offender registry, which can, and will, affect their ability to get into college as well as to hold a job.

“It can ruin relationships and careers. You don’t have to look too far to see Kwame Kilpatrick in the rear view mirror,” said Bouchard.

Schools and law enforcement note educating parents is as critical as teaching teens.

Cooper said she tells parents, “If you’re going to let your kid drive your car, and you’re going to teach them and tell them your rules, you should have the same rules for them using their electronic devices – you’re paying for them and the contracts. It’s very hard to tell parents – it’s your computer, it’s your tablet, it’s your cellphone. You pay for those contracts.

They say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to violate their privacy.’ However, for all of those services, you need a contract, and no one under the age of 18 can have a contract. They’re not theirs. Anytime a parent wants to see them (electronic devices), they should. They pay for them.”

“It’s not the tool, it’s the behavior,” noted Shira Good, communications and community relations director for Bloomfield Hills Schools. “It doesn’t matter if the student is on Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, or texting on a cell phone. Parents need to be aware of what their child is doing on the Internet and what kind of digital footprint they are leaving behind. It’s vital that students understand the permanence of their interactions and behaviors. The digital world can be a dangerous place for our students and we have to educate them as best we can, despite the technology that continues to evolve around us. Parents should feel empowered to know their child’s login information, look at each device/app their child uses, and check in on their digital footprint at any time.”

Based on the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Bloomfield Hills Schools directs administrators to comply with the act and that child pornography, which is “harmful to minors” means any picture, image, graphic image file or other visual depiction that “depicts, describes or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or lewd exhibition of the genitals.”

At Detroit Country Day School, Reader shares with her parents online safety tips and tools, as well as a YouTube video on child exploitation.

“Parents are grateful that someone besides themselves are talking about this,” she said. “Some parents e-mail me questions. It helps parents broach the subject with their kids.”

“The knee-jerk reaction for parents is to shut down their kids’ technology and to take away their devices,” said Cranbrook Kingswood’s Rivard. “That’s when children don’t talk to their parents. We would inhibit learning without technology. It’s the world we’re in, and to be competitive, they have to have technology. Children listen a lot more to their parents than parents give them credit for.”

“Scaring students straight does not work...education in every grade, parental awareness, and best practice tools for students and educators are what will make social media work for kids and not against,” said Jean MacLeod, social media specialist for Oakland Schools.

“We all make mistakes growing up,” Birmingham School’s Nerad said.

“It’s part of what I like to label a ‘teachable’ moment, where it can be and it’s not egregious.” westendmonthly.com

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FACES

Kyle Anderson enowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kyle Anderson has treated and consulted for professional athletes on the Detroit Lions, Tigers and the Red Wings teams. The Waterford Kettering High School alumnus was a star football player for the Captains before he went on to play ball for the University of Michigan.

“I always knew, even from the time I was a little kid, that I wanted to go to the University of Michigan,” he said. “My father was a big fan of U of M.” As a Michigan Wolverine, Anderson discovered his calling for sports medicine on the field. “I got some football injuries in college,” he said. “I had surgery several times at U of M. My injuries were really a blessing in disguise. I knew I wasn’t going to be playing football at any higher level and it was at the time I had to figure out what path I was going to take. I saw what the surgeons did and I thought that it was exciting.”

Anderson completed his internship and orthopedic residency at Northwestern University in Chicago. He then completed a sports medicine and shoulder fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

“When I was (completing) both my residency and fellowship, I worked with some special teams.”

Anderson gained exposure working with the Chicago Cubs, Bears and the New York Mets and Giants. Ultimately, he was drawn back to the Great Lakes State to continue his career.

“I had a strong feeling that I wanted to come back to Michigan. I always thought this area was a great area,” he said. “There happened to be an

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opening at Henry Ford Hospital. I took that job. It seemed I was always in a good place at the right time.”

For about seven years, Anderson worked for the Detroit Tigers. “Initially, I was an assistant team physician. I would help cover games. They would have a weekly medical clinic,” he said. “Fairly quickly, the opportunity came to be the head team doctor for the Tigers, so I became the head team physician.”

While he was working with the Tigers, an opportunity came for him to work with the Detroit Lions. “For a period of time, I was helping both (teams).”

Anderson also worked as a consultant for the Detroit Red Wings. “I’d cover a few games. If they had a condition I treated, I would do that.”

Currently, the West Bloomfield resident has his own practice through Beaumont Hospital and he works as head team physician for the Detroit Lions.

Asked if he finds it difficult to hold back his enthusiasm for the game while he is working, Anderson responded, “I don’t hold back. You want to make sure you’re not distracted by the events of that game that you don’t see what you’re looking for. I’m more focused on medicine than the game, but if there’s no injury at that game at the moment, I’m just as much of a fan as anybody else.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

SAFE TO EAT RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS IN METRO DETROIT

BY KEVIN ELLIOTT

Nowadays, everybody is a food critic. From the local drive thru to metro Detroit’s finest five-star establishments, websites such as yelp.com and urbanspoon.com allow anyone with an Internet connection to critique one of the more than 10,000 restaurants in the tri-county area, regardless of their palate or knowledge of food and food preparation. Ultimately, the most important reviews for a restaurant are often the ones conducted by the local health department.

Anthony Drautz, administrator for Oakland County’s Health Division, said that while the department sometimes receives reports from restaurant patrons of food-related sickness, the number of actual confirmed food-borne illness cases is actually far less than people tend to believe.

“A lot of people call when they get sick, and we screen them. But a lot of people don’t even remember what they ate 48 hours ago, or they have their mind made up of what they ate that made them sick,” Drautz said. “Sometimes they will call an hour after eating something, but there is an incubation process, and they probably didn’t get sick there.”

In most cases, he said, food-borne illnesses require an incubation period to effect a person and make them ill.

“They have to give us a 72-hour history of what they ate so we can investigate all of the facilities,” he said. “In many cases, it’s not the last place you ate.” nder Michigan’s Food Law, restaurant inspections must be conducted by local health departments. Fixed restaurants that operate on a yearround basis are required by law to be inspected twice a year. Other food establishments, such as mobile food vendors and temporary popup style restaurants may be inspected less.

As the entity in Oakland County responsible for restaurant inspections, Drautz said the health division conducts between 17,000 and 18,000 inspections each year. That includes bi-annual restaurant inspections of fixed restaurants; followup inspections; mobile food sellers; vending machines; Special Transitory Food Units (STFU), or temporary food establishments licensed to operate throughout the state; and other temporary food establishments.

During an inspection, restaurants may be given violations for different levels of safety concerns.

Violations aren’t uncommon. In fact, almost every restaurant has had a violation at some point during its history and owners work to resolve them as quickly as possible, according to the Michigan Restaurant Association.

“When we conduct an inspection, what we are mainly looking for are those times that are directly linked to food borne illnesses. Although we look at everything, a large focus of our inspections are preventing food borne illness,” said Michelle Estell, public health sanitarian supervisor with the Oakland County Health Division, who supervises the county’s 35 inspectors, or sanitarians. “Other things we look at are based on the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s) five risk factors. For example, poor personal hygiene; foods that are cooked to the wrong temperatures; foods that are held at the wrong temperature; contaminated food surfaces; as well as the food source itself, making sure that it comes in safely and comes from a source that is approved. There are many questions we ask the operator to determine, such as how things come into their facility, how things move through the facility and how things are prepared, based on our visual inspection. And, we are taking temperatures and doing a visual check of things.

“We also look at the physical facility to make sure that it’s in good condition and clean. We look at a number of plumbing things in a facility that are related to how things should operate, as well as food handling practices.”

Violations cited during inspections fall under

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three categories, including core violations, priority foundation violations and priority violations.

Core violations, generally, are those that relate to the physical facility, such as the floors, walls and ceilings. They may also refer to violations that, left uncorrected, could contribute to food borne illness, such as an employee failing to wear a hat or hair net where required. Under the state’s food law, restaurants have up to 90 days to correct core violations.

Priority violations are mainly those that directly cause food borne illness, and are considered the most critical violations. An example of a priority violation would include a staff person failing to wash their hands. Priority violations must be corrected with the health inspector present, if possible.

Priority foundation violations support or enable a priority violation. An example would be if a restaurant fails to provide soap at the employee hand washing station. Under state law, restaurants have 10 days to correct priority and priority foundation violations. However, food sanitarians have 30 days to conduct a follow-up inspection.

The three categories of violations were changed in October of 2012, when changes to Michigan’s Food Code went into effect. Prior to the changes, violations were categorize as “critical” and “non-critical” violations.

Justin Winslow, vice president of governmental affairs for the Michigan Restaurant Association, said the association supported the changes to violation categories, which are essentially in name only.

“We were really working on the language change from the two-tiered system to the new three-tiered,” he said. “When so much reputation is at play, just using the term ‘critical,’ when it had such a large range that fit into that term – there were some things that fit into that which didn’t present an eminent threat. Maybe they didn’t have an adequate amount of paper towel in the bathroom. The change made sense not just in the vernacular, but also in a real sense of what needs to be done and addressed.” hile it’s common for restaurants to receive violations during an inspection, the majority of violations haven’t resulted from food borne illnesses. In some cases, a staff member may not be aware that they are doing something that is a violation of the food code. In order to better educate staff, restaurants are now required to employ food service managers – a requirement that was implemented statewide in 2012, but has been required in Oakland County since 1999. Oakland County offers a basic food service class, as well as a certified food service manager course.

While the frequency of specific violations vary from county to county, the most frequently cited violations typically include those involving hot and cold holding of food, failure to label foods with a proper date and plumbing system violations.

Amy Aumock of the Livingston County Health Department said the most common violations in

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2014 included: hot holding of food less than 135 degrees or cold holding higher than 41 degrees (priority violation); not having paper towels at hand sinks (priority foundation violation); potentially hazardous food held longer than 24 hours and not dated or that has expired (priority foundation); food stored uncovered or less than 6inches off the floor (core violation); light bulbs in food prep or storage area without proper shields or not shatterproof (core violation); hand washing sinks without sinks reminding employees to wash their hands (core); refrigerated or hot food storage units without ambient air thermometers (core); a plumbing system not repaired according to law or not maintained or in good repair (core or priority, depending on violation); working containers used for storing poisonous or toxic materials such as cleaners taken from bulk supplies not labeled with the common name of the material (priority foundation).

Additionally, she said priority violations involving cross contamination of food or failing to wash surfaces in contact with potentially hazardous foods have significantly increased.

Other common violations may include smoking, drinking or eating around food contact surfaces, or storing personal food in an area that may come in contact with service food.

“We don’t license their personal food items, and we don’t inspect their personal food items, so it should be kept away from other foods,” Estell of Oakland County said. “It’s not that they can’t drink something at work, it’s that they need to do it safely. For example, they need to drink from a covered cup, usually a cup with a lid and a straw, and that needs to be stored safely. It needs to be beneath or separate from all food service items in a single serve cup so that it doesn’t contaminate the items that are going to the consumer.”

Additional changes to the state’s food code include removing undercooked ground meat (e.g. hamburgers) from a children’s menu; requiring mechanically tenderized meat to be cooked to 155-degrees for 15 seconds.

“There have been a few changes and updates, and we incorporate those into our program,” Oakland County’s Estell said. “For instance, when looking at par cooking, in the past they were required to cook them a second time to 165 degrees, and they changed that. They can only cook for 60 minutes and it has to be cooled, then it can be reheated to the appropriate temperature for that product. That gives a better product.”

Winslow said most changes to the state’s food law, which is based on federal law, are made when there are changes at the federal level, which is revised every four years. The most significant changes, he said, were made at the federal level in 2009, which resulted in the 2012 changes at the state level. Revisions to the federal food law in 2013, he said, were far less dramatic.

“Food allergens is an increasing issue for a lot of people,” he said, referencing what changes may come in the future. “A lot of restaurants are inspected by local health departments, usually the county. But in less populated areas, they span over several counties. There is a large variety on how locals go about doing inspections, so if you’re

a multi-unit operator, you’re not necessarily viewed the same by each department. It would be nice to have one single regulator out there.”

Despite some difference in operations, local health departments must still base their inspection reports on state food code. Restaurant inspections conducted in Oakland County are available to the public by request, while many other departments provide report findings through online databases that are available to the public. akland County spokesman Bill Mullan said the county doesn’t provide restaurant inspections online, as doing so may have the potential to damage an establishment’s reputation and business if the public doesn’t fully understand the report and the violations – a concern echoed by the state restaurant association.

“It’s important to remember that accessing restaurant inspection reports isn’t new – the information was always available to the public,” the Michigan Restaurant Association said. “Now that they are posted online, it’s simply easier to access. Just like with any new information you can find quickly and easily online, it’s critical that one understands exactly what information is provided in a restaurant inspection report before making judgements regarding the establishment.

“It’s also important to remember that restaurant operators take food safety very seriously. Restaurateurs are, more often than not, in the hospitality industry because it’s their passion. They know that people live their lives in restaurants – birthdays, anniversaries, and so many other life events are celebrated in restaurants. They want their customers to feel safe eating in their establishments. It’s very personal to them.”

It also is worth noting that providing inspection reports online in Oakland County would likely be a time-consuming process, as the county’s health division conducts more inspections than any other local department in the state, as well as the most number of fixed restaurants.

Drautz said the department has a total of 35 food sanitarians that are assigned to the program who conduct inspections throughout the year.

There are about 4,703 food service licenses currently issued in the county for fixed restaurants.

“The majority of the fixed food establishments are inspected semi-annually, or twice a year,” he said. “You could have somebody that is less frequent because they are seasonal, or it could be more frequent because of follow-up inspections or inspection problems if it’s a problem facility.

That’s why you get up to 18,000 inspections.

“We are very busy, but we have a very good staff. There is no backlog – that’s a requirement – that we get our inspections done on a frequency.

We can’t be more than 30 days past due. We have contractual obligations and minimum program requirements with the (Michigan) Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and we need to meet those. Some of that is tied to funding and our accreditation. We have been successful so far.”

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Winslow at the Michigan Restaurant Association also praised Oakland County’s food program.

“Oakland County has a fantastic local health department,” said Winslow. “They are efficient and fair. They usually try to build a relationship with the restaurant they are inspecting. If you aren’t doing something right, they let them know and what they need to do, and where they need to be. They are a model.”

Sherry LaBelle, with the Macomb County Health Department, said the department has 15.5 full-time employees that conduct food service sanitation inspections as part of their job duties.

She said staff conducted a total of 5,812 routine, follow-up and temporary food inspections in 2014 and the results are posted online.

Wayne County’s health department, which conducts restaurant inspections for the entire county with the exception of those establishments located inside the city of Detroit, conducted 8,818 inspections in 2014. The department employs 15 full-time employees and oversees 3,398 fixed restaurant licenses. The county provides restaurant inspections online at www.swordsolutions.com.

Aumock of Livingston County said they employ three food sanitarians, including herself.

The department conducted 1,026 inspections in 2014.

According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Food and Dairy Division’s latest annual report, the number of inspections conducted at fixed food establishments by local health departments in 2013 totaled 8,569 – more than double that of Macomb County (4,299) and about 3,000 more than Wayne County (5,555, not including Detroit).

Livingston County conducted 781 during the same period. Those figures don’t include the total number of food inspections conducted by each local health department, which also includes mobile food establishments, vending machines and Special Transitory Food Units, such as temporary pop-up restaurants and events. tatewide, Oakland County received about 13 percent of all food licenses, the most in the state, with Wayne (9 percent) and Macomb (8 percent) counties the second and third highest.

Of the four southeast Michigan health departments, Oakland County was the only one that stated it had revoked any food service licenses in the past three years for local restaurants. Despite the license revocations, Drautz said the five establishments have either addressed the issues, changed ownership, or closed permanently.

“A couple are no longer in business or have different owners,” he said. “The others are operating now, and we hate for that to damage their business in any way.

“Our focus is on education. We do try to go in and educate and change the way the operation is managed, and change food safety practices well in advance of consideration of revocation of a license. When it gets to that point, there’s a

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history with repeat violations, often priority violations, and we felt they just couldn’t operate safely. Some of these may have changed ownership, or they have cleaned up. Some are out of business.”

The restaurants that have had their license revoked due to violations in the past three years include: • Eddie’s Coney Island, 1749 Haggerty Road, in Commerce Township. The restaurant’s license was revoked in 2014 and has since been reinstated. The owner of the restaurant wasn’t available for comment.

• Rumalee’s, at 30701 W. 12 Mile Road, in Farmington Hills. The restaurant had its license revoked by the health division in 2012, and has since closed. A posting on the restaurant’s Facebook page in November of 2012 stated that the establishment is undergoing “significant changes and will re-open under a new name soon.” In December 2013, the restaurant announced on Facebook that it would be closing.

• Priya, at 3660 Grand River, in Farmington Hills. The restaurant has since closed and is under new ownership.

• Zayeqa, Halal, Indo, Pak and Chinese Food, at 29208 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills.

The restaurant was re-opened in 2014 under new ownership.

• Steven Lelli’s on the Green, at 27925 Golf Park Blvd., at the Copper Creek Golf Course in Farmington Hills. The restaurant’s license was revoked in 2014 and re-instated the same year.

The owners of the restaurant weren’t able to be reached for comment.

“We don’t want to put people out of business.

We would like to educate them on their practices on how to do it right, and not to use that as a violation to shut them down,” Drautz said. “We want to make sure they are running a successful business and using good food safety practices.

That’s the bottom line. Education is really key. We spend a lot of time in these facilities just to make sure people are educated and doing things safe.”

Oakland County restaurant owner Chuck Darany of Big Boy of Madison Heights said the tough and demanding inspections are precisely what makes the county’s program successful.

“I have owned a restaurant in Madison Heights for over 30 years. I keep it spotless. It keeps me employed,” Darany wrote in a letter dated September 17, 2014 to Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. “I had my semi-annual health department inspection yesterday and it was so tough and so demanding that I was truly proud.

Every corner was inspected and every temperature was taken. The inspector was tough and professional. Just what I would want and expect from Oakland County. Thank you.

“It has become a relationship we depend on with your health department. A partnership really.

We can be the best we can be and our neighbors can feel safe. Thank you for that.”

MUNICIPAL Library building plans move forward

by Kevin Elliott

Go west – that was the direction the Commerce Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday, January 13, gave to architects tasked with designing the township’s future library inside Dodge Park 5, at the southeast corner of S. Commerce and Commerce roads.

Board members for nearly two months had put off making a decision on where inside Dodge Park 5 they would like the 35,000-square foot library to be placed. Board members ultimately elected to construct the building on the northwest portion of the park in order to provide maximum visibility from the roadway.

The township’s current library, at 2869 N. Pontiac Trail, is a 20,000square foot golf clubhouse that was converted into a library in 2005. That library was established with the understanding that it would one day be relocated. Trustees agreed last year to begin moving forward with planning for a new library, as improvement and maintenance costs for the existing library continued to rise. In October 2014, the board of trustees approved a motion to build the library within the Dodge 5 park location.

Architects with Ann Arbor-based Penchansky Whisler Architects in November presented the board with four preliminary design concepts for the building, each including different shapes, views and locations within the park. However, an existing deed restriction placed on the park property prior to the township purchasing it prohibited construction on the western portion of the park.

The township worked with state Rep. Klint Kesto (R-Commerce Township) to have the state legislature lift the deed restriction, which allows for construction of the library in a previously restricted area.

After tabling their decision in November, board members instructed the architects to refrain from any additional work until the legislation passed. The Michigan legislature has since passed Kesto’s bill to lift the deed restriction on the Commerce parkland, and it was signed into law

by Gov. Rick Snyder. The board on January 13 directed the architects to design a building that would extend into the restricted area.

The motion passed by a vote of 42, with trustees Rob Long, Rick Sovel, David Law and clerk Vanessa 32

Commerce appoints Phillips treasurer

By Kevin Elliott

he Commerce Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday, January 27, approved the appointment of Molly B. Phillips as the next township treasurer.

Phillips, one of three considered for the position, will serve the remaining two years of former treasurer Susan Gross’ term before running for re-election. Board members voted 4-2 to appoint Phillips, with township supervisor Tom Zoner and clerk Vanessa Magner voting against the appointment.

“It came down to her and Janet (Bushey), and she got the majority of the votes,” Zoner said on January 28. “She will be sworn in tomorrow.”

Phillips is a registered CPA with more than 30 years finance experience in the private sector. Most recently, she served on the accounting staff at the Birmingham Wellness Center in Birmingham. Phillips holds a bachelor’s of business administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she majored in accounting and finance. The majority of her general accounting experience has been in manufacturing, auditing and procedure analysis/implementation.

Phillips will replace Gross, who retired from the treasurer’s position at the end of 2014, after more than 40 years with the township. Gross announced her retirement in September, giving the board until February 14 to appoint a replacement for the remainder of Gross’s term. Failure to appoint a replacement would have required the township to hold a special election to determine a replacement.

Gross began working for the township in 1973 as deputy treasurer, and was appointed to the treasurer’s position in January of 1993. She was elected in November 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. She was the first deputy treasurer in the state to be certified as a professional finance administrator from the Municipal Treasurer’s Association of the United States and Canada.

The township board in September began the search for Gross’s replacement, but extended the search into January in an attempt to solicit additional resumes from potential candidates. The board in October extended the treasurer’s search after receiving only six applications. In November, the board said it had received a total of 12 applicants, with one of those withdrawing their application prior to being interviewed. The board subsequently interviewed five of the applicants before narrowing the number of candidates to two finalists, with one of them withdrawing, leaving Commerce Township Finance and Human Resources Director Janet Bushey as the sole finalist.

Board members in December, rather than voting to appoint Bushey, sought to conduct a targeted search to solicit resumes from Commerce Township residents registered as certified public accountants with the state of Michigan.

Trustee Robert Long said he had concerns about appointing Bushey because she had previously run for the clerk’s position in 2012, but was defeated. Trustee Robert Berkheiser in December suggested searching for CPAs registered with the state who live in Commerce Township, and contacting them to see if they were interested in applying for the position.

The targeted search resulted in 12 new candidates. Board members narrowed that list to three finalists on January 26, with one withdrawing from the running, citing the need to run for election when the term expires as the reason, Zoner said.

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Magner voting in favor of the location, and Robert Berkheiser and supervisor Tom Zoner voting against it.

The board approved the motion after rejecting a previous motion to place the library in the southeast portion of the park. That motion failed with only Berkheiser and Zoner voting in favor.

“Visibility is important, but not so

important that I want it to hamper the design of the library so it’s not functional, and so that it doesn’t hamper what we think is a beautiful location and the benefits of the park, and also the cost,” Law said prior to the vote.

While the proposed location offers better visibility of the building from the roadway, Berkheiser said he was concerned that the location would

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take away from the function of the land as a park.

Architect Dan Whisler said he is confident they would be able to design a library the township would be pleased with regardless of the location. He said each location in the park has different tradeoffs.

“I’m listening to all the stakeholders,” Whisler said. “I am receptive to the impression that the building in the (eastern) location is going to do a lot to drastically change the way people perceive the park, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build more park (on the west). If we build on the west side, we are compromising what is considered the park. If we build on the other side, we are getting away from the intersection, but in my mind it has the same visibility from Commerce Road.

“The more we push the building out to the road, the less it feels like a park setting, so that’s a tradeoff. But we design libraries in very limited urban environments, and also where we have lots of room and natural features.”

Legislation will help Commerce library A bill to lift deed restrictions on a portion of land inside Commerce Township’s Dodge Park 5 passed the state legislature, clearing the way for the construction of a new library for the community within the former state-owned property.

The bill (HB 5952), which was introduced on November 12 by state Rep. Klint Kesto (R-Commerce Township), allows the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to sell a piece of the land in the park to the township for $1. The bill also eliminates a deed restriction on the portion of land, which currently restricts the construction of any buildings on the property.

The Commerce Township Board of Trustees on October 14 approved construction of a new library at the park location. However, the exact location within the park may be limited in some areas due to deed restrictions on the land that was purchased from the state in the past.

The bill provides a means to lift the restrictions and allow architects to design the building at a more visible location in the park.

The township board in December tabled a motion to determine the final location of the library within the park 02.15

property until it was known if Kesto’s bill would pass the legislature before the end of the 2014 legislative session.

The township’s current library, at 2869 N. Pontiac Trail, is a 20,000square foot golf clubhouse that was converted into a library building. That library was established with the understanding that it would one day be relocated. Earlier this year, trustees agreed to begin moving forward with planning for the new library, as improvement and maintenance costs for the existing library continue to rise.

The current library has been at the Pontiac Trail location since 2005.

Kesto said the land from the DNR will be able to be used for building a library, giving residents greater access to community spaces and programs, books, movies and online resources.

Another new Kroger coming to Commerce Plans to build a Kroger store on a vacant piece of property on 14 Mile Road, just north of Haggerty, will be reviewed by the Commerce Township Planning Commission in February.

Keith Dailey, director of media relations for the Cincinnati-based grocery retailer, confirmed Kroger has submitted plans to construct a 113,000-square foot store and fuel center at the location. The store, he said, would use Kroger’s “marketplace” format, which includes a larger box and contain clothing apparel and other elements unique to the expanded design.

The proposed store would mark the third Kroger location in the township, following the opening of a 99,000-square foot Kroger in

November of 2013 at 2905 Union Lake Road, just north of Commerce Road.

That store was constructed to replace the former location at 2733 Union Lake Road. Also that month, Kroger closed its West Bloomfield location at 4805 Haggerty, south of Oakley Park Road.

The Union Lake Road location has apparently been busier than originally expected, Commerce Township building official Jay James told township board members at their board meeting on Tuesday, January 13, citing complaints the township had received from neighbors about refrigerated trailers placed behind the store in an effort to keep items in stock.

“We appreciate our current presence in Commerce Township and looked at that,” Dailey said of the location. “It’s a great store for us.

We’ve had a great response from the community and would like to offer another.”

Dailey said there won’t be any changes to the Union Lake Road Kroger location.

Kroger opened Michigan’s first marketplace location in February of 2014 in Shelby Township. That store carries groceries; toys; home essentials; men’s and women’s apparel; children’s and baby clothing; shoes; as well as a Kitchen Place, which carries small kitchen appliances. Additionally, the store offers an array of gourmet items, such as expanded meats and cheeses, an olive bar, hot soup bar and sushi bar.

An estimated timeline for construction wasn’t yet known.

The site plan will go before the township’s planning commission on February 2 for a special land use hearing.

Commerce sued over swimming pool permit The decision to force a Commerce Township resident to stop work on a swimming pool after a township building official approved construction plans has lead to a lawsuit that could cost the township thousands.

Joseph Kallabat through his attorney Jay Schwartz filed two suits in Oakland County Circuit Court against Commerce Township over the zoning board of appeals (ZBA) decision on July 31 to deny Kallabat a building variance that would allow the pool to encroach into the side yard setback of the property at 8180 Flagstaff. Prior to the board’s denial, the township approved a building permit

Commerce waives EMS transport fees Commerce Township residents will no longer need to pay out-of-pocket expenses for emergency medical transportation services provided by the township’s fire department, under a new policy approved on Tuesday, January 13, by the board of trustees.

The policy, which effects township residents receiving Basic Life Support (BLS) transportation by the township, waives the collection process for fees charged to residents who aren’t covered by their personal health or motor vehicle insurance policy.

Residents who are transported by private EMS services offering Advanced Life Support (ALS) services will still be billed for fees not covered by their personal insurance. The policy will also apply to Wolverine Lake Village residents.

Township supervisor Tom Zoner said the township’s attorney, fire chief and the billing company are currently working out the details of the policy change.

Commerce Township Fire Chief Joe Schornack said the policy change applies to an average of six to eight people per month.

The issue of billing township residents for BLS services was tabled by the board in November, after being raised by trustee Robert Berkheiser, who said he took issue with the fees.

“I have heartburn with the notion that we are billing residents for a service that they already pay taxes for,” Berkheiser said at the January 13 meeting.

Berkheiser said at a November 18 meeting that the township should waive the balance of fees that aren’t covered by insurance for township residents.

that placed the pool at the requested location.

Construction on the pool followed the initial building permit approval, including laying concrete and installing plumbing. However, the ZBA denied a variance that would allow the pool to be placed in the location approved by building official Jay James prior to construction, according to court documents.

In a letter to Kallabat dated August 6 from Commerce Township Community Development Director Terry Carroll, Kallabat was notified that the ZBA approved a variance to construct a pool in the lakeside front of the yard at the property, but denied the variance to build the pool four feet into the side yard setback. While the ZBA was informed that a building permit for the pool was already

Board members on January 13 approved the measure by a vote of 51, with Zoner voting against the motion.

Zoner said the maximum the township has collected for BLS fees directly from residents in any year totaled about $35,000. The cost savings to individual residents will vary.

“It depends on the person’s insurance, how much they will actually save,” Zoner said. “If the fee is $600, and the insurance – if they have it – covers $500, then there will be no fee if they are transported by township rescue. That doesn’t mean their health or car insurance isn’t billed.”

Walled Lake looking into Maple repairs Concern voiced by a Walled Lake City Council member on Tuesday, January 6, about the state of Maple Road near the city’s downtown area spurred officials to look into resurfacing the roadway and accompanying sidewalks.

Councilwoman Tamra Loch told council members that she was driving in the area and suddenly realized that she often avoids the area because the road is in poor shape – a concern she said likely causes others to steer clear of the area. She then asked whether there was anything the city could do to fix the road.

In response to the question, Walled Lake City Manager Dennis Whitt said the city currently has the money to “redo” part of Maple Road, if the city is able to secure federal road funds on a partial-matching basis.

“We may have to sweeten the pot, like we did with Decker Road,” Whitt

approved, the board decided it was issued “in error.”

In court filings, Schwartz said the case involves “a homeowner who did everything right in planning to build a pool on his property,” including having a site plan developed, applying for and receiving a building permit, and having the site inspected by a building official after construction started. Despite these actions, the township later denied the plan and issued a stop-work order at the location.

The lawsuits are seeking to have the ZBA’s decision overturned, and to compensate the resident for any damages, which are more than $25,000, according court documents. A trial date has been set for September 14 in Oakland Circuit Court Judge Daniel O’Brien’s courtroom.

said, in reference to the matching funds.

City council in 2012 approved spending about $188,700 for reconstruction and improvements on Decker Road between W. Maple and S. Commerce roads. The entire cost of the project was more than $1.04 million, with the remaining funds coming from stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration under the Surface Transportation Program.

The Decker Road project was originally expected to proceed in 2015, but was completed in November 2014 because some communities pulled out of the state and federal projects due to a lack of matching local funds, allowing Walled Lake to move forward sooner than they had planned.

A spokeswoman for Walled Lake city officials said engineers are looking at the size and scope of the project to determine costs and feasibility. Whether the city will qualify for matching funds and what those costs will be has yet to be determined.

City hires officer, two firefighters Two new firefighters and a police officer were sworn into their positions with the city of Walled Lake at the Tuesday, January 6, city council meeting.

The additional staff brings the number of sworn police officers with the city to 19, which includes six fulltime and 13 part-time officers. The two additional firefighters bring the city’s fire department staff to 19 firefighters, including four full-time career firefighters and 15 part-time firefighters.

Police officer Michael Byberg comes to the Walled Lake department after graduating from the police academy in December of 2013. He attended Oakland University, is a former resident of Walled Lake and currently lives in Milford.

Firefighters Dan Taylor and Zach Roemer both had previous experience before coming to Walled Lake, where they have already completed their probationary periods. Taylor worked for the Brighton Fire Department for seven years before coming to Walled Lake. A native of the Livonia area, Taylor is a state certified Firefighter II and EMT. Additionally, Taylor works at St. John’s Hospital in Detroit as a medical tech. He also completed the 34

Development director leaves post

By Kevin Elliott

Commerce Township Community Development Director Terry Carroll will be leaving the job he started with the township one year ago in order to start a new position with the city of Detroit.

“I treasure the time I spent in Commerce. I made a lot of good friends here,” Carroll said.

In 2013, the township combined its planning department with the building, water and sewer department to create a new community development department. Carroll, who started his position in January of 2014, was the first director for the newly established department.

Commerce Township Supervisor Tom Zoner said he will oversee the department until the board of trustees decides how best to proceed.

“The new plan is to go back to the way we were doing things, but a little different administratively, if the board wants to accept that proposal,” Zoner said.

Essentially, Zoner said he plans on keeping the staff in the department trained to perform functions for both of the combined departments.

However, he said he believes the department will need additional staff in light of anticipated building projects, which are likely to increase in the spring. Zoner said it isn’t known if the board of trustees will approve additional staff.

Board members in July declined hiring an additional full-time staff member for the department, despite the position being included in the township’s approved budget, instead preferring to approve the replacement of a part-time employee who had left the township. The department now has two full-time and one part-time worker, not including the director’s position.

Carroll, who has more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector, had most recently worked as director of planning and economic development for Van Buren Township. He was to start his new position on January 29 as associate director of the office of grants management for the city of Detroit, where he will assist overseeing some $40 million in federal Community Development Block Grants Detroit receives each year.

state’s paramedic certification program. Roemer worked for the Detroit Fire Department before working for Walled Lake. He also is a state certified firefighter and EMT, and completed the state’s paramedic certification program.

The new police officer position is the first additional full-time hire for the department since voters in August approved a 3.95 millage for public safety, which is expected to generate about $692,000 each year for five years. Prior to the millage, police and fire services were paid for from the city’s general fund budget.

City council in March 2014 approved combining police and fire services under the umbrella of a public safety department. However, both police and fire departments continue to operate independently.

Private club, docking approved for lake A request to open and operate a private club on the southeast side of

Union Lake to host private parties and increase the number of boats permitted to dock at the location was approved on Tuesday, January 13, by the Commerce Township Board of Trustees.

Commerce Township resident Patrick McInnis purchased the vacant property at 2261 Union Lake Road in hopes of using the lakefront property as a private club to host occasional parties for family and friends living on the lake. The plan required the property to be rezoned from B-1 (local business) to B-2 (community business), as only the B-2 designation allows for a special land use for private clubs.

The final approval for the change followed a December 1 public hearing at the township’s planning commission where more than a dozen people spoke in favor of the request.

Two residents living near the property voiced concerns about potential noise issues. The planning commission approved the request with several special conditions set out in an agreement between the township and McInnis, including limiting the

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number of parties with amplified music to six times per year, and between certain hours.

Township attorney Phil Adkison said the agreement attempts to address the concerns. The agreement, which runs for one year, is tied to the property owner, rather than the land itself.

The property, which includes a former real estate office, was vacant for nearly a decade prior to McInnis purchasing it. He said the building was inhabited by a squatter and rodents, but has since been improved.

McInnis told trustees at a December 9 board meeting that he has six family members who also live on the lake, and that gatherings tend to end up at his house. The objective, he said, is to create a place where the large family can meet and hold gatherings about six times a year.

“I wanted to turn this into a family venue,” he said.

Library to revise smoking policy Commerce Township’s smoking policy was scheduled to be reexamined on Wednesday, January 28, by the library’s advisory board following complaints about electronic cigarette use in the building.

Library Director Connie Jo Ozinga said at the township’s January 13 board of trustees meeting that the township passed a policy prohibiting smoking in the workplace in 1999, but that the policy is no longer working for the library.

“Our biggest issue has been ‘vaping,’ or smoking using a vaporizer,” she said. “One user insisted that unless we could show her a policy specifically addressing vaping, she didn’t need to stop.”

Ozinga told the board that while there isn’t a policy on the books regarding smoking at the library, the township’s employee handbook prohibits smoking throughout the workplace. At the time of the meeting, she recommended updating the handbook to include e-cigarettes, or vaporizers. However, the board said it would be more appropriate to update a policy that specifically addresses the public, rather than employees.

Michigan’s smoke-free air law doesn’t directly address the use of electronic cigarettes.

To address the problem, the township board directed the library advisory board to update the library’s patron code of conduct policy to prohibit the use of tobacco and vaporizers.

02.15

FACES James Scrivo s principal of Scotch Elementary School in West Bloomfield, James Scrivo will go to just about any lengths to get his students and faculty excited about fundraising for the school.

“I’ve dressed up in a tutu and let students throw water balloons at me (for pledges). I’ve been slimed. One year, four students were chosen to shave my head,” Scrivo chuckled. “The dunk tank is a given.”

His unconventional methods of raising money benefit the annual FunD Run. “I do these crazy things to encourage kids to go out (and fundraise). I know that making a spectacle of myself will get a couple more kids involved,” he said. “And really, I’m 10-years-old inside. I love seeing the kids’ faces and excitement at this goofball.”

Scrivo’s school has never raised less than $30,000, and he credits such a turnout to the amount of enthusiasm Scotch drums up for the FunD Run. “Raising $30,000 is unheard of, but we want to keep our teachers on the cutting edge of what’s out there,” he said. “We buy smartboards, overhead projectors and portable document cameras. My entire goal is to create an environment that is engaging and a place where I would want to learn.”

Despite being an exceptionally dedicated principal and educator, Scrivo was not a strong student growing up. “I was more concerned about how I was going to get to second base on the Tigers than school.”

Eventually, Scrivo became consumed by education. “I went to Western Michigan (University) for my undergrad, MSU (Michigan State University) for my master’s, and OU (Oakland University) for my education specialist degree.”

The exemplary stand-out was even accepted into a program at Harvard for new and aspiring school leaders.

The White Lake resident’s career began right where he is today. “I taught fifth grade for eight years at Scotch.”

In 2010 Scrivo was offered the position as principal. “Life is all about timing.”

More than simply professional success, Scotch holds a significant personal value to him.

“I got engaged to my wife, Dawn, and she had both our kids while I was at Scotch.”

Two students are particularly special to Scrivo. His daughter, Brooke, and son, Luke.

“If I’m having a bad day, I can walk down to their classrooms and see them laughing with their friends. I get to steal a moment that most parents can’t.”

In 2013, the school showed its solidarity under the worst possible circumstances. Two West Bloomfield students, Alexander and Gabrielle Mansour, were killed in a boating accident. The school later dedicated its gymnasium to the Mansour children.

“There’s a beautiful glass-mounted plaque that hangs above the door that says ‘Mansour Court.’ It was donated by the Detroit Pistons.”

A couple of Detroit Pistons came out to the dedication to support the family and the community.

Whether it’s helping students overcome tragedy or letting loose to raise more money for kids’ education, Scrivo always goes the extra mile, and then maybe just a few more.

A

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

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02.15

PLACES TO EAT The Places To Eat for Westend is a quick reference source to establishments offering a place for dining, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. The complete Places To Eat is available at westendmonthly.com and in an optimized format for your smart phone (westendmonthly.com/mobile), where you can actually map out locations and automatically dial a restaurant from our Places To Eat.

Anaam’s Palate: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2534 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.242.6326.

Applebees Neighborhood Grill: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 9100 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386. 248.698.0901.

Backyard Coney Island: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 49378 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.9508.

Bayside Sports Grille: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 142 E. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.3322.

Biffs Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

3050 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.366.7400.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Beer & Wine. 5834 Highland Road, Waterford, 48328. 248.674.4631.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

800 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.624.2323.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Beer & Wine. 7726 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.1573.

Billy’s Tip N Inn: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6707 Highland Road, White Lake Township, 48383. 248.889.7885.

Blu Nectar: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday - Saturday. Reservations. Liquor.

1050 Benstein Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.859.5506.

Boon Kai Restaurant: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1257 S. Commerce Road, Commerce, 48390.

248.624.5353.

Buffalo Wild Wings: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

5223 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.674.9464.

Carino’s Italian Restaurant: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 500 Loop Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.926.5300.

Carrie Lee’s of Waterford: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

7890 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.9045.

Casey’s Sports Pub & Grill: Deli. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1003 E West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.5200.

CAYA Smokehouse Grille: Barbeque. Dinner, Tuesday - Sunday. No reservations. Liquor.

1403 S. Commerce Road, Wolverine Lake, 48390. 248.438.6741.

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China Garden: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. 49414 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.960.8877.

China House: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 901 Nordic Drive, White Lake Township, 48386.

248.889.2880.

China King: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 4785 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.363.9966.

CJ’s Brewing Company: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

8115 Richardson Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.366.7979.

Coffee Time Café: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1001 Welch Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.624.0097.

Coyote Grille: American. Lunch, MondayFriday; Dinner, Monday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 1990 Hiller Road, West Bloomfield, 48324. 248.681.6195.

Dairy Queen: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 10531 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.698.2899.

Daniel’s Pizza Bistro: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2510 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.363.7000.

Dave and Amy’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

9595 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.698.2010.

Dave’s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No Reservations.

901 Nordick Drive, White Lake, 48383.

248.889.3600.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit: Barbecue. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4825 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.360.4055.

Dobski’s: American, Polish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6565 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.363.6565.

Eddie’s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1749 Haggerty Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.960.1430.

El Nibble Nook: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations for 6 or more. Liquor.

2750 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48323. 248.669.3344.

El Patio Mexican Restaurant: Mexican.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

7622 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.5231.

Five Guys Burgers & Fries: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5134 Highland Road, 48327. 248.673.5557.

Gest Omelets: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily until 4 p.m. No reservations.

39560 W. 14 Mile Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.0717.

Golden Chop Sticks: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 47516 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.3888.

Grand Aztecha: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6041 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322.

248.669.7555.

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Greek Jalapeno: Greek, Mexican. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

6636 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.3322.

Green Apple Restaurant: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 7156 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.366.9100.

Haang's Bistro: Chinese/Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. 225 E. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.926.1100.

Highland Grille: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 7265 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.8830.

Highland House: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2630 E. Highland Road, Highland, 48356.

248.887.4161.

Highland House Café: American, Pizza.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

10719 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386. 248.698.4100.

Hong Kong Express: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5158 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.673.7200.

It’s a Matter of Taste: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2323 Union Lake Road, Commerce, 48390.

248.360.4150.

Jennifer’s Café: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4052 Haggerty Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.360.0190.

Jenni1’s Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1186 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.669.8240.

Jeff's Kitchen: Asian. Lunch & Dinner daily.

Reservations. 1130 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.8896.

Kennedy’s Irish Pub: Irish/American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

1055 W. Huron Street, Waterford, 48328. 248.681.1050.

L George’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1203 S. Commerce Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.960.5700.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6845 Highland Road, White Lake, 484386. 248.889.5361.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4895 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.366.8360.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2210 Teggerdine, White Lake, 48386. 248.779.7085.

Leon’s Food & Spirits: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 29710 S. Wixom Road, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.5880.

Lion’s Den: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 4444 Highland Road, Waterford, 48328.

248.674.2251.

Lulu’s Coney Island: Greek. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1001 Welch Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.1937.

Maria’s Restaurant: Italian. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2080 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48323.

248.851.2500.

Mexico Lindo: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6225 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.3460.

Mezza Mediterranean Grille: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1001 Welch Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.926.2190.

Moonlight Mediterranean Cuisine: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1123 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.859.5352.

Nick & Toney’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday; Sunday until 3 p.m. No reservations. 9260 Cooley Lake Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.363.1162.

North Szechuan Empire: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 39450 W. 14 Mile Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.960.7666.

On The Waterfront: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 8635 Cooley Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.363.9469.

Panera Bread: Bakery, Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

5175 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.618.0617.

Pepino’s Restaurant & Lounge: Italian.

Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 118 W. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.624.1033.

Red Lobster: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 479 N. Telegraph Road, Waterford, 48328.

248.682.5146.

Red Robin: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 3003 Commerce Crossing, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.2990.

Root Restaurant & Bar: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 340 Town Center Blvd., White Lake, 48386. 248.698.2400.

Rudy’s Waffle House: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 674 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.669.7550.

Samuri Steakhouse: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 7390 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.661.8898.

Shark Club: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6665 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.4161.

SIAM Fushion: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. Liquor. 6845 Highland Road, White Lake Township, 48386.

248.887.1300.

Siegel’s Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 3426 E. West Maple Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.9555.

Sizzl in Subs & Salads: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2051 N. Wixom Road, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.0009.

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Socialight Cigar Bar & Bistro: American.

Lunch & Dinner daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 6139 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.669.0777.

Swasdee Thai Restaurant: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6175 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.926.1012.

Sweet Water Bar & Grille: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 7760 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.0400.

Taqueria La Casita: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 49070 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.926.1980.

Thai Kitchen: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 7108 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.886.0397.

The Lake’s Bar & Grill: American. Lunch, Tuesday - Sunday; Dinner daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2528 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.366.3311.

The Library Pub: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

6363 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.896.0333.

TJ’s Sushi & Chinese Restaurant: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 8143 Commerce Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.363.3388.

Ultimate Sports Bar Grille: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 47528 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.859.2851.

Uptown Grill: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

3100 West Maple Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.960.3344.

Village Grill: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

1243 N. Commerce Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.366.3290.

Volare Risorante: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 49115 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.7771.

VR Famous Fried Chicken: American, Cajun. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 47520 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.6620.

White Palace: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6123 Haggerty Restaurant, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.313.9656.

Wilson’s Pub n Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

2256 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.363.1849.

Wixom Station Food and Drink: American Contemporary. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 49115 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.859.2882.

Wonton Palace: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5562 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.683.5073.

Woody’s Café: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 235 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390.

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BUSINESS MATTERS Pharmacy at Spectra Med Longtime healthcare equipment providers Spectra Med, Inc., 3160 Haggerty, Suite H & I, in West Bloomfield, has expanded services to include a Spectra Med Pharmacy at its West Bloomfield location. Owners Dan and Teresa Stayer have owned and operated Spectra Med since 1987. The business offers medical supplies, rehabilitation equipment, hands-on physical therapy services, in addition to recently added pharmacy services.

New dog groomer Dog owners now have additional options for dog grooming with the opening of Puppy Love Dog Grooming Salon at 1539 Union Lake Road in Commerce Township. The salon offers full-service grooming in an open room setting, as well as self-serve dog washes. “My wife has been a groomer for over 16 years, so she’s a master groomer,” said Eric Moore, who started the business with his wife, Young. “She wanted to start her own business, so we did. She’s the owner and does all of the grooming, I kind of clean up and do a little of everything.” The 1,800 square-foot building is set up as an open room in an effort to allow owners to see first-hand how their pets are being groomed – something Moore said is quite different than most other dog groomers. Puppy Love also doesn’t use cages or kennels for holding dogs or drying. However, extra large size doggy suites are available upon request, which can be helpful for elderly dogs or pets with behavioral issues. “We are a little different than other groomers,” Moore said. “It’s less stressful. We don’t run it like a production line. The dogs have a little more freedom while they are being groomed. We also have self-serve dog washes, so people can come in and bring their dogs and bathe them themselves.” No appointments are needed for use of self-serve stations. Full service grooming is done by appointment only.

Hardware store closes Melvin’s True Value Hardware, 690 N. Pontiac Trail, in Walled Lake, has closed after more than 40 years in business. The hardware store, located in the Maple Plaza Shopping Center, was owned

by Bill and Daryl Ramsey.

Gear store opens Lakes area sportsmen have a new location for hunting and fishing gear with the opening of a new BuckBass at 7731 Highland Road in Waterford Township. The Waterford location joins the Commerce Township BuckBass location at 1560 Union Lake Road, which opened about three years ago. The stores offer an array of items westendmonthly.com

for fishing and hunting, from live bait ranging from spikes to spearing decoys, as well as hunting, boating and camping gear offered on consignment. BuckBass will also be offering used pontoons following the winter season. In addition to items that are for sale, the stores offer rentals of ice shanties and other equipment.

which inspires students, should be a great addition to the Walled Lake area.”

Value Center Fresh Marketplace

The building may be new, but the faces remain the same at the new Gin Mill Party Store in White Lake Township at 8240 Highland Road (M-59). “It’s about 1,000 square-feet bigger,” coowner Rob Shunia said of the newly constructed building. “We have more selection than before, with more liquor and a craft beer cave, so people can walk in and get their own beer.” Rob Shunia and his father, Sami Shunia, purchased the business in 1995. Originally housed in a slightly smaller and much older building directly south of the new location, the Shunias purchased the business from Rob’s uncle, who had owned it since 1974. However, the old building, constructed about 1928, had started to wear out and was razed in late September 2014.

Construction on the new building had started the previous November.

Plans to open a new Value Center Fresh Marketplace at the former VG’s Grocery, 7300 Highland Road, in Waterford Township, are moving forward, with a target opening for this spring. Kennice Farida, of VC Marketplace, said the some 60,000-square foot space is being renovated and has a loose target date of April 1.

VG’s Grocery closed in March. “Our focus is on all of our perishables, and providing the freshest produce, meat cuts in our deli and other perishables,” Farida said. The locally-owned family grocery will join three other VC Fresh Marketplace locations, including those in Madison Heights, Livonia and Clinton Township.

The store specializes in locally-sourced foods from local farmers at Detroit’s Eastern Market, where items are received about three or four times per week, Farida said. VC Fresh Marketplace locations include deli, bakery and pharmacy services. Deli locations offer Boar’s Head brand items, as well as ready-to-eat deli trays, roasted chicken, ribs, salads and other deliitems.

Learning Center expands

Health food spot

Oakland Family Services in Pontiac is expanding its Children’s’ Learning Center program to a new location at 1885 N. Pontiac Trail in Walled Lake.

The program, which helps at-risk children obtain high-quality, free preschool, opened on January 14 with 96 openings for children. The Great Start Readiness Program (GRSP) center features six classrooms; a kitchen where the children’s free breakfast, lunch and snack are prepared; and a natural playground that encourages scientific observation and creative play. The GSRP is a state-funded preschool program for 4-year-old children. Oakland Family Services has been providing the program since 1996 at the organization’s Pontiac location. The focus of the GSRP program is to provide high-quality preschool programs to support readiness for children who may be at risk for arriving at kindergarten unprepared for the social and educational challenges. There is no cost for families enrolled in the program. In addition to the Children’s Learning Center, Oakland Family Services operates a second office in Walled Lake at 2045 E. West Maple Road, Suite D-407. “We are thrilled to be offering this educational opportunity to young students in another area of Oakland County,” said Kris Kasperski, director of early childhood services. “This beautiful new center, our caring staff, and the curriculum,

Jack Charest had worked in the corporate world for years before he decided it was a time for a change of pace and opened Oasis Health Foods at 76 N. Williams Lake Road in Waterford. The store, located about a mile south of M-59, offers a variety of organic and natural foods, vitamins and supplements, herbs, oils and other items. “It’s my first business in the health food world,” Charest said. “I took a year off from the corporate world and went to massage therapy school, and it opened my eyes to health and my surroundings.

That took me to health and nutrition.” Charest said he had passed the location of the formerly vacant store many times over the past few years when he decided it would be a good location to open Oasis. Learning how to paint, work drywall and other skills to refurbish the space himself, Charest officially opened his store on the first of the year. While health foods and products are on the shelves, he said the store is intended to be as much of a destination as it is a place to shop.

“This is an experience and destination, it’s not your average grocery or vitamin store,” he said.

“We have music therapy, aromatherapy going.

It’s a place where you can hangout and learn about health, too.”

Redone party store

WESTEND

Business Matters for the west Oakland area are reported by Kevin Elliott. Send items for consideration to KevinElliott@downtownpublications.com. Items should be received three weeks prior to publication.

41

ENDNOTE

Transparency on county food inspections ecent accolades attributed to the Oakland County Health Division’s food safety program are a good indicator that health standards are being strictly maintained at the more than 4,700 restaurants operating in the county, but we feel the officials are falling short when it comes to providing easy access to restaurant inspection reports, especially when we note other local counties provide easy Internet access to their restaurant inspections.

Under Michigan’s food law, restaurants with a fixed location that operate year-round must be inspected bi-annually. As the entity in Oakland County responsible for restaurant inspections, the health division’s environmental health food safety program conducts more than 18,000 inspections each year. That figure includes the required biannual inspections at fixed restaurants, as well as follow-up inspections, along with inspections at other food establishments, such as mobile food vendors, pop-ups and temporary establishments.

Yet, none of those inspection reports are currently accessible through an online source. That means anyone who wishes to obtain an inspection report must file a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request with the county to view a report.

Oakland County spokesman Bill Mullan said the county doesn’t have plans to make inspection reports available online, something that the surrounding counties of Macomb, Livingston, Wayne and Washtenaw already do. Why? Because doing so, according to Mullan, could unintentionally damage a good restaurant’s reputation if the public doesn’t fully understand the reports – a concern that has been echoed by the Michigan Restaurant Association (MRA).

Officials with the organization have said it is critical that the public understands what information is provided in the reports before

R

making judgements about an establishment. We agree.

However, one may only consider the thousands of thriving restaurants outside of Oakland County that continue to enjoy solid reputations, despite inspection reports being available at the touch of a computer, iPad or smartphone.

Anyone even remotely familiar with the food service industry is probably aware that inspection violations – at least minor infractions – are very common and rarely overlooked by inspectors. For example, instances of inadequate paper towel in a restroom, improper labeling of perishables, or an employee not having a lid on their personal beverage container while working, are all possible inspection violations that could end up on an inspection report. Further, such violations may be corrected almost instantly, but are still required to be noted on an inspection report.

There’s no doubt that lumping such examples together with more serious violations wouldn’t be a fair and accurate representation of a particular restaurant. Still, we disagree with the county’s logic behind the decision to keep such reports hidden from the dining public. In fact, we believe that added transparency to the process would only serve to strengthen the reputation of good restaurants by putting to rest rumors and arbitrary restaurant reviews that can be posted by anyone with access to any of the multitude of websites, such as yelp.com, urbanspoon.com or others.

Additionally, we believe changes to the state’s food law already address some of the concerns about how the public interprets restaurant inspections. Prior to October of 2012, violations were categorized as “critical” or “non-critical” violations. Those categories have been

restructured to the point of nearing doublespeak, with violations now categorized as “core,” “priority,” and “priority core” violations. A change that was fully endorsed by the MRA. While we also feel it is worth noting that providing inspection reports online in Oakland County would likely be a large undertaking considering the number of reports conducted each year, we believe the county is well capable of meeting the task.

Macomb County, with just 15.5 full-time employees, conducted about 5,800 inspections in 2014, with results available on the county’s health department’s website. Wayne County’s health department, which conducts inspections for the entire county with the exception of those located inside the city of Detroit, conducted more than 8,800 inspections. In Livingston County, three full-time sanitarians conducted more than 1,000 inspections in 2014. Both Wayne and Livingston counties provide reports online through the third-party website at www.swordsolutions.com.

Considering Oakland County routinely bills itself as the center for high-tech innovation, and has received numerous awards for its work in the information technology field, we believe it is incumbent upon the county to provide easy access to online inspection results. It should be easy for inspectors to upload and update, and we trust those seeking the information online will be able to comprehend the information in the reports.

Although we can understand the concerns of unintentional harm to restaurant owners, we feel the public’s right to easily access the health information contained in the reports outweighs those concerns.

Compensation for wrongfully convicted eing wrongfully convicted of a crime you didn't do and held in prison for years is pretty terrible. Compound that with the added insult of denying the individual any compensation or even basic prisoner benefits when they are exonerated and released, and there's the picture for falsely imprisoned and released individuals in Michigan.

State Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren) is intent upon changing that, introducing a bill once again this month, for the sixth time since he was elected to public office, to compensate a victim of wrongful conviction in the state of Michigan. Bieda's bill would provide compensation of $60,000 for each year an individual was wrongfully held in prison, along with rehabilitative services. He noted it's based on what is done in other states – in actuality, 30 other states, as well as the District of Columbia.

Former President George W. Bush endorsed Congress' recommended amount of $50,000 per year of incarceration, with basic services provided.

B

The issue of compensation reared its head as we looked at the Innocence Project in this issue, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing. “Despite their proven innocence, the difficulty of reentering society is profound for the wrongfully convicted; the failure to compensate them adds insult to injury,” the project says on their website. Society has an obligation to promptly provide compassionate assistance to the wrongfully convicted by providing financial support for the basic necessities of food, shelter and transportation, as well as medical and legal care.

As of January, 325 people nationwide have been exonerated post-conviction through DNA acquittals by various Innocence Projects. In Michigan, the Cooley Law School Innocence Project has been able to obtain three full post-conviction exonerations, and the University of Michigan Law

School Innocence Clinic, which exonerates defendants using non-DNA testing methods, has had nine.

Donya Davis, exonerated in November 2014 by the Cooley Innocence Project, said that while he is thrilled to have been fully cleared of a 2007 rape and carjacking after serving seven years in prison, today he is homeless and penniless.

“I got no compensation, no help in finding a job,” he said. “I didn't qualify for prisoner benefits, clothing vouchers, nothing that prisoners get when they're released. Everything is just upside down. I was just tossed out.”

Bieda wants to change that, and believes that others want that as well. “So many people think we already have a bill for it. Michigan used to provide for wrongful conviction for 100 years, and we got away from it about 20 years ago. I'm not inventing something new. It's just the right thing to do.”

We absolutely agree.

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