Flint police sought charges against man leading mayoral recall efforts

FLINT, MI - Flint police sought charges against the now-mayoral candidate who led efforts to recall Mayor Karen Weaver, according to a letter Flint police sent to the Michigan State Police.

Responding to an investigation into whether the Flint Police Department ran an illegal criminal background check on mayoral hopeful Arthur Woodson, Flint Deputy Chief of Police Devon Bernritter sent a reply to the state police on Saturday, Oct. 14, confirming that the department was criminally investigating the recall leader and sought his arrest on July 27.

In the letter - addressed to Dawn Brinningstaull, director of the Michigan State Police division which oversees the LEIN background check system - Bernritter explained that Woodson was under criminal investigation over fraudulent recall petition circulation allegations when Detective Tyrone Booth searched Woodson's criminal history on the highly-protected law enforcement background check system.

LEIN, or Law Enforcement Information Network, is a computerized criminal justice database maintained by the Michigan State Police and tied to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, according to the state's website. Those authorized to use the system can access a person's criminal history, including arrests, convictions driving record information and out-of-state records.

Access to the highly-monitored system is permitted only under the management control of criminal justice agencies in the discharge of their official mandated responsibilities, and misuse is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 93 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both.

But, in his letter, Bernritter wrote that Booth was abiding the law when he searched Woodson's name in the system, a procedure required in order to attach his criminal history to an arrest warrant submitted to the Genesee County Prosecutor's office on July 27.

"We do ask departments to submit LEIN records with warrant requests," confirmed Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. "We don't have a LEIN terminal."

Leyton declined to immediately comment on whether his office received an arrest warrant for Woodson.

Bernritter says the department received the letter Thursday, Oct. 12, nine days after state police said notice of the investigation was sent to Flint Police Chief Timothy Johnson on Oct. 3.

Bernritter confirmed on Monday, Oct. 16, that the criminal investigation into the allegedly fraudulent petitions is still ongoing.

The investigation was initiated after efforts to collect petition signatures to recall Weaver began in June. The Flint Police Department distributed a press release announcing an investigation into a criminal complaint alleging residents were tricked into signing the petitions. Officers were then spotted knocking on doors in the community to question voters on whether they signed to remove the mayor.

The city has refused to release a copy of a criminal complaint to MLive-The Flint Journal - requested through the Freedom of Information Act - citing the open case's active investigation.

But Woodson said that three months into the investigation, police have yet to talk to him about the probe.

"They didn't question me, never," Woodson said. "To this day, I have not spoken to the police about the recall petitions ... the fraud is on the part of the mayor when she tried to use police to bring people to court and used a Flint police officer to pick up petitions using her campaign funds."

Woodson, 50, filed a complaint with Michigan State Police in August after he said he was told by a Flint police officer that other officers were attempting to release information on his criminal history on Facebook.

The mayoral candidate has been candid about his criminal background, which he says includes credit card fraud, wire fraud, receiving stolen goods and forgery conviction in 1989 and simple assault on federal police officers and assault with a deadly weapon convictions in 2005.

Both the assault on federal police officers and assault with deadly weapons charges resulted from unfair police treatment toward him, he said.

Woodson said he believes the LEIN search was a tactic to thwart his mayoral run.

"They were trying to post it on Facebook to tarnish my name," Woodson previously said. "This is just police abusing the system, once again."

This is not the first time the Flint Police Department's involvement in the mayoral recall has come into question.

Records -- obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal via Freedom of Information Act request -- show Flint Police Officer Kristopher Jones was on the city's dime when he used a check from Weaver's campaign funds to purchase copies of the recall petitions his department is investigating.

Jones' time card showed that at the time of the purchase, he was conducting "surveillance at a location in the city of Flint" as a member of the city's Crime Area Target Team, a specialized unit created by Police Chief Tim Johnson to proactively deter violent crime.

Allegations of improper police involvement in the Flint mayoral recall surfaced again in late August after Weaver took Genesee County Clerk John Gleason to court, pointing to "grossly illegal behavior by the petition circulators" in attempts to call off the election to oust her.

However, the tables were turned in court on Aug. 29, when, under oath, four of the mayor's witnesses testified they had been summoned to court by police after signing the recall petition, while two petition circulators claimed they were offered bribes by Weaver or City Administrator Sylvester Jones to stop collecting recall signatures.

Both Sylvester Jones and Weaver have denied the allegations of bribery.

After listening to testimony from four voters who said they were directed via house visits and phone calls from police to come to court that morning, Genesee County Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut questioned why Flint police were involved at all in a personal civil suit from the mayor.

"I can't speak to that, judge," responded Weaver's attorney, Kendall Williams.

"Wow," said Neithercut. "That may affect credibility issues on this case."

Two days after the allegations of police involvement and bribery came out in court, Weaver dropped the lawsuit, a decision Williams said was a mutual decision by both parties.

Woodson is one of the 17 candidates challenging Weaver for her job as mayor in the Nov. 7 recall election.

MSP LEIN Inquiry 17-09-0157 (Signed) by Oona Goodin-Smith on Scribd

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