by P.D. Lesko

On Sept. 19, Jeffrey Dwayne Smith, 47, of Flatrock, Michigan, was arraigned in 14A-1 District Court before Magistrate Elisha A. Fink. Smith was charged with one count of sexual assault, as well as two counts of domestic violence. His alleged victim is a 27-year-old woman who had been evicted from SafeHouse Center in Pittsfield Twp. on August 31 in retaliation for speaking to The Ann Arbor Independent for an article exposing unsafe, unsanitary conditions in the shelter, and negligence on the part of shelter management and staff. Fink set Smith’s bond at $3 million, cash surety. On September 30, Smith, housed in the Washtenaw County Jail, appeared before 14-A1 District Court Judge J. Cedric Simpson for a preliminary hearing. Smith’s attorney, Carla Marable had filed a bond motion to ask that Smith’s bond be lowered or rescinded.

Between September 19 and September 30, Smith was also charged with kidnapping, bribery and witness intimidation. He now faces those charges in addition to the others unsealed when he was arraigned on September 19. At that arraignment, Magistrate Fink set Smith’s bail at $3 million, cash surety. Sources say Fink was put under enormous pressure from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor to set a bond high enough to make sure Smith would remain incarcerated.

In setting the $3 million cash surety bond, Fink said, “Even if one of these texts is from Mr. Smith, he’s an extremely dangerous person.” Fink added, “This is not a situation where I can take any chances. It’s about the information I’ve received. My job as the Magistrate is to set a bond that will protect the community.”

Investigators say Smith sent his alleged victim threatening text messages and death threats while she was housed in SafeHouse Center, messages which the victim showed SafeHouse Center officials. In one of the messages, Smith allegedly told the victim he was going to go to SafeHouse with an AK-47 and kill everyone in the building. After the victim was thrown out by SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May in retaliation for speaking the The Ann Arbor Independent, Smith allegedly stalked his victim via spyware installed on her smartphone, as well as obtaining information from her wireless phone provider.

At Smith’s September 30 preliminary hearing his lawyer, Carla Marable, petitioned the Court to lower or rescind Smith’s bond.

A native Detroiter, Marable graduated from Detroit Country Day. She studied law at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, in Houston, Texas. In 1997, Marable began practicing law in Texas. She eventually left that state, returned to Michigan, and started practicing here in 2001. Marable has been the criminal defense attorney of record in several high profile cases involving sex crimes, evidence tampering and murder in Michigan and elsewhere.

• In March 2021, Marable’s 19-year-old client, J’Aun Bates of Muskegon, was sentenced to five years in prison. Bates was charged with the coverup of a former classmate’s 2019 killing.
• In March 2021, Marable represented Anthony Funderburg Jr., a 32-year-old man facing murder and gun charges connected to a fatal shooting in Detroit. Funderburg had reportedly been released from Michigan’s prison system a week before he allegedly shot and killed a man on Detroit’s East side. Anthony Funderburg Jr. currently faces six felony charges: second-degree murder, three counts of felony firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and evidence tampering.
• In August 2017, Marable represented a Livingston County man charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a person less than age 13. The man was also charged with one count of third-degree CSC. Marable’s client was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison.
• In 2014, Marable was hired by Detroit model/entertainer Skyy Mims’s family to defend the woman against murder charges related to the murder of D.K. Chaudhari, a Dalton, Georgia convenience store worker. A Whitfield County Superior Court jury found Mims guilty on 11 different charges. Mims is serving life in prison without possibility of parole.

“As to bond,” said Marable during the hearing before Judge Simpson, “my client has no criminal record. He has two bachelor’s degrees and is a family man. He is married and he has minor children. He has a number of health issues, including high blood pressure. We’re asking for a more reasonable bond.”

When reached by phone after the hearing, Marable said Smith holds undergraduate degrees in both business management, as well as IT from Eastern Michigan University.

The Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor told Simpson that in addition to the charges levied against Smith at his September 19 arraignment, he has also been charged with kidnapping, bribery and witness intimidation. The Assistant Prosecutor then elaborated: “He [Smith] held the victim in a shed for several weeks, where she was sexually assaulted.”

Marable countered: “At this point, all of these are allegations. Put him on a [GPS] tether. Put him under house arrest where he can go to work. I think a $3 million bond is excessive.” It was the same unsuccessful argument made by Smith’s public defender at the man’s arraignment before Magistrate Elisha A. Fink.

Simpson, in refusing to reduce Smith’s bond or to rescind it said simply, “The defendant does pose a serious risk.”

During the preliminary hearing, Marable advised Simpson that she would be seeking discovery. This is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence they’ll present at trial. A common method of discovery is to take depositions, an out-of-court statement given under oath by any person involved in the case.

Smith responded to Simpson’s decision to keep him locked up by saying: “This is crazy.”

Marable interrupted Smith to advise him to stop speaking, at which point Smith dropped his head into his hands and began to sob.

Smith is next scheduled to appear before 15th District Court Judge Miriam A. Perry on October 7. Marable said she hopes to convince Perry to lower Smith’s $3 million bond. “He is a totally innocent man,” said Marable, by phone. “That [$3 million] bond is insane.”