by P.D. Lesko

The cajoling, race-baiting, and threatening public comments started at 5:30 p.m. and went for more than three hours during the Aug. 15 meeting of the Ypsilanti Twp. Trustees. On the agenda was a resolution to demand the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners “immediately strike from the contract awarded to Supreme Felons, Inc. that authorizes and sanctions the Supreme Felons, Inc. to establish a regular dispatch and patrol system for four neighborhoods in zip codes 48197 and 48198.” After three hours of threats, intimidation, and racial harassment from commenters who screamed, and sermons from “pastors” who preached to the jeering, surly choir, the Trustees tabled the vote on the resolution for 30 days.

Around 80 members of the public and three armed Sheriff’s deputies showed up to the Trustees’ work session and regular meeting. All but one of the more than two dozen people who spoke during public comment, spoke in favor of Supreme Felons, Inc., a non-profit founded and controlled by Sheriff Dept. employees Derrick Jackson and Marvin Gundy. Together with a murderer on parole named Billy Cole, and Alan K. Fuqua, a child sexual predator who spent 17 years in prison, Jackson and Gundy created Supreme Felons, Inc. and continue to control the group.

Text messages shared with The Ann Arbor Independent revealed that Jackson and Gundy dictated who would be president of Supreme Felons, Inc. (Alan K. Fuqua), vice president (Billy Cole) and managing director (Bryan Foley). Via text messages, Jackson and Gundy also instructed the three felons not to talk to anyone about Supreme Felons without checking with them first.

Felons on parole, including those who self-identified as members of Supreme Felons, Inc., showed up in the group’s orange t-shirts and spoke during public comment. Some of the comments included threats that Trustees would become the “victims” of violent crime.

One commenter during the Trustees’ meeting said she would “set the record straight.” She proceeded to misstate as fact that Supreme Felons, Inc. was “founded by Billy Cole in 2020.”

State records show the non-profit was co-founded in 2020 by Alan K. Fuqua, while still in prison for child rape, and Billy Cole, newly on parole from a life plus sixty year sentence for the execution-murder of 24-year-old Mark D. Simpson. Fuqua’s participation in, and leadership of, the group was erased four months after it was revealed in an article published by The Ann Arbor Independent.

The Supreme Felons, Inc. dispatch and patrol, according to County Administrator Greg Dill, was to target two Ypsi Twp. subdivisions in particular, Sugarbrook and Appleridge.

Two residents of the subdivisions spoke in favor of the Supreme Felons, Inc. patrols.

Text messages between Derrick Jackson, Marvin Gundy, Billy Cole, Alan Fuqua and Bryan Foley show that the dispatch and patrol idea was two years in the making.

First, Jackson and Sheriff Clayton had to arrange for the County Commissioners to give Supreme Felons, Inc. $1.2 million in federal ARPA funds. The County Commissioners obliged in July 2022. They did so despite knowing that the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant proposal (submitted by Cole, but written by Alan Fuqua with the help of Derrick Jackson and Marvin Gundy) contained multiple fabrications.

The U.S. House Budget Committee has begun a bipartisan investigation into the misuse of ARPA funds. A special committee is expected to investigate fraudulent awards of federal dollars to groups such as Supreme Felons, Inc.

Ypsi Twp.’s Right to Self-Govern vs. the Washtenaw BOC

Township Trustees object to paying the County Sheriff over $6 million for his policing services and instead of deputies responding to 911 calls, including calls about violent crime, unidentified, untrained, unsupervised, unmonitored felons who have not had background checks show up in Ypsilanti Twp. neighborhoods.

One Appleridge resident who attended the meeting, but who was afraid to speak contacted The Ann Arbor Independent by email. The resident (a woman) said via email, “This Supreme Felons stuff is crazy. Those men are criminals. They served their time, but If I call the Sheriff I don’t want a violent felon coming to my door. The Sheriff should be patrolling, not ‘rehabilitated’ rapists, thieves and murderers.”

Supreme Felons, Inc. vice-president Bryan Foley told Ypsilanti Twp. Trustees that Supreme Felons, Inc. is simply a “neighborhood watch group.” At issue is the fact that the “neighborhood watch” group populated by felons was foisted on Ypsilanti Twp., its 57,000 residents and their elected officials without their permission.

Another speaker claimed that the resolution before the Trustees meant to “disband” Supreme Felons, Inc. The Trustees do not have that power. Only the co-founders of Supreme Felons, Inc. or the IRS’s Charitable Division can disband a 501(c)3 non-profit entity. Should the Ypsilanti Twp. Trustees vote to ban the group from patrolling its neighborhoods, Supreme Felons, Inc. would be free to offer its services to other county townships and cities, such as Ann Arbor, Saline, Scio Twp., Chelsea, Dexter and Pittsfield Twp.

The August 15 resolution to oust Supreme Felons, Inc. from Ypsilanti Twp. represents a political tug-o-war between the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, the Washtenaw County Sheriff and Ypsilanti Twp.’s elected officials.

Ypsilanti Twp. lawyer Doug Winters pointed out that county officials had saddled the Township with Supreme Felons, Inc. without permission and without transparency.

One speaker, a young woman, in response to Winters loudly upbraided the Trustees about what she alleged was that group’s own lack of transparency with respect to their use of federal ARPA funds.

The political tensions are so high that at the August 15 meeting, Ypsilanti Twp. allocated funds to hire a consultant to help the Township’s police steering committee in the quest to form an Ypsi Twp. police department.

Monica Ross-Williams is a former Ypsilanti Twp. trustee. In her comments during the Trustees’ work session she said, “When we are looking at police services, there are issues. Ypsi. Twp. needs to have its own police services. As a resident in this township, I suggest the Board get control of its policing.”

Attorney Doug Winters spoke during the work session about the resolution aimed at evicting the felon-led “neighborhood watch” from the Sugarbrook and Appleridge subdivisions.

“Having Supreme Felons, Inc. in those neighborhoods creates a liability for the County and Ypsilanti Twp.,” said Winters.

As if to prove Winters’s legal point, one speaker during public comment praised Supreme Felons, Inc. president Billy Cole for “putting himself in danger” in service of his community.

While Supreme Felons, Inc. leaders and supporters repeatedly stressed the group’s use of non-violence to deal with conflicts, including violent conflicts, other members of Supreme Felons, Inc. contradicted that narrative.

One speaker, a self-identified member of Supreme Felons, Inc. who said he’d spent many years in prison, told the Trustees that when he and Billy Cole saw neighborhood “punks with their pants down to here and their dreadlocks, they [the man and Cole] did not cross the street.” The punks, he said, did not “mess” with him or Billy Cole.

“They know we’ll do something to ’em if they do,” said the 65-year-old member of Supreme Felons, Inc.

Pete Martel, who said he had been “contacted at the last minute to come and speak,” lives in Ann Arbor and works in Ypsilanti. Martel was convicted of armed robbery, a felony for which he served more than a decade in prison. During the 1994 incident, Martel fired several rounds at police, missing them. In 2023, Martel was hired as a clerk by a Michigan Supreme Court justice.

Justice Richard Bernstein told The Detroit News he was “completely disgusted” by the hire, insisting that “there are certain jobs you should never be allowed to have after you shoot at a police officer, and one of them is clerking for the highest court in the state.” 

Bernstein later apologized, but Martel resigned nonetheless.

Martel in his public comment said that “when I see orange t-shirts, there is no violence where I work.” He was referring to the orange t-shirts worn by the members of Supreme Felons, Inc. He added that, “to quote Richard Bernstein, ‘I am completely disgusted’ by the proposed resolution.”

Martel also threatened Ypsilanti Twp. attorney Doug Winters. In his comments, Martel said that if he discovered the resolution was the result of a personal attack on Billy Cole by “an attorney,” Martel would file a grievance against that attorney with the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.

Multiple commenters who admitted they knew nothing about Supreme Felons, Inc., and who didn’t live in Ypsilanti Twp., also said they’d been asked to attend the Trustees’ meeting to speak in favor of the work of the non-profit.

Supreme Felons, Inc. is a county contractor, having signed a two-year contract in Jan. 2023. The contract does not require background checks for members of the group performing what amounts to policing work. The group’s budget includes a few thousand dollars for training. But the county contract with Supreme Felons, Inc. doesn’t require members to undergo training before being dispatched to calls, or before participating in neighborhood patrols.

Supreme Felons — A Way for the Sheriff to Hide Crime?

During public comment, one self-identified Supreme Felons, Inc. “night watch” member explained what he does thusly: “I walk around the neighborhood at night. If I see an incident, I write it down and report it to my boss.”

Sheriff’s deputies file official reports that are subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. The crimes in each report are categorized. Statistics are compiled and then released to the public by various means, including annually by the Michigan State Police in Quality Assurance Reports.

The fact that Supreme Felons, Inc. “night watch” patrolmen report incidents to their “boss” raises serious questions:

• Will the Sheriff’s crime statistics be impacted in a way that hides from the public, as well as from state officials, the actual number of crimes committed in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp.?
• Are records of crimes (if any) maintained by Supreme Felons, Inc.?
• Would any records of crimes produced by Supreme Felons, Inc. stand up in court?
• Would a member of Supreme Felons, Inc. who witnessed a violent crime be a credible enough witness to convict, say, a person accused of assault with intent to murder?

Supreme Felons, Inc. members are not sworn officers and are not legally permitted to file police reports that document crimes. No police report means that the Sheriff is not required to compile or report a crime or crimes to the Michigan State Police. This means the number of reported crimes by the Washtenaw County Sheriff would drop due to the lack of reporting. The Sheriff’s low clearance (solve) rate would, miraculously, rise.

Crime-ridden neighborhoods to which Supreme Felons, Inc. members are dispatched would appear to have had an artificial drop in crime proportionate to the number of calls given to Supreme Felons, Inc.

Any drop in crime in those neighborhoods in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. which was the result of crimes not being reported by Supreme Felons, Inc., could be parlayed into political gold by the County Commissioners who voted to fund the group.

County “Leaders” Play on Their Phones and Clap As Trustees Racially Harassed and Threatened

County Commissioners Justin Hodge, Annie Somerville, Carolyn Sanders and Crystal Lyte huddled against a wall together in the back of the chambers as members of the public yelled, swore, and called out both the white and Black members of the Ypsilanti Township Board by race.

Trishe Duckworth, who founded the non-profit Survivors Speak, singled out the two Black Ypsilanti Township Trustees and chastised them.

“God is not pleased,” said Duckworth.

In a comment after the meeting, Duckworth said: “It’s not Black folks fault that we got put in the position to go along with the get along, because [in the past] that kept them safe. But the times we’re in we need for all of us to stand!”

The County Commissioners clapped, nodded, grinned and played on their phones as felon-speakers threatened, harassed and bullied the Trustees.

Likewise, Sheriff’s candidate Derrick Jackson smiled and clapped as one person who spoke during public comment claimed the resolution was “grounded in racism.” Jackson grinned and nodded in support of a felon on parole. The man suggested that if the resolution passed, the Trustees themselves could be “the next victims” of predators who, unlike the speaker, had not learned to control their violent and criminal impulses.

County Administrator Greg Dill stared at his feet as one woman bemoaned the ongoing lack of domestic violence support in Washtenaw County. Dill is the President of the Board of SafeHouse Center, the county’s mismanaged and dysfunctional domestic violence shelter.

Former Washtenaw County Commissioner Ricky Jefferson also spoke during public comment time. After Jefferson voted to award $1.2 million in federal funding to Supreme Felons, Inc., the members of Supreme Felons, Inc. campaigned against Jefferson, a three-term incumbent. He lost the primary election in August 2023. Jefferson has been highly critical of Supreme Felons, Inc.

In his pubic comments on August 15, Ricky Jefferson praised Billy Cole and Supreme Felons.

“It takes the hood to save the hood,” said Jefferson.

It’s unclear if by using the word “hood” he meant neighborhood, hoodlum or both.

Jefferson continued, “The community was not stable until Billy Cole came along…Now many lives are being saved.”

This unsupported and unverified claim has been the mantra of County Commissioner Justin Hodge.

The Supreme Felons, Inc. ARPA fund grant proposal submitted to the County in April 2022 claimed the Sheriff possessed records that documented the group’s accomplishments. The newspaper submitted a public records request, and found that no such records exist.

Weapons crimes, murder and attempted murder, including in the Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. areas “patrolled” by Supreme Felons, Inc., has skyrocketed, according to Michigan State Police data.

Women-Headed Households Scapegoated by Supreme Felons, Inc. Supporters

The Washtenaw County Jail Chaplain Daniel Johnson, and several others who commented claimed “our children killing each other because they don’t have a man in the home.”

Blaming gun violence and gun crime on homes where men are absent pervades the Supreme Felons, Inc. storyline. Women-headed households, according to the public comments of members of Supreme Felons, Inc., are the root of crime, gun violence and Black community disintegrity.

At an April 2023 gun violence rally sponsored by Supreme Felons, Inc. and paid for with public money, Ardis Lewis, Jr. the CEO of the local embattled non-profit Men Like Us, was asked to speak. Lewis attributed gun violence to “rap music” and households headed by women.

Ironically, Supreme Felons, Inc. is a haven for deadbeat dads.

Court records show that Supreme Felons, Inc. vice president Bryan Foley, who served time in federal prison for bank robbery, was also charged with a felony for fleeing the state to avoid paying child support. Foley pled guilty and served his sentence in the Washtenaw County Jail.

Ardis Lewis, Jr., CEO of Men Like Us spoke in support of Supreme Felons, Inc. Like Foley, Lewis was charged with a felony for fleeing the state to avoid paying child support for his six kids.