by P.D. Lesko

On March 25, 2024, The Ann Arbor Independent submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the County Sheriff’s Dept. to obtain a copy of the background check done on Sheriff’s Deputy D’Angelo Ladonn McWilliams prior to his hiring. McWilliams is an alleged rapist awaiting trial. The request was denied: “…In accordance with MCL 15.243 Sec.13(1)(a) information of a personal nature if public disclosure of the information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of an individual’s privacy and MCL 15.243 Sec. 13(1)(s)(ix) disclose personnel records of law enforcement agencies. This pertains to the background check done on D’Angelo McWilliams. The public’s interest does not outweigh the privacy of the individual.“

Washtenaw County Sheriff Hires Accused Rapist Under Investigation

MCOLES records obtained by the newspaper show Sheriff’s Deputy D’Angelo McWilliams was hired by Sheriff Jerry Clayton on May 28, 2019. While a student at Eastern Michigan University between 2015 and 2019, McWilliams was investigated by the Eastern Michigan University Police Dept. and the Ypsilanti Police Dept. for allegedly having raped at least eight co-eds. Former Ypsilanti Police Det. Jessica Lowry investigated the allegations made against McWilliams, as did EMU police officer Susan McLennan. There have been multiple allegations that the Washtenaw County Prosecutor, and the two detectives bungled the investigation.

A former Ypsilanti Police detective alleges EMU’s Chief of Police Bob Heighes and Deputy Chief of Police Daniel Karrick tried to hide the 30 alleged rapes from the public. In 2008, EMU paid the largest ever Clery Act fine for covering up the rape and murder of student Laura Dickinson.

In 2020, after he’d been hired by Sheriff Clayton as a Deputy, McWilliams reportedly told Ypsilanti Police detectives that Karrick “had cleared him” of the alleged rapes, including alleged gang rapes, which victims said had taken place between 2015 and 2019.

There is a pending federal suit which accuses former EMU Chief of Police Bob Heighes “of receiving knowledge of an assault,” and accusing one of Heighes’s officers of telling a rape victim “nothing would happen” with prosecution because she reported an assault after two months.

In Aug. 2020, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Deputy D’Angelo McWilliams was charged, arrested and arraigned for allegedly having committed a dozen sex crimes linked to the EMU/Ypsilanti Police Dept. investigations, including multiple charges of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the 1st degree. Victims accused McWilliams of having participated in gang rapes.

McWilliams was later bound over to the Washtenaw County Trial Court for trial.

Judge Darlene O’Brien was assigned the McWilliams case. The Sheriff’s Deputy, an alleged sexual predator facing multiple CSC 1st degree charges, was placed on unpaid leave by the Sheriff. County Prosecutor Eli Savit recommended a $50,000/10 percent bond for Deputy McWilliams. Judge O’Brien approved Savit’s recommendation. McWilliams paid $5,000, and was released in 2020. He continues to reside at his home in Canton, MI.

Court records show that on July 26, 2023, Judge O’Brien continued McWilliams’s bond until August 5, 2024. It is unclear from court records if Judge O’Brien placed McWilliams on an electronic tether. Records do show that McWilliams, through his attorney Douglas Gutscher, has repeatedly asked to have his bond conditions amended, including in Jan. 2023. McWilliams asked Judge O’Brien to be allowed contact with one of his co-defendants, Thomas Hernandez. Records show Judge O’Brien ruled against each request to amend the McWilliams’s bond conditions.

The McWilliams Background Check – The Public Doesn’t Need to Know

McWilliams’s hiring could be explained, in part, by the fact that for years the County Sheriff’s Dept., including the County Jail, has been chronically understaffed. County jail staff are required to work mandatory overtime. Sheriff’s Dept. employees say morale within the Dept. is at an all-time low.

Two of the three Democratic candidates for Sheriff, Alyshia Dyer and Ken Magee, during two recent candidate debates, discussed their strategies for reversing Sheriff’s Dept. understaffing, and both have shared strategies for lifting employee morale. The two have also alleged that the County Sheriff’s office needs to improve operational transparency. Ken Magee has said the morale problems stem from the fact that Sheriff Clayton’s Dept. is rife with corruption within the upper administration.

Multiple former female employees in Clayton’s dept. have alleged that sexual impropriety, harassment and retaliation against women who refuse to provide sexual favors, is endemic.

Public records show County taxpayers paid for a $50,000 sexual harassment settlement for Sheriff’s Dept. employee Myron Blackwell. Blackwell allegedly pressured a co-worker for sexual favors. Blackwell is the Sheriff’s Dept. Quartermaster. OpenPayroll.com, a non-partisan group that tracks the salaries of public employees documents Blackwell’s pay at $42.86/hr. (a salary of $89,149). This is 41 percent higher than the average pay for co-workers in the Sheriff’s Dept. and 28.6 percent higher than the national average for government employees.

MCOLES records show McWilliams enrolled in a four month training program at the Wayne County Regional Police Training Academy. He finished the program on May 2, 2019.

Sources within the Sheriff’s Dept. told The Ann Arbor Independent that in May 2019, D’Angelo McWilliams underwent a background check prior to being hired.

Various sources inside and outside the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Dept. have said McWilliams’s background check was done by a temporary County Sheriff’s Dept. Support Staff worker named Lisa Billig.

County records show between May 5, 2019 and May 31, 2019 background investigation contractor Lisa Billig was paid a total of $2,876.28 for her “advice.”

A retired Ypsilanti Police Detective who spoke with Billig about the McWilliams hiring said Billig’s investigation had turned up “red flags.” Billig reportedly contacted Brian Miller, the Sheriff’s Special Investigator for Professional Standards, and informed him of the “red flags.” The former Ypsilanti Police Detective said Sheriff candidate Derrick Jackson had also been made aware of the troubling results of McWilliams’s background check, but Jackson brushed off the troubling results of Billig’s background check.

Efforts to contact Jackson, Billig and Miller were unsuccessful.

Sheriff Candidates Magee and Dyer were both asked to comment on the hiring of McWilliams as it reflects on operations within the Sheriff’s Dept. Dyer refused to comment. Magee said in a written statement, “I’ve been involved in recruiting and hiring police officers for decades…Derrick Jackson should be ashamed of his decision [to ignore McWilliams’s background check] just as much as the public should be outraged. A possible sexual predator sworn in as a cop in the Sheriff’s Department? What could go wrong?”

Sheriff’s Dept. insiders claim McWilliams’s background check was ignored because he was seen as a “diversity hire.”

Despite Billig’s findings during her background investigation of McWilliams, those findings went unheeded, and on May 28, 2019, just 23 days after D’Angelo McWilliams had finished a four-month training course, and while he was being investigated as a serial rapist, he was hired by the Sheriff, given a gun, a badge and the mission to serve and protect County residents.

Fourteen months after being hired by the Sheriff, D’Angelo McWilliams was arrested, charged with multiple sex crimes, assault and indecent exposure, arraigned, and bound over for trial in the Washtenaw County 22nd Circuit Court. He is awaiting his trial before 39th Circuit Court Judge Michael Olsaver; McWilliams’s trial was transferred out of Washtenaw County by state officials in January 2024.

Out With the County Prosecutor, In With the Michigan AG

In late-2023, court records show Michigan AG Dana Nessel took over McWilliams’s prosecution from Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit’s office. AG Dana Nessel assigned Asst. Attorney General Kelly A. Carter to prosecute McWilliams. According to records, Myron Blackwell, Derrick Jackson, Lisa Billig and Brian Miller are on the witness list for the McWilliams trial. Sheriff Jerry Clayton is not.

On Mar. 22, 2024 McWilliams’s lawyer submitted a Brief Regarding Evidentiary Hearing to Judge Michael Olsaver. In that brief, the attorney accused Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit’s office of failing to turn over evidence compelled through Discovery, along with a host of other allegations of prosecutorial incompetence. Ypsilanti Police Dept. Det. Jessica Lowry, who initially investigated the allegations against McWilliams, was accused in the Brief of having destroyed evidence. Lowry is no longer employed by the YPD.

In Aug. 2023, then Chief Judge Carol Kuhnke removed O’Brien from the McWilliams trial by reassigning the dockets of virtually all of the Trial Court judges. Judge Arianne Slay was assigned to the McWilliams case in Aug. 2023.

On Aug. 22, 2023 McWilliams’s attorney Douglas Gutscher filed a Motion to dismiss the charges against McWilliams because of bad faith destruction of evidence by Ypsilanti PD Det. Jessica Lowry.

On Oct. 20, 2023, Judge Slay recused herself.

Judge Tracy Van den Bergh then took over. In Dec. 2023, the Michigan Attorney General’s office asked Van den Bergh to recuse herself and she agreed.

On Jan. 17, 2024 a State Court Administrative Order was issued: The McWilliams trial was moved out of Washtenaw County into Lenawee County, to the 39th Circuit Court and assigned to Judge Michael Olsaver.

The A2Indy has appealed to County Administrator Greg Dill the denial of McWilliams’s background check. Dill has the legal authority to reverse the denial and to order the release of the public record requested.