by P.D. Lesko

On Feb. 18, 2024, the newspaper received an email from Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Tracy E. Van den Bergh’s clerk stating that, in response to a Motion to Disqualify Judge filed by the newspaper, Judge Van den Bergh had voluntarily disqualified herself.

The newspaper’s lawsuit was originally assigned to the now-retired Judge Timothy P. Connors. In Jan. 2025, after Judge Connors retired, the case was reassigned to Judge Tracy Van den Bergh.

In Jan. 2025, the newspaper received a copy of a Sheriff’s Case Report that showed Judge Van den Bergh had requested the Sheriff conduct a secret investigation into a divorce litigant appearing before her, David Scott Mathieu. In Dec. 2023 Mathieu was investigated by the County Sheriff for posting pleas for “help” and “prayers” on social media, claims that Judge Van den Bergh was biased, and a link to the A2Indy’s Nov. 5, 2023 article about Judge Van den Bergh’s handling of his divorce, and complaints filed against her.

The Case Report showed that the Sheriff’s detective assigned to conduct the secret investigation had investigated the contents of the Nov. 5, 2023 article. The Case Report stated the article contained “facts.”

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press; the public is guaranteed the right to receive information and news.

After the Case Report was shared with the newspaper, a Motion to Disqualify Judge was filed. A public hearing on that Motion was scheduled for Feb. 19, 2025. However, on Feb. 18 the newspaper was notified the case would be reassigned to a different Trial Court judge. Judge Van den Bergh’s clerk, in an email wrote, “Judge Van den Bergh has disqualified herself from this case and the case is being assigned to a different Judge.”

Motions to disqualify judges are common, as is the disqualification of judges.

The lawyer representing Supreme Felons, Inc., Robert Burton-Harris (husband of the County’s Chief Asst. Prosecutor Victoria Burton-Harris), in his Brief against the Motion to Disqualify Judge, alleged the Motion to Disqualify had been filed in order to embarrass Judge Van den Bergh. Burton-Harris’s Brief argued that it would be in Judge Van den Bergh’s personal best interest to deny the Motion to Disqualify.

In an Oct. 2024 letter to the newspaper on behalf of his client regarding the Sept. 2024 FOIA requests, Robert Burton-Harris wrote: “Your requests, subsequent correspondence, and past blog posts suggests [sic] that your true intention is to disrupt and demean the positive work SF, Inc. does in Washtenaw County’s most disadvantaged communities comprised primarily of people of color.”

The Ann Arbor Independent files dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests annually for public records, including financial records.

In addition to the news about Judge Van den Bergh’s voluntary disqualification, the clerk’s email indicated that Burton-Harris had handed off his representation of the non-profit.

Robert Burton-Harris had informed the Court in an email that Ms. Nancy Richards, the Supervising Attorney for Detroit non-profit NDS would be taking over from him. Moments later, Richards informed the Judge’s clerk that NDS only handles criminal cases.

The newspaper’s suit, brought under the auspices of the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, is a civil filing.

In Sept. 2024, the newspaper received insider information that the non-profit Supreme Felons, Inc. was being run as a criminal enterprise. The insider information purports, among other activities, that drug addicts were recruited for the non-profit’s Ypsilanti Neighborhood Watch program and then paid with gift cards and/or illegal drugs. County records show Supreme Felons, Inc. has requested and been given thousands of dollars from the Community Priority Fund to pay the “salaries” of the Neighborhood Watch staff.

Insiders also reported that Supreme Felons, Inc.’s President/CEO Billy Cole, has been systematically diverting for self-enrichment, amounts of the $1.2 million grant awarded by Washtenaw County to Supreme Felons, Inc.

In Sept. 2024, the newspaper submitted two Freedom of Information Act requests to Billy Cole, President/CEO of Supreme Felons, Inc. to obtain a variety of financial records which would have been submitted to the IRS: 1099s, W2s, and quarterly income tax documents. The FOIA also requested copies of original receipts for items which insiders claimed the non-profit sent people to steal from Big Box stores and then distributed to Ypsilanti school children and others.

Billy Cole and Robert Burton-Harris both insisted that as a “private non-profit” Supreme Felons, Inc. is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, the language of the Act and rulings of the Michigan Court of Appeals have found that non-profits which receive more than 50 percent of their funding from local agency grants, and do not perform fee for service work, are public entities subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

Supreme Felons, Inc. submitted its 2023 federal 990 income tax return months past the due date. That return, recently made public by the IRS, when compared to funding dispersal records for Supreme Felons, Inc. in the County’s online checkbook, show that Supreme Felons, Inc. received 100 percent of its revenue in 2023 from the Washtenaw County Community Priority Fund.

The federal 990 also shows Supreme Felons, Inc. understated its total revenue on its 2023 income tax form, declared over $125,000 in cash assets and $50,000 in debts.

The Community Priority Fund funding request forms, all signed by Billy Cole, require Supreme Felons, Inc. to request only the minimum amount of funding required to pay specific line item expenses (i.e. rent, utilities, salaries) listed on each funding request form submitted.

The newspaper’s Complaint, filed Nov. 21, 2024, asks the Trial Court to compel Supreme Felons, Inc. to immediately hand over the public records requested and to assess the non-profit civil and punitive fines, as permitted by the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

Public bodies are required to disclose in their answer to a FOIA request if requested public records don’t exist. Should Supreme Felons, Inc. be unable to produce receipts for expenses claimed and 1099s for contract employees for whose salaries the non-profit requested tens of thousands in funding from the Community Priority Fund, and whose pay the non-profit presumably declared as an expense on its federal income tax return, it’s possible the IRS Charitable Division will investigate.

In the meantime, Judge Van den Bergh has to prepare paperwork that confirms she has disqualified herself. Then, a new judge can be assigned to the case.