Updated 6/10/24 with a comment from Alyshia Dyer.

by P.D. Lesko

On June 9, The Ann Arbor Independent received an anonymous email with a court filing attached. The same court filing was also sent to MLive. The filing, dated Feb. 13, 2024, was submitted to the 14-A4 District Court by a lawyer named Thomas Duquette on behalf of Capital One. The defendant named in the suit is Sheriff’s candidate Alyshia Marie-Sandra Dyer. The lawsuit alleges Dyer skipped out on $20,958.98 in credit card debt.

Lawyer Thomas Duquette works for Weltman, Wineberg and Reis Co., LPA, a company that specializes in debt collections for some of the largest companies in the U.S. In 2023, the law firm reported revenue in excess of $83 million.

According to data from the U.S Federal Reserve Bank, “about 8.9% of credit card balances fell into delinquency over 2023.” That was up 50 percent from the previous year.

Stephen Ranzini is the President of University Bank. When asked how long credit card issuers wait before filing suit against a customer, Ranzini said, “Capital One is the largest credit card issuer in the U.S. Generally, before filing suit several letters will be sent to the customer, including a stern letter from a lawyer. Capital One has tight controls and so it wouldn’t surprise me if a suit would be filed when a customer was between sixty and ninety days delinquent.” Ranzini added, “With respect to Capital One, these kinds of suits are computer-generated and then filed.”

This would suggest that Dyer’s financial difficulties with Capital One began sometime in late-2023. She organized her campaign committee to run for Sheriff on Aug. 30, 2022.

When asked if she had used any of the $103,000 she has raised for her campaign to satisfy the debt, Dyer in a text said, “Absolutely not.”

Her 2023 Annual campaign Finance statement, coincidentally filed on the same day that the Capital One suit was filed against her, shows no large expenditures consistent with the amount of the Capital One debt. The largest donors to Dyer are lawyers.

To have used her campaign funds to satisfy a large personal debt would be a violation of Michigan campaign finance law.

The Sheriff’s Dept. 2023 budget was in excess of $220 million, including funds required to run the County Jail. In 2023, there were over 400 people employed by the Washtenaw County Sheriff. As Sheriff, Dyer would be expected to control, monitor and allocate that $220 million budget.

In the U.S., local and state-level candidates have been sued while campaigning, though research turned up only a handful of instances. The newspaper was unable to find reporting over the past decade of any candidate for county Sheriff sued for defaulting on credit card debt.

Public records show that Sheriff Jerry Clayton, while in office, but prior to launching his personal DEI training business called the Cardinal Group II, was slapped with eleven state and federal property tax liens. He eventually paid off all of the liens.

When asked if she has paid off the $20,958.98 Capital One alleges she owes to them in the Feb. 13, 2024 lawsuit, Dyer said in a text on June 10 that, “My creditor and I have made mutually satisfactory arrangements and the matter has been handled.”

One of Dyer’s opponents when asked about the candidate being sued said by text, “The ‘Dyer Sink Hole’ gets deeper and deeper. This is just bizarre.”

Alyshia Dyer is a former Washtenaw County Deputy Sheriff and, if elected, would be the first woman Sheriff in Washtenaw County.