including the missing funds, came to light
last week when auditors from Plante
Moran were invited to the board of
trustees meeting by Price to address the
status of both the Department of Justice
(DOJ) and state general audit. Plante
Moran auditor Joe Heffernan told the
board members he suspected the federal
authorities might have already stopped
revenue sharing with the township
because of six unresolved DOJ items total-
ing $83,397.67.
In response to Heffernan's announce-
ment, members of the township board
unanimously approved a resolution to
transfer $83,397.67, an amount that
Edwards claimed was sitting in the
General Fund, to the drug forfeiture fund.
The trustees refused, however, to send
a letter prepared by defeated Township
Clerk Nancy Conzelman to the DOJ alleg-
ing the township had corrected the defi-
ciencies and was now in compliance with
the accounting regulations for drug forfei-
ture funds. Conzelman was insistent the
board members review the letter which
directly contradicted reports from the
DOJ regarding the current status of the
township reporting and accounting proce-
dures.
Listed as presenters of the letter were
Heffernan and Cindy Kushner, “Plymouth
Township Director of Accounting and
Financial Reporting.”
Kushner was not present at the meet-
ing. Heffernan, however, said he was
unwilling to endorse the prepared letter
to the DOJ noting that there were still
missing items such as bank statements
and general ledger records relating to the
drug forfeiture funds. Heffernan com-
mented, “I don't feel comfortable until I
see the big picture--bank statements, gen-
eral ledger.
“I'm not suggesting what you should or
should not do-that's up to your judg-
ment…I'm not here to tell you which way
to deal with this thing.”
Board members rejected sending the
letter by a 4-2 vote with only Conzelman
andEdwards supporting themotion.
Tiderington said that the problem is
not only with the federal funds. He said
that $140,000 in state forfeiture funds were
missing and unaccounted for. He said the
checks were delivered to Edwards' office
and that two state checks totaling $72,000
were delivered to Edwards by Price but
never accounted for by the office of the
clerk, who keeps the banking records. He
said Edwards' practice of having bank
statements sent to an off-site post office
boxwas also of concern.
Tiderington said he felt compelled to
report Edwards and the other officials to
the Office of the Inspector General,
“because the funds were being spent inap-
propriately.” At that time, Conzelman
publicly claimed that she had called in the
DOJ for “help” in the matter, and
described the audit-investigation as
“training,” a statement now denied by a
federal official.
“There was $100,000 missing for over
four years from the drug forfeiture
account,” Tiderington said.
The police chief said he thought the
auditors fromPlante Moran were request-
ed to appear at the meeting last Tuesday
after he notified Price that the sharing of
more than $5 million in seized assets
wouldbe lost.
Tiderington said he's tried to bridge the
stalemate between township officials and
the DOJ, noting the threat of having the
police department drug forfeiture funding
cut would punish the police department,
an entity he sought to protect by calling for
the federal audit.
“I called the DOJ and said if they want-
ed to 'extinguish' us from the program for
non-compliance it would be the police
department who's getting punished.” He
said he asked DOJ investigator for cooper-
ation and reached an agreement to allow
the townshipuntil Nov. 28 to comply.
Tiderington said the transfer of the
funding last week by the board could
allowPlymouth to remain in the program.
“The mishandling of these funds, as
well as the missing state forfeiture funds,
has precluded the police department from
accessing these funds to purchase much-
needed equipment such as bullet-proof
vests andpolice vehicles,” he said.
Tiderington said that he intends to pro-
vide the new board, sworn into office this
week, with a comprehensive report as
well as the investigative file.
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
2
November 23, 2016
I
NKSTER
- P
LYMOUTH
Teachers aide enters plea in sex charge
Inkster man is youngest state representative
The 41-year-old woman
accused of having sexual rela-
tions with two 15-year-old stu-
dents at the Plymouth middle
school where she was a teachers
aide has entered a no contest
plea to the criminal charges.
Wayne County Circuit Court
Judge Gregory Bill is scheduled
to sentence Bridget Diane Caplin
in January on the charges. The
judge allowed her no contest
plea to charges of distributing
obscene material to children and
using a computer to commit a
crime. She faces up to four years
in prison or aminimumsentence
of probation.
The most serious charge lev-
eled against Caplin, who was
fired from her job at East Middle
School following the police inves-
tigation, was dropped by prose-
cutors when the 15-year-old vic-
tim refused to testify against her.
That charge, third-degree crimi-
nal sexual conduct involving a
person 13-15 years of age, carried
a possible 15-year prison sen-
tenceupon conviction.
The investigation into the sex-
ual misconduct began last May,
according to police reports, when
an anonymous report was
received through a tip line.
Police obtained warrants for
searches of online data and
determined that the incidents
did take place, one in a church
parking lot. Caplin is reportedly
the mother of friends of one of
the victims and in addition to the
online tip, police allegedly
received information from one of
the victim's fathers who found
obscene photos of Caplin on his
son's phone.
No sentencing date had been
announced by the court at press
time.
Jewell Jones, a student at the
University of Michigan-
Dearborn, made political history
for a second time Nov. 8 when he
was overwhelmingly elected to
serve as theStateRepresentative
fromthe 11thDistrict.
Jones was the youngest per-
son to serve on the Inkster City
Council when last year at age 20
he was sworn in as the council-
man from District 4. During the
Nov. 8 election, he defeated
Republican challenger Robert
Pope for the seat when he gar-
nered 66 percent of the vote.
Jones received 22,574 votes to the
11, 563 cast for Pope.
Jones, a lifelong Inkster resi-
dent, is a full-time student with a
double major in political science
and finance.
“You and I made history, once
again,” Jones wrote to his sup-
porters onNov. 9 in an Instagram
post. “I'm looking forward to
serving you all in a greater
capacity.”
The 11th State House District
covers part of the city of
Dearborn Heights, Garden City,
Inkster, part of Livonia and part
ofWestland.
Jones said he began dabbling
in local politics when he was
about 8 years old.
“My parents would drag me
around to different things in the
community. I was very involved
in my church,” Jones said.
“Serving the people in this
capacity has always been pretty
natural forme.”
In the past few years, he has
been even more active and
helped out on political cam-
paigns for Michigan State Sen.
David Knezek (D) and former
InksterMayorHilliardHampton.
Jones is involved with several
on-campus organizations at U of
M - including the Army ROTC,
Black Student Union and
Student Veterans Association.
Jones plans to graduate in the
spring of 2017.
Revenue
FROM PAGE 1
Jewell Jones
