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The Curious Case of Monica Conyers
With a hat tip to regular reader jwest in a previous article’s comments, we find the odd story of former Detroit city councilwoman Monica Conyers in the Detroit Free Press this week. I honestly thought this was a bogus story until I did a quick Google News search and the story seems to have more than sufficient bona fides to comment on.
The federal grand jury indictment might say “United States of America vs. Samuel L. Riddle Jr.”
But the name of Monica Conyers surfaces everywhere in the 27-page document, which contends that the former city councilwoman played Bonnie to Riddle’s Clyde as they prowled Detroit, boldly shaking down businesspeople and stuffing their pockets and bank accounts with cash.
Conyers wore the pants in this dysfunctional family.
“You’d better get my loot, that’s all I know,” Conyers is quoted as telling Riddle regarding a payment from a restaurant owner.
Riddle passed her $10,000 in that caper, the indictment says.
Conyers pleaded guilty last month to one count of bribery conspiracy in the $1.2 billion Synagro sludge-hauling deal. If even some of the new allegations are true, you don’t need a Harvard law degree to realize Conyers got a great deal.
Yes, for those of you not following the Cliff Notes, this is apparently the wife of Congressman John Conyers (D-MI)
(No, we do not play the famous game of “Guess the Party” here at TMV.)
There’s not much to say beyond what you read in the linked article. Congressman! What has your wife been up to? And are we going to start reading questions in the press about what you knew and when you knew it?
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8 Responses to “The Curious Case of Monica Conyers”
Jazz — both T-Steel (who hails from Detroit), who has made a thread on ol' Monica, and I, who have followed her story in the Free Press (and in the Detroit News), are well aware of this non-mythical example of Detroit government in action (aging Sixties-radical stuff and outright corrupt city officials whom I generously refuse to pin on the *** DEMOCRATS ***).
Monica, Monica, Monica — payoffs for decisions, $40K in jewelry in addition to bribes…
This is the place where the union is fighting school reform and closing (where schools are looted once they are closed, if they are not secured beforehand), where a reformer is attacked for demanding show-up-for-pay days in order to remove ghosts (ahem) from the payroll, and so on.
Another council member had her property classified as distressed, and paid $68 one recent year in taxes.
Another council member neglects her council job, which she treats openly as less important than the retro music group with which she tours and performs.
The former mayor was jailed for misconduct in office, and has since moved into a mansion in Texas, while using his old campaign money to pay his lawyers, and no doubt part sometime of his delinquent restitution payments.
This is _Detroit_ we're talking about, with a reputation Dems and other old-city governments shouldn't be unfairly tainted by association.
Too bad, as it's a nice city (parts of downtown are great) in a great location in this part of the continent.
My apologies, DLS. I obviously missed it the first time round. And I don't think I was tarring all of the city. I was just talking about the principals.
Laying aside constitutional issues (which are Quaint and Passe' and don't matter, anyway), Detroit is Exhibit A as a candidate for federal receivership. (I doubt Michigan either wants to or can afford to take over the city. It has enough problems trying to remediate the city's school system.)
More to the here and now and practical, why isn't some of the federal stimulus money spent on more demolitions of fallen-apart or burned (by arson) properties that are old and substandard and don't merit rebuilding, and only now are a threat to house criminals? Demolition and removal could be followed by more urban gardens, or even construction of new public or low-income housing. (Or neighborhood health clinics as an early experiment, if this is sought later by the Feds nation-wide.)
Not only Detroit but much of the Rust Belt (Cleveland, etc) probably needs this as well as forethought as to what its future role will be — a site for the dirty and unpleasant things of the Sun Belt like prisoners, garbage, and future long-term care facilities is reasonable but probably is undesireable, so what else?
Back to the here and now and Monica and Detroit. We haven't heard the last of Riddle. He has said already he's waiting for the right time (in court? with immunity and protection?) to reveal the good stuff.
DLS – Detroit isn't the only dysfunctional city in the area. Lily white Warren and Dearborn have their history of corruption and cronyism. What so bad about 1960's radicals, their almost all dead or no longer any part of the power structure. The Fifth Estate is now published outside of Detroit. Ken Cockrel is dead. And most of the MC5 are gone.
AS the U.S. becomes a one party state due to changing demographics, isn't Detroit a vision of the future. Corrupt to avoid high taxes, poorly run due to the entitlement mentality, and a place that automatically votes for Democrats because they promise to tax others and give money to the voters?
This is where a POWERFUL Federal government could step in and bang heads, but unfortunately republicans like weak governments, so this crap just continues.
Father Time,
It takes a special kind of liberal to blame Detroit’s problems on Republicans.
AS the U.S. becomes a one party state due to changing demographics, isn't Detroit a vision of the future. Corrupt to avoid high taxes, poorly run due to the entitlement mentality
White flight due to the riots and racism caused Detroit's problems. STRESS, Gibbs and Cavanaugh (and SD types) lead to the current situation…