Aretha Franklin (MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES)
The Queen of Soul is doing her part to help residents in Flint, Mich., during the city’s water crisis. Aretha Franklin plans on donating rooms at a Holiday Inn in Southfield, a Detroit suburb, for 25-50 people, according to Click on Detroit.
In addition to the rooms, food will be provided by the local Coney Island restaurant. Franklin’s father’s church, New Bethel Baptist in Detroit, will handle the screening of Flint residents who want to participate.
“Detroiters usually come to the aid of Detroiters—and Flint is certainly regarded as Detroit,” Franklin said in an interview. “Hang in there,” she advised Flint residents. article by Yesha Callahan via theroot.com
(L to R) Dawn Wilson-Clark of Detroit who plays Kuddles the Clown works at painting the face of Ramiyah Johnson, 5 of Detroit on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. (Photo: Eric Seals Detroit Free Press)
Three dozen Detroit kids with a parent in prison got a special day of their own Saturday, as members of a local chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority presented them with gifts and goodies arranged through a national group that focuses on redemption and healing for offenders and their families.
For the fifth year, the women of the Redford-based Tau Alpha Omega chapter of AKA hosted a Christmas celebration for children, complete with visits with Santa Claus and Paws, the Detroit Tigers mascot. Kuddles the Clown painted faces and made balloon animals for the kids.
Sorority members also purchased gifts for the children, working with their caregivers to determine what clothing and toys each child wanted most. The gifts, which the children and their families take home to open on Christmas, come with a message from the incarcerated parent. It’s a way for the children to know they’ve not been forgotten by that parent and are loved.
Doris Pickett brought two grandchildren to the party, Raekwon Mitchell, 9, and Ramiya Johnson, 5.
“They look forward to it every year,” Pickett said as the kids made crafts together before lunch and Santa’s arrival. “We’re just trying to make sure the kids have a good time.”
Asked what his favorite part of the day was, Raekwon couldn’t pick just one. “I like everything,” he said.
The sorority arranges the party and gifts through the Angel Tree program of the Prison Fellowship, a Virginia-based nonprofit that provides assistance for the families of prisoners nationwide. The group estimates there are 2.7 million children in the U.S. with an incarcerated parent.
The festive atmosphere Saturday in a banquet room at the Hotel St. Regis in the New Center area — including a meal of hot dogs, chips, cookies and other goodies — is meant to give the children an afternoon of joy. They’re given Christmas-themed pages to color with markers and colored pens, plus crafts to make gingerbread men and other decorations.
“We don’t want it to be a handout,” said Tau Alpha Omega chapter president Starlett Burrell of Southfield. “We want it to be a celebration.”
Pharrell Williams (Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)
Pharrell Williams is trying his hand at real estate.
The Grammy Award winner is partnering with a Detroit housing developer, Alexander Gorlin, who is “noted for his inventive use of space, light and natural materials,” on a potential plan for “prefab housing in Detroit.”
The project is still a work in progress, and Williams and Gorlin have not yet secured the land or permission to move forward. However, it looks like the plan is to create housing out of empty city-owned land using the prefab housing model, meaning parts of the homes will be built in factories and then moved out to the locations.
“I’ve seen some plans that fill up a lot of empty space, with different types of housing, including single unit housing that look like the stuff in Lafayette Park,” said Paul Emery, chairman of the North Corktown Neighborhood Association.
John Roach, a spokesman for Mayor Mike Duggan’s office, said that there is not yet a deal in place for any of the city-owned land or for any development yet.
“The city talks to developers all the time,” Roach said Friday. “As a rule we do not comment on potential development projects unless there is an agreement in place.” article via thegrio.com
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy holds up an example of a rape test kit at a press conference in Detroit Tuesday Jan. 6, 2015. The Michigan Women’s Foundation teams with The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which discovered 11,000 untested rape kits in a Detroit police storage unit five years ago, are collaborating to raise $10 million to pay for the testing, investigation and prosecution of those unsolved rape cases. (Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press)
A broad coalition of women’s groups is coming together to raise awareness about sexual assault and to propel black women to be a force for getting Detroit’s languishing rape kits processed.
The coalition is named the African American 490 Challenge because it is urging black women, individually and collectively, to raise multiples of $490, the cost of processing a single rape kit. The group will kick off its efforts at a gathering Tuesday morning to be attended by leaders of several black women’s service organizations, sororities and other supporters.
Their effort buttresses the work of Enough SAID (Enough Sexual Assault In Detroit), the rape kit testing and investigation effort being led by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthyand the Michigan Women’s Foundation. Worthy has been leading a campaign to get kits tested since learning five years ago that more than 11,300 kits — the key investigative evidence of assault taken from women during a physical exam — were left unopened and untested in a police storage unit.
Michigan gets $7.5M to help clear untested rape kits (DETROIT FREE PRESS)
State, local, private and public funds have resulted from Worthy’s efforts, and donations have poured in from all over the country. The African American 490 Challenge is working with Enough SAID and plans to raise at least $650,000.
“I think this is a fabulous effort,” said Worthy, who will attend Tuesday’s meeting. “If ever there’s an issue these women should get behind, it’s this one. The support they’ll be able to amass will be essential to our success.”
About 10,000 kits have been tested since an assistant prosecutor discovered them in a police storage unit in 2009. More than 1,000 kits have yet to be tested, and money is needed to complete the investigations of those assaults, Worthy said.
Investigations of the kits thus far have revealed that more than 500 rapists were serial offenders, according to data from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
More than 80% of victims associated with the rape kits are African-American women, according to data released by the foundation.
“They look like my mother, my aunts, our sisters, our daughters, our nieces,” said Maureen Stapleton, a local leader of the Links and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, two community service organizations tailored to African-American women.
Stapleton joined forces with civic leader Kim Trent and public relations executive Darci McConnell in spearheading the coalition. Trent was moved to action by a Facebook debate that seemed to place the blame for sexual assault on women.
“I decided I needed to do something constructive with my anger,” said Trent, a member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors. “We want to come together to say: ‘This is unacceptable, and we are black women who stand ready to make sure this never happens again, and that the women it happened to get justice.’ ”
Both Trent and McConnell said they were victims of sexual assault, and neither reported it. Trent said statistics show that the majority of women don’t report sexual assault. “Those who do deserve to have their day in court,” especially given the invasive procedure required to obtain rape kits.
“We want to make sure that people understand how serious this is, and that they don’t do what many of us did, which was to keep quiet and retreat,” McConnell said.
The coalition has begun raising money through an online donation site — crowdrise.com/AfricanAmerican490Challenge — and has gained the support of local businesses owned by black women, including two spas — Woodhouse Day spa in Detroit and Lavender Mobile Spa — that are donating part of profits to the effort.
Additionally, the group is encouraging black womens groups, book clubs and other organizations to host fund-raising house parties and other events to raise money.
“The great majority of the victims of these unsolved crimes are black women,” states the coalition’s fund-raising page. “Our mothers. Our sisters. Our daughters. Our neighbors. Our aunts. Our cousins. Our friends. Women who look and live like us. Now is the time for black women to use our voices and resources to show sexual assault victims that they have not been forgotten.” UPCOMING SPA EVENTS The two spas are holding fundraising efforts this month for the African American 490 Challenge are:
The Woodhouse Day Spa, 1447 Woodward Ave., which will donate 10% of its profits on Oct. 22 to the challenge. In addition, there will be a reception for supporters 5-7:30 p.m. that day. The reception is free and open to the public.
Lavender Mobile Spa will host a fund-raiser at the Westin Hotel in Southfield 1500 Town Center, Southfield, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 24.
Dreia Davis and her father Curtis White, enter their new home for the first time on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, in Detroit. The accessible-friendly furnished house and a lift van were donated to the family by Detroit Rescue Mission. (Photo: Salwan Georges / freep.com)
DETROIT – Dreia Davis couldn’t help but smile as as she gazed around her bedroom and clutched the key to her new home. “It’s so beautiful,” Davis said. “I’m so thankful. I feel fabulous.”
For Davis and her father, Curtis White, it has been a long journey since she was struck by a bullet from a passing car on Detroit’s east side and nearly killed on Aug. 5, 2009, when she was 13. She suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, and underwent numerous surgeries. White was told it was likely she would not survive.
But now, the devoted dad and teen finally have a happy ending after receiving a lift van and a debt-free, furnished home that accommodates her disabilities Wednesday from Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.
“I’m speechless,” White said, as he cried. “Oh, this is perfect. I love it. I am so overwhelmed. This is a blessing. I’m ready to move in. This is the best feeling in the world.”
Dreia Davis waves to people as she arrives to her new home on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, in Detroit. (Salwan Georges, Detroit Free Press)
This past July, GBN shared the story of Davis and White’s struggle and perseverance in the face of adversity. Since then, nearly $13,000 has been donated to the family in a GoFundMe account, Dreia The Miracle, that was launched by family friend Keifer Stephens.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” Stephens said. “I’ve been looking forward to this from day one. I haven’t seen her talking this much, Curtis smiling and crying, like this in so long. It’s a joyful moment.”
More than 20 people gathered Wednesday to watch the family get their new home, including Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. Their new neighbors, including a retired Detroit firefighter, came to welcome them.
For Evans, seeing Davis and her father was a special moment.
“I was chief of (Detroit) police at the time and responded to the hospital the night of the actual tragedy,” Evans said. “It’s just wonderful to be able to come back years later to see what Detroit Rescue Missions has been able to do. She’s rebounded tremendously. She has goals, dreams and aspirations, and she’s not going to be defined by this injury. The dad has the patience of Job. He’s been waiting on her hand and foot, which loving fathers do, but it doesn’t make it easy. So this helps to make it easy for them both.”
Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries President Chad Audi said the plan to get the family a home came together after a FOX 2 News reporter connected him with the family. Their previous home was small, cramped and not properly equipped. The new house is near 7 Mile in a close-knit, tree-lined neighborhood. It has two bedrooms, a large basement, kitchen and a dining room. Audi said White will have to pay taxes and utilities and maintain the house, but he will be the sole owner. The bathroom was retrofitted to fit Davis’ wheelchair and to allow her to bathe herself, which has been a stress on White. The house’s upgrades and furniture totaled around $21,000.
“It is so exciting,” Audi said. “I’m so excited that she gain her freedom and her dignity. It is her house and her dad’s house forever. … We are thankful to God that we are finally able to give this deserving family a home.”
The shooting left Davis in a wheelchair, but she has beaten the odds. She attends Jerry L. White Center High School in Detroit and is set to graduate and receive her diploma in 2016. She plans to enroll at the Wayne County Community College Districtfor courses she hopes will lead toward becoming a lawyer.
Davis also has her eyes set on a new goal: being able to walk by Feb. 2, 2017. White said she’s set to begin intensive therapy in the coming weeks. “I want to walk when I’m 21,” she said, smiling coyly.
Although Davis loves the new home, van and support she has gotten from the community, nothing matters more than the love from her father. “This all means so much,” she said, hugging White. “But I just want to thank my daddy so much for sticking by my side. I love you, Daddy.”
White, who has had to check on his daughter often to make sure she doesn’t fall out of bed or have other problems, is excited that he’ll finally be able to get more than four hours of sleep at a time. But he’ll never stop being a doting father.
“I’ll never stop,” he said. “I’m always watching her. All of this? Everything I’ve done is just a testament of my love. Doctors told me she wouldn’t make it, then they said she wouldn’t make it past a few years. But here she is today. Look at her now. She beat those odds six years later. The world is hers now. She’s going to walk. She’s made it this far.” article by Katrease Stafford, Detroit Free Press via usatoday.com
Aretha Franklin (photo via essence.com) Aretha Franklin may be moving into real estate.
The Queen of Soul told WWJ-AM she wants to open an entertainment venue in Detroit that would include a nightclub and fine dining.
It would also include “a five-star night club for dining and dancing, the band, the whole nine yards,” as well as a museum, she added.
Franklin said in Thursday’s interview she’s “glad that Detroit came through the bankruptcy with flying colors.” She says she loves how Detroit is enjoying a renaissance and that she’s “going to be part of that renaissance.”
Downtown Detroit has been a hotbed of redevelopment since the city emerged from Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in December.
Franklin says she’s found a potential location downtown, with details to be announced later.
She performs Saturday at Detroit’s Chene Park. article via blackamericaweb.com
Gunshot survivor Dreia Davis and her father Curtis White (photo: Salwan Georges/Detroit Free Press) Dreia Davis shouldn’t be alive. Yet she is. Doctors were doubtful Davis would survive after she was shot in the face in a drive-by shooting on Detroit’s east side in August 2009.
But she did.
Although the shooting left Davis in a wheelchair, she has continued to beat the odds, despite setbacks and recurring nightmares of that late summer night, when she nearly lost her life at age 13. Two heart attacks, numerous surgeries and a stroke later, Davis, 19, is determined to reclaim her life and achieve her dream of attending the University of Michigan and becoming a defense attorney.
There’s no denying Davis still has a long road ahead, but she has found unparallelled love and support in the one person who has remained by her side, caring for her and pushing her forward: her father, Curtis White. “It feels great to have him in my life,” she said while gripping his hand. “He’s had me since I was 3 weeks old. I love him.”
Dreia Davis, 19, of Detroit is photographed in her Detroit home.. Dreia Davis was shot in the head during a drive-by shooting in 2009. Since the shooting, she’s had multiple surgeries, was on life support and is now paralyzed on the left side of her body. (Photo: Salwan Georges, Detroit Free Press)
White, a single father, has relatively no help in caring for his daughter. Her mother, who still lives in Detroit, is not in the picture, White said, and his own family is unable to help.
But the father and daughter have formed a bond that grows each day.
“She’s my daughter, my best friend,” White, 45, said. “She knows me inside and out. It’s us against them. It’s us against the world. We beat the odds. We can do anything together. Me taking care of her, that’s second nature. I never had my dad, and I went through hell not knowing my dad. … So I have to be there, be here for her. That’s what’s given me the drive to do this for her. Since she’s come this far, the sky’s the limit. I’m never going to give up on her.”
Davis was a lively teen. She was a popular, nearly straight-A student and a head cheerleader at Greenfield Union School, on 7 Mile and Charleston. Before the shooting Aug. 5, 2009, Davis asked her father whether she could go to her friend’s house. He said yes. But later, he discovered she had caught the bus to go to another friend’s home, where he specifically told her not to go.
“Like a typical teen, she was being rebellious,” he said. He called her and told her to come home. “I told her, ‘Don’t make me come over there and get you,’ ” he said. “She promised she would make it home. The last thing I heard from her was, ‘Daddy, I’m on my way home. I love you.’ “
He started pacing when 8 p.m. came. Then 9 p.m. passed. As 10 p.m. neared, a feeling of dread swept across White. “I could feel it in my stomach,” he said. “I couldn’t pinpoint it, but something was not right.”
Minutes later, his daughter’s aunt called. In a trembling voice, she told him to come to the hospital immediately. “I couldn’t even comprehend what she was telling me,” he said. ” ‘Shot in the head?’ ‘What do you mean?’ As soon as I got there, they met me with the chaplains in the emergency room and I was already thinking it was over.”
Davis, an innocent bystander, was shot at the corner of Emery and Eureka, near 7 Mile on the city’s east side, while she talked to some friends. She was the only one injured.
“All it took was one unfortunate night of her not listening for a tragedy to occur,” White said.
After she was shot, Davis was rushed to the hospital and taken into the ICU, where doctors used an automatic external defibrillator to shock her heart back into rhythm after she suffered a heart attack on the operating table.
Doctors told White that his daughter had a 7% chance of making it. “I just lost my mind. That’s my only child,” he said. “From there, it was a whole lot of hoping, praying and being at the hospital 24/7. When I saw her in the emergency recovery room, I was shocked. Her head had swelled up to the size of a pumpkin.”
After several months on life support, doctors told White it was likely his daughter wouldn’t recover, and that he might have to consider removing the support.
“Doctors were telling me she was going to be a vegetable,” he said. “After the second heart attack and stroke, I started considering it. But I had a good cousin that came down from Battle Creek. She said: ‘God can do anything. Put your faith in God.’ And I swear on my life, that as soon as I did that, she made a drastic turnaround.”
(Washington, DC) – This month, forty-three black fathers, nonprofit leaders and businessmen in Akron, Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will receive $400,000 in grants to help them strengthen their communities. The grants are presented by BMe Community, a growing national network of 12,000 black men and others of all races and genders who are committed to building better communities across the U.S.
According to BMe Community, the 43 men, called “BMe Leaders”, were nominated by local residents and chosen because they were already consistently helping thousands of their neighbors. Each of the men has also agreed to stand up for important values in America’s evolving dialogue on race, community and our nation’s future.
Specifically, BMe Community believes that the most prosperous way forward for America is to value all its people, recognize black men as assets, reject stories that denigrate people, and work together for our common interests in caring and prosperous communities. The BMe Leaders embody those values. Their personal stories and leadership inspires others to reach for those values as well. Participants in BMe Community use the hashtag #ReachWithUs to share, inspire, and empower each other with words of congratulation, useful information, images, and event invites.
BMe started honoring these 43 “Community Fathers” in local ceremonies that began June 18 and end tomorrow in Detroit on June 27th. The events and BMe Community are backed by private donations, leading foundations and corporations including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Open Society Foundations, The Heinz Endowments, JP Morgan Chase, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Since 2012, BMe has named 143 BMe Leaders in five cities, sponsored over 100 community events and produced countless stories of solutions and the inspiring people behind them.
One of the first to ever be named a BMe Leader is Shaka Senghor, an author, speaker and leader in criminal justice reform who was named a BMe Leader in 2012 for his efforts in Detroit to increase literacy and decrease violence. The honor came less than two years after he was released from serving 19 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager. In the three years since BMe recognized him, Shaka has rattled off an impressive list of accomplishments including being named an MIT Media Lab Fellow, a Kellogg Foundation Community Fellow, being featured in BMe’s bestselling book “REACH: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading and Succeeding” and producing a popular TED Talk titled “Why Your Worst Deeds Shouldn’t Define You.” He currently serves as BMe’s National Outreach Representative. To see his Ted Talk, watch below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtXyGFMBWBs&w=560&h=315]
BMe encourages anyone who shares its values to register for the events or become a participant in the network. www.bmecommunity.org.
BMe Leaders come from all walks of life, ranging in age from 21 to over 80. They are black men who are often unheralded yet lead by example on matters ranging from creating businesses to educating children to protecting human rights. The BMe Leaders work with men and women of all races who also want cities that are prosperous, safe, and provide hope and opportunity to future generations.
“America is at another one of those historic moments where we can choose chaos or community” says Shorters, “These men have always been here. We just admit their existence and invite people of all races and genders to reach with us to build assets, build community and give our children a better story of America’s future.”
The next Induction Ceremony is open to the public tomorrow in Detroit at the University of Michigan Detroit Center, Michigan Room at 1:00 p.m. RSVP: www.bmecommunity.org/detroit2015 article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
A’Ja Booth, left, and teacher Nadirah Muhammad are honored with the red carpet treatment by their West Side Academy peers as they enter the gym Tuesday. Muhammad was motivated to get tested as a potential donor when she found out A’Ja needed a new kidney. (Photo: Photos by Clarence Tabb Jr. / The Detroit News) A’Ja Booth walked the red carpet into the school gymnasium Tuesday with a shy smile and a new kidney.
It was the 18-year-old senior’s first day back at West Side Academy since a successful transplant five months ago. Ten classmates and a counselor on either side of the red carpet greeted her with confetti while 11th- and 12th-graders seated on bleachers cheered and applauded.
The woman close by her side on the red carpet, the one who linked arms with A’Ja and couldn’t stop smiling, was not just the physical education and health teacher. She was A’Ja’s donor.
They were a perfect match.
“This is what we do as teachers,” said Nadirah Muhammad, 39, who is a wife and the mother of a son. “I did not do it for the accolades. I saw a human being in need and if it were my child, I’d want someone to step forward and help him.”
When it was A’Ja’s turn at the microphone, inside the gym decorated with black and silver balloons, she was overcome with emotion and covered her eyes, crying softly.
The students applauded and shouted, “We love you,” urging her to take her time. “I am really thankful and blessed,” said A’Ja. “I can’t thank her any more than I already have. I look at her as my second mother. She’s a wonderful woman.” Andrea Ayler, principal of West Side Academy, said she had to push the teacher to go public about her gift to A’Ja. “Mrs. Muhammad did not want a lot of publicity, but I told her we have to tell this story,” Ayler said. “People just don’t do this. I myself would be hesitant. … I’m just so grateful to be principal of a school of educators who love children unconditionally the way Mrs. Muhammad does.”
The donor and recipient came together after Muhammad met A’Ja in her dance class during winter semester last school year. In May 2014, the teacher noticed a book A’Ja had written, “My Dialysis Journey” and asked if she could read it.
The book was A’Ja’s story of being a kidney patient. She described undergoing dialysis for four hours at a time, three days a week, and how she needed a transplant. Muhammad was immediately moved to help.
“She had been in my dance class for about two or three months before I even knew she was on dialysis,” said Muhammad. “Now she’s healthy and it’s just great to see her back in school and graduating in a few weeks.”
In her book, A’Ja wrote: “I’m tired of living day to day like everything’s alright. Being in a chair and hooked up to a machine is not a choice. I have to do it.”
After doctors determined teacher and student were a match, Muhammad’s kidney was removed Dec. 15, 2014, at Henry Ford Hospital and transplanted into A’Ja at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Nearly seven weeks later, Muhammad returned to work at West Side Academy, an alternative education school. A’Ja, meanwhile, is set to graduate June 8, pending completion of online courses.
Dr. Jason Denny, a surgeon at Henry Ford Health System and the Henry Ford Transplant Institute who performed the transplant, explained that kidney failure requires dialysis, which means a curtailed life. “The best medical treatment for patients is a transplant, and donors can be living or deceased,” he said.
He emphasized the need for more organ donors. According to the National Kidney Foundation, as of April 22, 101,662 U.S. kidney patients were awaiting transplants.
A’Ja’s friend Dakota Crowder, 18, also a senior, said at first he was frightened for her because he had never known anyone who had had a kidney transplant. “I felt relieved when I found out Mrs. Muhammad was the one who was donating the kidney,” he said. “When I found out everything was OK after the transplant, I was happy for A’Ja and Mrs. Muhammad.”
A’Ja said she plans to attend Oakland University and hopes to become a nurse.
“She will have a long and prosperous life taking good care of my kidney,” Muhammad said. article by Shawn D. Lewis via detroitnews.com
Floyd Dent Thanks Prosecutors for Bringing Charges Against Michigan Police Officer
A suburban Detroit police officer who was seen on dash-cam video dragging a black man from his car before kicking and punching him repeatedly will be charged with two felony counts, a county prosecutor said Monday.
A drug possession charge against the man, Floyd Dent, 57, will be dropped, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. Dent’s treatment by Inkster police during a Jan. 28 traffic stop sparked outrage after the video was released by NBC affiliate WDIV.
“We cannot turn our heads when the law enforcer becomes the law breaker,” Worthy said during a news conference Monday. “The alleged police brutality in this case cannot and will not be tolerated.”
William Melendez, who allegedly punched Dent 16 times while keeping him in a chokehold during an arrest, will be charged with one count of mistreatment of a prisoner and one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, Worthy said.
WDIV had also later released a video that showed officers stripping Dent to his underwear and searching him while he was being held in jail.
If convicted, Melendez could face up to 15 years in prison.
Inkster City Manager Richard Marsh said in a statement that Melendez had been fired from the Inkster Police Department on April 15, “which I and others believe was in the best interest of our community.” Marsh said he wouldn’t comment further on the charges “in order to preserve the integrity of both the criminal and the civil actions surrounding Officer Melendez’s employment.”
Melendez is working part-time at the Highland Park Police department, according to WDIV. The department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
The case was independently investigated by the Michigan State Police and separately by the Wayne County Prosecutors Office.
Charges against Dent of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer were dropped after the video was released nearly two months after the incident occurred. A count of possession of cocaine remained, but Dent claimed the drugs were planted in his car. The drug charge against Dent was dropped “in the best interest of justice,” Worthy said. article by Elisha Fieldstadt via msnbc.com
Aretha Franklin may be moving into real estate.