Criminal

 

A Toledo West Toledo Woman Given House Arrest in Terrorism Case

By Toledo Blade Staff

A Toledo woman facing federal charges of aiding a terrorist organization as well as engaging in several fraudulent schemes will be released on a $750,000 bond and be placed on house arrest while her husband remains in custody.

Amera Akl, 37, was granted release after a lengthy hearing yesterday before Magistrate Vernelis Armstrong. Her husband, Hor Akl, also 37, withdrew his request for release and will remain in federal custody.

The couple are charged in a 36-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court Monday. In the indictment are six counts including allegations that the couple "did knowingly combine, conspire, and agree" to aid the terrorist group Hezbollah.The couple entered separate pleas of not guilty to the charges yesterday.

Magistrate Armstrong reviewed the allegations contained in the indictment during the nearly two-hour hearing yesterday. In particular, she reviewed the 30 pages of the first count that alleged the couple engaged in activity from Aug. 30, 2009, to the present that helped send money and material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Among the allegations were that Mr. Akl traveled to Lebanon in early March to meet with a "high-level Hezbollah leader" to create a plan in which money would be concealed within appliances and sent overseas.

According to the indictment, both Akls are named in three of the six charges. Mr. Akl was named individually on three.

The couple are charged with conspiracy and interstate commerce in support of terrorism as well as fraudulently collecting an insurance claim on a vehicle to which they allegedly intentionally set fire. In that count, the couple are charged with collecting $17,296 from a fraudulent insurance claim in early 2002 after they allegedly set a vehicle on fire.

Mr. Akl is charged individually with defrauding creditors during a bankruptcy claim, making false statements under oath, and fraudulently transferring or concealing property.

If convicted on all the charges, Mr. Akl faces a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison. His wife faces a maximum of up to 45 years in prison.

Magistrate Armstrong noted that Mrs. Akl's bond would be met with the posting of six individual properties by family members. The judge then warned Mrs. Akl that if she fails to follow the court's orders, several of her family members - including an uncle, brother-in-law, and cousin - would forfeit their homes and commercial property to the government.

"Don't disappoint them," Magistrate Armstrong told Mrs. Akl. "They have shown great faith and confidence in you to show that you are law-abiding. Don't disappoint them."

As conditions of her release, Mrs. Akl must surrender her American passport, cannot contact the Lebanese consulate to make travel arrangements, and must be in the company of a third-party custodian - either her mother or sister - at all times.

She will also be forbidden from leaving her home without permission, so the judge warned her that she would not be able to attend activities involving her three minor children.

Detroit attorney Sandford Schulman, who was retained by the family to represent Mrs. Akl, said that because of the necessary paperwork involved, his client is not likely to be released until Friday. He declined to comment on behalf of nearly 30 family members and supporters who attended the hearing.

Mr. Akl's court-appointed attorney, Jeffrey Helmick of Toledo, declined to comment after the hearing.

Federal prosecutors told Magistrate Armstrong that they anticipate being able to share most of the government's case with defense attorneys within a few weeks.

 

MARCH, 2010:

 

DEFENDANT ACQUITTED BY MONROE COUNTY JURY OF POSSESSION OF MORE THAN 2,000
LBS OF DRUGS IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST DRUG CASES IN MICHIGAN AFTER HIS FIRST
ATTORNEY HAD HIM PLEA GUILTY.

Sam Parga was acquitted of possession with the intent to deliver more than 1,000 kilograms of drugs by a Monroe County Jury on March 3, 2010 before Monroe County Circuit Court Michael W. LaBeau in case number 08-37496 FH.

 

Mr. Parga had previously pleaded guilty to the charge and faced certain deportation before he retained SCHULMAN & ASSOCIATES, P.C. who filed a motion to substitute for his attorney and to withdraw his plea which was granted in August, 2009.

APRIL, 2010:

SANFORD A. SCHULMAN was featured in A&E's THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.

 

Wayne County Circuit asked attorney SANFORDE A. SCHULMAN to agree to represent MARLON JOHNSON in a gruesome murder case that was recently featured on THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.  The defendant had been found in the stolen car with the murder weapon and ran from the scene.  A&E Featured the case because doubt had been raised as to a line-up that was brought up at trial where the defendant was not identified and no blood or fingerprint evidence.

MAY 5, 2010

DEFENDANT ACQUITTED BY WAYNE COUNTY JURY OF ASSAULT LESS THAN MURDER AND FELONIOUS ASSAULT AND FELONY FIREARM AFTER 12 MINUTES OF DELIBERATIONS.

On May 5, 2010 a Wayne County Jury acquitted of Vicente Santiago of Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less than Murder, Felonious Assault and Felony Firearm after only deliberating for 12 minutes.  The victim had been shot in the leg and there were three eye witnesses.  Sanford A. Schulman of Schulman & Associates, P.C. was the trial attorney.

 

Wayne County; Oakland County; Macomb County

Federal Courts

 

BREAKING NEWS: Attorney Sanford Schulman Raises Doubts After Saginaw Man's Conviction 

BY AMBER HUNT

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

 

A murder conviction against a Saginaw man found guilty of gunning down his brother-in-law in Macomb County could be overturned because his defense lawyers say they overlooked a fingerprint left on a barbecue fork.

 

But the prosecutor on the case says the supposed fingerprint was nothing more than a useless smudge and the conviction should stand.

Both sides are set to square off Friday, when 42-year-old Salam Zora is to be sentenced for second-degree murder in the death of Najem Matti, 37, who was shot five times Jan. 23 in his Sterling Heights home.

Zora claimed self-defense, saying Matti had come at him with a butcher knife and barbecue fork. Jurors were told that no fingerprints or DNA evidence had been found on either alleged weapon.

Zora's new lawyer, Sanford Schulman, has filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan improperly told Zora's trial lawyers that no fingerprints had been found on the fork -- which Kaplan argued helped prove that Matti was killed in cold blood.

Zora's defense lawyers, former Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga and Joe Kosmala, say they made a mistake by not challenging the assertion. Instead, they stipulated it as fact in the trial.

Lab reports actually showed there was a print on the fork, Schulman said Wednesday. "It just wasn't identifiable," he said.

Kaplan disagreed: "I don't even think it's a fingerprint; it's a smudge."

Marlinga, who served for 20 years as Macomb County prosecutor and previously worked as Kaplan's boss, filed an affidavit stating that Zora's right to effective defense counsel had been denied because he had failed "to double-check the prosecutor's representations about the fingerprint report."

In his motion, Schulman accuses Kaplan of prosecutorial misconduct and says that some jurors who convicted Zora admitted they held the barbecue fork to see if it would leave prints.

"I don't think Kaplan did that on purpose," Kosmala told the Free Press on Wednesday. "There was one line in the many hundreds of pages that references a partial print located on the barbecue fork. We had the information. We just didn't see it."

Circuit Judge James Biernat will have to decide whether to grant a new trial or sentence Zora as planned. Biernat last year set aside another of Kaplan's convictions -- that against former Clinton Township businessman Michael George, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 death of his wife.

Marlinga and Kosmala also were the defense lawyers in that case.

 

 

Testimony begins in 

Rebecca Smith murder trial

By Jennie Miller

C & G Staff Writer

PONTIAC — A photo of Michael Smith’s dead body lying in a ditch was the first piece of evidence jurors laid eyes on as the murder trial began Oct. 29 in Oakland County’s 6th Circuit Court that will determine whether or not his wife is found guilty of the crime.

Rebecca Smith, 33, a Berkley resident and mother of the victim’s two young sons, faces a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole, if convicted by the jury of four men and 10 women.

“(Rebecca Smith) is a good actress,” said Oakland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Greg Townsend, in his opening statements in Judge Colleen O’Brien’s courtroom. “She lies and lies and lies, and is very convincing. … All she did was lie to the authorities and deceive the authorities and try to thwart this investigation from the beginning until today.”

The prosecution believes that on Dec. 10, 2002, Rebecca Smith shot her husband twice, once in the abdomen and once in the heart, and stuffed his body in their bedroom closet for several days before loading him into a vehicle and dumping him on the side of Oak Hill Road in Springfield Township.

Michael Smith’s half-naked, partially frozen body was found Dec. 19, lying face down in a ditch. He was identified the following day, after a picture of his distinctive Grim Reaper tattoo was aired on local television news channels and Rebecca Smith reportedly called 911.

The defendant led investigators to believe that the last time she had seen her husband was on the evening of Dec. 10, when she had dropped him off at the bus station in Royal Oak, where he was planning to travel to Florida to enroll in an 18-month alcohol rehabilitation program.

“She is very convincing until the house of cards comes falling down with all the weight of her lies behind it,” Townsend said.

Subsequent interviews with the defendant showed that the actual day she claims to have dropped off her husband differs between Dec. 10 and Dec. 11. Telephone records reveal that Michael Smith made a phone call from his home the night he, according to his wife, should have been on a bus. Additionally, video surveillance from the bus station could not demonstrate the drop-off, because the defendant claims she and her husband parted ways in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant a few blocks away.

Other parts of her story didn’t match up, which investigators discovered through input from coworkers and family members, Townsend said. Those deceptions, along with the fact that the victim’s blood was found in the Berkley home’s bedroom closet, combined with conspicuous letters sent from the defendant’s jail cell that eerily detail the crime, all point to Rebecca Smith as her husband’s killer, Townsend told the jury, all of which he said he plans to prove in court through testimony.

That’s not good enough, according to Rebecca Smith’s attorney, Sanford Schulman.

“There is no evidence” that proves Rebecca Smith committed murder, Schulman said.

He reminded the jury that if they are to find his client guilty of open murder, it must be beyond a reasonable doubt.

“You’d better be sure,” he said. “Don’t surmise. Don’t hypothesize.”

Schulman described Michael Smith as an unpredictable alcoholic who could be volatile and self-destructive, and who was on the brink of hitting rock bottom as his marriage was falling apart and his financial problems were escalating, including the fact that the couple was to be evicted from their Berkley home. He also pointed a finger at another man, who reportedly had romantic feelings for Rebecca Smith, was known to own guns, and had admittedly been at the Smith’s home on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.

Rebecca Smith has done nothing but raise her two children, Schulman said.

The first of many witnesses were called to testify Oct. 29, including Oakland County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Kanu Virani; officers from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department; the victim’s mother, Sarah Louise Settlemires; and the victim’s former boss, John Rossignol of Village Chrysler Jeep in Royal Oak.

Testimony continues today, Oct. 30, starting at 1 p.m. and then again at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1.

 

Attorney Sanford Schulman Successfully Argues for 10 Year Sentence Reduction Before Michigan Supreme Court

 

     Detroit attorney Sanford Schulman convinced the Michigan Supreme Court to reduce a defendant's murder conviction by 10 years.  Mr. Schulman did not represent Willie James XXXXX at the trial level but took the case to the highest state court and successfully appealed the sentencing decision initally made by the Wayne Circuit Court in a second-degree murder case. 

Mr. Schulman is currently seeking to set aside the conviction.  The case is currently pending in Federal District Court in Detroit, Michigan.

See Michigan Supreme Court Opinion and Order HERE

 

 

Defendant Remains Optimistic

BY SHAUN BYRON

OAKLAND PRESS STAFF WRITER

 

Police found 1,400 grams of cocaine in a car and home. Following the raid, they set about charging three brothers, Domingo, Oscar and Christian Sierra.

 

Domingo was apprehended, convicted and given a mandatory life sentence. Oscar remains at large and is listed on the Oakland County Sheriff's most wanted list.

 

Sierra, meanwhile, was living with his wife and children in New York, working as a mechanic.

 

Almost 10 years passed before investigators were given a break in the case.

 

After Sierra applied for Social Security, law enforcement officers discovered his whereabouts because of the warrant that had been issued in Michigan. He was arrested and extradited to Michigan, living in the Oakland County Jail since October of 2005.

 

Sierra's trial began in Oakland County Circuit Court in December 2006 before Judge Denise K. Langford Morris, who upheld a $300,000 bond.

 

Schulman had argued the evidence against his client was circumstantial, as Sierra's fingerprints had been found on a box holding about a pound of cocaine but not on the bags inside the box.

 

His fingerprints also were found in the vehicle and house.

 

Sierra had visited the home to see his brother, but was not arrested with the drugs.

 

A hung jury was unable to decide Sierra's fate last year after deliberating for six days, with a majority of the jurors pressing for an acquittal.

 

The eight men and four women had started deliberating Dec. 19, just before the holiday weekend. The mistrial was announced when they returned after Christmas.

 

Schulman and jurors said the deliberations had grown hostile during those six days, with people getting into arguments that often resorted to foul language.

 

The final votes have been said to be 11-1, 10-2 and 9-3.

 

One juror had said nothing in the testimony showed Sierra intended to sell cocaine.

 

Another juror tried to keep from crying, saying they didn't want to convict someone when they had reasonable doubt.

 

Where the jury may have had the most troubling time considering potential guilt was in the testimony of a witness from Domingo's trial.

 

Schulman said the witness had been subpoenaed to take the stand in Sierra's case, but took the Fifth Amendment to keep from incriminating herself.

 

"She was asked about Christian and she said she didn't know him," he said.

 

The witness, however, was involved with breaking down the cocaine and was appointed an attorney. She was dismissed from testifying so she would not implicate herself in any criminal activity.

 

Schulman said they were instead able to use the witness's testimony from Domingo's trial.

 

Following the mistrial, Oakland County prosecutors filed a motion to keep that past testimony from being used in the retrial.

 

Prosecutors argued they filed the motion because they were unable to cross-examine the witness in regards to the allegations against Sierra.

 

Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Tim McDonald said the jury had heard inadmissible evidence.

 

"I think it's important to know the delay is related to the defendant's case in the Court of Appeals," McDonald said. "And the defendant filed a motion to reduce the bond, but the court denied it, knowing the evidence against him."

 

Schulman said he believes the statute of limitations from the drug raid could mean prosecutors might not be able to charge the witness with a crime.

 

"The prosecutor can give her immunity," he said. "They are not going to try her. They are using that as a sword to keep her from testifying. They know they are very close to losing this trial."

 

McDonald would respond by saying only: "After the Court of Appeals rules on the issue, we will make a determination on how to proceed."

 

While the attorneys wait on a decision from the Court of Appeals, an Oakland County Circuit Court trial has been set for February.

 

Sierra's family continues to support the husband and father, with family members flying once a year to Michigan to visit him.

 

He has been in jail for 784 days, more time than any of the other 40 inmates who have spent more than 180 days in jail and not be sentenced. Many of these delays are due to motions filed by defense attorneys, forensic hearings and evidentiary hearings.

 

Schulman, who asked to be reappointed to the case following the mistrial, said prosecutors have offered him plea agreements to reduce his prison sentence.

 

Sierra has rejected those deals, he said.

 

"He is willing to risk his life," Schulman said. "He told me, 'Just because I have a family member that did something wrong doesn't mean I did.'"