Judge T. David Law

Time heals all wounds. This time last year, the district court bench out in Novi was in complete disarray. Judge MacKenzie was being sued by the Oakland County Prosecutor and the feds were sniffing around, while down the hall, Judge Powers had his troubles with the Judicial Tenure Commission.

Now, an election has taken care of Judge MacKenzie, and Judge Powers resigned on the eve of his judicial tenure trial.  New judges are on the bench in Novi these days.

Judge Travis Reeds took the bench in January following his election victory over Judge MacKenzie. And although the list was very long with judicial hopefuls, Governor Snyder finally selected T. David Law, a First Assistant Attorney General, over many other well-qualified candidates.

Newly-appointed Judge Law will finish out the balance of now-retired Judge Powers' term and run for election in November 2016. With a name like Law, we think he'll have a great chance to get elected in Novi.

This is a very good development as the Novi District Court is a busy place. That court handles some of Oakland County's prime real estate.

So we here at the Law Blogger are glad that the dust has finally settled over there. In fact, one of our lawyers is scheduled for trial in Novi next week.

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It has happened before in places throughout Michigan, no doubt.  An election that pits the legal mentor, in this case Novi's district court judge, Brian MacKenzie, against his former law clerk, attorney Travis Reeds.

It's getting kinda dirty and uncomfortable over there right now.  That's usually the case with hotly contested races of any kind  -this non-partisan one is no exception.

Meanwhile, down the hall, the selection process continues for a replacement to fill the recently vacated seat of now-retired Judge Dennis Powers.  The Governor's list on that seat is long folks, very long.

The general election is on Tuesday, November 4th.  Be sure to examine the non-partisan portion of your ballot; you will find a full-slate of judicial candidates for all the courts in Michigan, including your local district court judge.

We here at the Law Blogger anxiously await the results for each of these Novi judgeships.

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Novi District Judge Dennis Powers

Over here at the Law Blogger, we've dared to imagine what it's like to be a judge.  While none of our lawyers have ever been on the non-partisan ballot, we work with enough judges to marvel at the awesome responsibilities they shoulder every day, and the substantial powers entrusted to them to decide cases.

To maintain a well-oiled docket, either at the district court or the circuit court level, is a monumental task that requires legal knowledge, wisdom and perhaps most importantly, management skills.  As either a circuit or district court judge, you are elected from the very community in which you pronounce judgment, day-in-day-out.

 Judges, even more so than our public servants in the other branches of government, must have impeccable integrity.  When a judge breaches the public's trust, it erodes the fabric of our justice system; when that breach is due to dishonesty, the damage is accelerated.

Two veteran jurists in Novi have been in the news over the past year for this type of mission-critical breakdown.  They have left their communities wondering about the brand of justice that is served at the 52/1st District Court.

Last week, the Judicial Tenure Commission filed a 58-page complaint against district judge Dennis Powers, alleging among other things that Judge Powers requested reimbursements to which he was not entitled, was frequently late to court, granted favors to his "friends", as famously detailed in a Fox News' expose, and threatened to terminate the whistle-blower on his staff after the local media reported on the story.

For his part, Judge Brian MacKenzie, in the adjacent chambers at the 52/1st, is also under scrutiny; his docket is being reviewed by a higher court; and a tape recording made in Judge MacKenzie's chambers about a questionable conversation the judge directed involving an exchange of dismissals, civil for criminal, is under review by the FBI.  We shall see where all that goes...

Our blog has already detailed some of the shenanigans sponsored by Judge Brian MacKenzie in an earlier Law Blogger post.  Since then, Oakland Circuit Judge Colleen O'Brien did find that Judge MacKenzie acted contrary to the law in at least 8 cases, and ordered part of his docket [in domestic violence cases] to be subject to her review.

Then there is the 2014 election where the allegations against Judge MacKenzie will be tested on the non-partisan ballot, first in the August primary, then in the general election if MacKenzie survives the primary; he is being challenged by two local attorneys- his former law clerk Travis Reeds, and Scott Powers, Judge Dennis Powers' son.

With the formal JTC complaint now filed against him, it is uncertain whether Judge Powers will even make it through the two years remaining on his term.  That would open-up a seat on this radioactive bench for Governor Rick Snyder to fill through a local judicial appointment.

In order to restore faith in our local judiciary, Governor Snyder needs to get that appointment right, should he have the opportunity.  Stay tuned and we will keep you posted of all significant developments happening out in Novi.

In the meantime, if you've had an interesting experience in a district court, we would like to hear from you.

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Novi Judge Brian McKenzie

By: Timothy P. Flynn

I'm aging myself by belonging to a group of 50-something lawyers that can recall when Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper was a circuit court judge, then a Court of Appeals judge.  Now she is, of course, the Oakland County Prosecutor.  Impressive career trajectory.

And as the prosecutor, Judge Cooper's career is now intersecting with another local judicial luminary, Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie. Their career collision comes through a complaint the prosecutor filed   -in the form of a petition for a Writ of Superintending Control-   with the Oakland County Circuit Court, now assigned to Judge Leo Bowman.

The Writ alleges illegal conduct against the Novi judge.  Judge MacKenzie has struck back hard with a responsive pleading that, on first blush, sure calls into question the propriety of the prosecutor's Writ.

Channel 7 Action News was one of the first news outlets to break the story about the details of Cooper's allegations.  Judge Cooper alleges that over the past decade, Judge MacKenzie handed down sentences that did not comport with the law; that he dismissed cases after guilty pleas were tendered and accepted by the Court; that he dismissed cases stating it was with the consent of the prosecutor when there was no such prosecutorial consent; and perhaps most disturbingly, that he removed these cases from the public files of the Novi District Court.

Judge McKenzie is one of those judges that polarizes public opinion.  Truly, he is an iconic figure in our local judiciary.  Some folks love him; others not so much.

Several of the defendants that have been sentenced by MacKenzie applaud the justice they received in his courtroom; Channel 7 had a few willing to go on camera to defend the judge.  You do not have to look very far around Novi, Milford and Highland to encounter people who respect Judge MacKenzie's brand of justice.

On the other hand, now-retired Oakland Circuit Judge Steven N. Andrews admonished Judge MacKenzie on an appeal from the Novi District Court to the Oakland Circuit Court way back in 2004.  In reversing McKenzie's judgment of sentence, Judge Andrews, in a tersely-worded opinion called-out the district judge for meting-out sentences that did not comport with the law; Judge Andrews characterized MacKenzie's sentences as an illegal "pattern of conduct."

We here at the Law Blogger have always known Judge MacKenzie to be devoted to the Sobriety Court he established and nurtured in the Novi District Court and to the concept of required sobriety for alcohol-convicted probationers in general.  He is also known as a friend of veterans, recently starting a veterans' court in Novi.

There used to be websites devoted to a favorable portrayal of McKenzie and there are websites devoted to the disparagement of the good judge; now all deeply buried in Google's search results by this breaking story.

Some lawyers, vocal but who must remain nameless, view the manner in which Judge MacKenzie conducts a criminal call to be akin to "Kabuki Theater": heavy on drama, light on substance.  Others see him as a champion of justice that has a positive effect on the lives of the people that appear in his courtroom.

We now shall wait and see how the Oakland County Circuit Court Judge eventually assigned to the case assesses the allegations set forth in Judge Cooper's Writ.  Stay tuned for updates on this one.

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