At the beginning of a recorded conversation in February 2011, Paravas told Michigan State Police investigators he absolutely, “did not have sex” with the plaintiff, a woman he encountered at the La Quinta Inn, 12888 Reeck Road, while answering a domestic disturbance call in February 2011.

“Nothing sexual happened between her and I,” Paravas insisted.

The conversation continued, however, and by the end of the interview Paravas admitted that a sexual encounter took place.

“She was grateful and wanted to show me,” Paravas said. “She wasn’t forced to do anything.”

A jury in the courtroom of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry listened to most of the estimated 90-minute interview, along with other witnesses.

Various accounts were told of what began late in the evening on Feb. 8, 2011, when the woman and her husband arrived in Southgate. She was scheduled to appear at a club as a touring adult entertainer the following night.

That afternoon, the woman left the hotel twice to purchase alcohol, and by late evening was engaged in a heated hotel lobby argument with her husband.

Hotel staff contacted the police, and Paravas was the lead investigator to respond. After interceding between the married couple, it was decided to take the woman to another hotel, a nearby Holiday Inn, and Paravas escorted her and made sure she was checked into a room.

Paravas returned to the room twice, he said, once to confirm information for his report, and again after speaking with the woman’s husband.

The woman testified that she recalled little of the night after a certain point, having consumed several small bottles of wine and an apple martini at a bar prior to the argument in the lobby. What she remembered next was when Paravas entered the room a third time, removed something from his belt, handcuffed the woman and raped her.

“Wise up or you’re going to jail,” the woman claimed Paravas told her.

The details of the evening before and morning after were many, and evidence confirmed a long night in a troubled marriage. The woman and her husband admitted that she drank heavily, often to alcoholic blackout, and that they argued throughout the afternoon and evening. Paravas, Southgate Police officers and hotel staff described a heated confrontation in a hotel lobby and the decision to take the woman to another location for the night.

At issue, however, is whether or not a crime was committed. The woman and her husband contacted Michigan State Police investigators five days after the night in question, and detectives soon interviewed Paravas at Southgate. Shortly after the taped interview that was played in court last week, Paravas resigned in March 2011 from the Southgate Police Department after a Garrity hearing was held.

In May Paravas was arraigned in 27th District Court, and in time was bound over for a jury trial in circuit court. Paravas is accused of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, misconduct in office and neglect of duty.

Paravas was reportedly expected to take the stand Friday before the jury would begin deliberations. Paravas faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of sexual assault.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE – As if being a teen wasn’t tough enough, some local high school seniors have overcome adversity and are graduating in June, having turned negatives into positives and wounds into wisdom.

At Southgate Anderson High School three girls have found strength within themselves to keep themselves on track to graduate June 6 despite the death of family members, uncertain home situations and other obstacles that many adults – let alone teens – would find daunting.

TAJHANE’: DON’T GIVE UP
Sleep is often a luxury for teenager Tajhane’ Clark, 18, of Ecorse, who is often up past midnight and awake before dawn.

After working her after-school job at MacDonald’s on Fort Street in Southgate until 10 p.m., getting home to Ecorse by 11 p.m. and then to bed by midnight, high school senior Tajhane’ Clark, 18, is up again at 6 a.m.

She catches a 6:30 a.m. SMART bus to get from Ecorse, where she lives with her mother, to Southgate Anderson High School before 7:51 a.m. for her first class.

Clark, who enrolled at Southgate Anderson as a junior through the schools of choice program, said she’s moved a lot in the last few years and has lived in different family members’ houses, which disrupted her schooling.

She said the SMART buses do not always arrive on time or at all for her 50-to-60 minute bus ride.

“I’ll just be standing there, waiting in the cold, or the rain or the snow,” Clark said. “It seems like it takes forever.”

Clark said the last few years have been “a rocky road.” She said despite having limited free time (she does homework during classes and on work breaks) between school and work she tries to keep herself positive and focused and prays every day.

She said she tries to “go with the flow,” but looks back daily to see what she can do better the next day.

In August Clark plans to move to Kansas City, Mo. to live with a cousin who attends the University of Missouri while she attends Metropolitan Community College to begin her studies to become a registered nurse.

Clark became interested in nursing when she helped her grandmother, a Type 2 diabetic who died Nov. 28, with her insulin shots.

She said she draws spiritual support from her church, Mount Zion Missionary Baptist in Ecorse, and from a friend who urges her to overcome obstacles when others say things are beyond her reach.

She said she even becomes motivated when people give up on her.

“It makes me want to work harder, to believe in myself… that I have no choice but to do it,” Clark said. “Because where will I go in life if I don’t succeed?”

KASYERA: JUST KEEP GOING
Like Clark, Kasyera Kowalczyk learned to draw on her inner strength to overcome obstacles that stood between her and her goals.

After being in a physical altercation with her alcoholic mother, who was her custodial parent for about six years after her parents’ divorce, Kowalczyk, now 18 and a high school senior, said she learned that things don’t stay bad.

Though senior year is when many start thinking about the “real world” outside of the shelter of high school, for Kowalczyk, that growing up process happened at a much younger age.

Her parents divorced when she was in fourth grade, and things got bad when she was in eighth grade.

Her mother, her custodial parent, started drinking more, and Kowalczyk found herself running the household.

“I was 13 years old and making sure bills got paid,” Kowalczyk said. “I was making sure we had groceries, and electric was on, water was on, I was running the house. I was cleaning, I was cooking… I was doing all of that at 15.”

Kowalczyk said she no longer has direct contact with her mother, whom her older half-brother, 31, and a half- sister, 26, support.

She said went to therapy for a year after she went to live with her father, but hated it and stopped going.

She said she moved in with her father Dec. 6, 2009, halfway through her high school sophomore year, and on April 20, 2010 her father officially received custody of her.

She is enrolled at Baker College in Allen Park for next year, and said she hopes to transfer to the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. She said some day she would like to have a photography studio and gallery in Chicago.

She said her motto is simple.

“Just keep going… it’s got to get easier,” Kowalczyk said. “Things don’t stay bad forever, and I know that – I’ve been through enough to know that things don’t stay bad, so I just deal with it.”

BRANDY: LIVING WITH LOSS AND WALKING FOR A CAUSE
High school senior Brandy Rast, 17, also knows what it is like to have her life turned upside down.

The second Sunday in May was emotional for Rast, who lost her mother to breast cancer last year on May 7, the day before Mother’s Day.

Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2009 when Rast was a sophomore at Southgate Anderson High School. Her mother went through chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which Rast said made her really weak.

Rast is living with her stepfather now to finish high school. She plans to live with her father next year when she enrolls in Bowling Green State University in Ohio to study nursing.

She said she’s become stronger whether she wanted to or not because even though people have been supportive, she doesn’t have her mom there to do things for her like many of her friends do.

She said that few people know how weak and sensitive she is inside.

“When I’m around people I try to be as strong as I can,” she said. “But when I’m at home by myself, I just lose it. It’s difficult.”

Rast took part in the 2011 Making Strides against Breast Cancer Walk Oct. 15, 2011 on Belle Isle in Detroit and raised almost $600 — nearly double her $300 goal for breast cancer research. She walked the 5 miles around Belle Isle with her grandparents.

“I had a lot of fun and I felt good because I helped raise money for a good cause to cure breast cancer,” Rast said.

Winners of the Kiwanis essay contest and their families will present their thoughts Monday during a ceremony at Holiday Inn on Northline Road. Mark Piegza, Youth Committee chair for Kiwanis, invited students at Gerisch, St. Pius and Christ the King schools to answer the $100 question, and completed essays resulted in five winners and five honorable mentions that highlighted the work of notable charities including Cell Phones for Soldiers, Gleaners Food Bank and others.

Kiwanis member Dave Warren said that the essay contest is an annual tradition that encourages student awareness of local charities while contributing to the cause.

The five winners being honored Monday and their charities are: Kristen Cunningham, Penrickton Center for Blind Children; Vanessa Minella, Operation Smile; Joseph Mathis, Cell Phones for Soldiers; D’Asia Robinson, Gleaners Food Bank; and Joseph Hancock, Cell Phones for Soldiers. Each of the five organizations will be presented with their donation by the student essayist.

The five honorable mention essayists and their causes are: Avery Ortman, Alzheimer’s Association; Tara Clark, the Rainbow Connection; Karis Gafa, Art Feeds; Morgan Porter, S.A.C.E. Cares Food Bank; and Haley Picklo, Stepping Stones.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

No worries, said Mayor Joseph Kuspa, and classic cars will still spend June 30 revving up and down Fort through Lincoln Park, Southgate Wyandotte and Riverview.

“There was no attempt to cancel or not support the cruise,” Kuspa said. “We just want it to be as safe as possible.”

More than 50,000 participants and spectators are expected to gather, with a variety of events bringing family fun and new friends to town. This year’s route will be something of an obstacle course, with repaving and other projects limiting passage along Fort Street.

Kuspa said that the council held a work-study session and discussed last week whether to approve a resolution recommending canceling the event to sponsoring organization the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber of Commerce that a cancellation of the cruise.

“The council asked the administration to basically inform the Chamber of our concerns,” Kuspa said. “It was mostly a communication of concerns.”

The council received a letter from Sandy Mull, president of the Wayne County Regional Chamber, which shared the council’s issues about safety. The cruise will be held, Kuspa said, with additional cautions taken on behalf of participants and spectators.

“Every efort must be taken to make sure it’s safe for all involved,” Kuspa said. The council was told that a kep member of the cruise board is from the Michigan Department of Transportation, who assured local officials that communication and safety will be a priority for the event.

“That put to rest a lot of concerns,” Kuspa said.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE — The history of preserving the community’s heritage is a story unto itself, and a new chapter begins with the formation of the Southgate Heritage Foundation.

Efforts to maintain local history has been the mission of two organizations: the independent Southgate Historical Society and a government-appointed Southgate Historical Commission.

“For over a generation Southgate has had two entities preserving local history,” Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa said. “They shared the responsibilities at the historic home.”

The city purchased the building which serves as the community museum in the early 1970s. The historic Grahl house at 14120 Dix-Toledo Rd. — typical of local homes in the 1920s — houses local memorabilia, old newspapers and yearbooks and other artifacts. As with many local organizations, the Society struggled over the years to balance fund-raising with research and artifact preservation.

“In looking at the long-term success of promoting our history, it seemed a good idea for the two groups to unite as one entity,” Kuspa said.

Membership in both the Society and Commission often overlaps, with a core group of dedicated volunteers including Commission chair Jerry Pesci. While optimistic about the potential for a dedicated Foundation to make the most of local resources, Pesci said the transition from the current organization to a long-term Foundation remains to be seen.

“There is a proposal by the mayor that both groups dissolve and form one body,” Pesci said.

Within the groups are varying opinions as to whether or not a restructured foundation is the best course.

“Everyone has an opinion,” Pesci said. “One group might make it easier to come to a consensus, but each group has basically the same goals.”

The plan for a dedicated Foundation will include oversight by a 15-member board of directors. Five seats will be appointed by the mayor, who will meet with five recommended appointees from within the current Society and Commission. The combined 10-member panel will appoint the final five directors, at which point bylaws and nonprofit status will be established.

Kuspa said that the Foundation offers a combination of the institutional knowledge held by longtime Society volunteers and the introduction of fresh perspectives dedicated to solidifying the long-term mission.

“This is an opportunity to bring other stake holders on to better its longevity and fund-raising capability,” Kuspa said. “At some point it becomes self-sufficient and grows, as opposed to two entities. There’s a lot of passion, and a lot of people who have served, and this is the best way of moving forward.”

Articles of incorporation remain to be approved, along with bylaws for the Foundation. In addition to the artifacts on display and in storage at the Grahl house, a local history room will be established at the Southgate Veterans Memorial Library, 14680 Dix-Toledo Road.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

The planning commission and city council recently cleared the way for further expansion by AJM, to include relocation of its world headquarters.

The Southgate City Council approved on April 18 the rezoning of five parcels in the vicinity of Northline and Allen roads; the proposed AJM headquarters will be built on 16.2 acres rezoned for commercial use.

“This allows for future expansion which could include their world headquarters,” Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa said.

The manufacturer will soon begin previously approved plans to expand its production facility on Reeck Road by 50,000 square feet, bringing 100 new jobs to the area with expectations of more to follow.

Kuspa said that Bloomfield Hills-based AJM is expected to invest more than $28 million in property and personnel for the project. The company manufacturers paper products and considered moving its operations to New Jersey before reaching an agreement with Southgate officials and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Commercial development by AJM joins recent projects including a new Wal-Mart at Eureka adn Dix-Toledo roads, and the continuation of the $1.5 million Eureka Road corridor project managed by the Downtown Development Authority, including a streetscape project.

“We’ve been very aggressive in promoting Southgate to local businesses,” Kuspa said.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller said Heaney was found guilty of a moving violation causing serious impairment, a misdemeanor punishable by 93 days in jail.

Following two days’ testimony and evidence before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Carole Youngblood, a jury acquitted Heaney of two charges: failure to stop at the scene of a personal injury accident, a five-year felony, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident, a 93-day misdemeanor.

Prosecutors said that, about 5 a.m., Aug. 22, Heaney was driving a vehicle belonging to a friend when he struck a motorcycle on Telegraph Road in Brownstown Township. The collision resulted in extensive injuries to the rider, Rockwood resident John Carter, and damage to both the 1999 Harley-Davidson and his friend’s car, a 2000 Mercury Cougar.

Miller said Carter suffered a broken leg, a punctured lung and three broken ribs.

Heaney left the scene after the accident, stopped at a gas station, and returned the vehicle unaware that the bumper and license plate were left behind, which directed police to the vehicle’s owner and, subsequently, Heaney.

Defense attorneys maintained that Heaney was not aware of the accident or injury. The Harley connected with the rear bumper of the Cougar, a fact not disputed while the extent of the damage was difficult to prove. Witnesses reportedly testified that the investigation failed to provide evidence of the damage, or a sobriety test for Heaney — too much time elapsed between the accident and when police spoke with Heaney.

Defense attorneys cited the police work as allowing sufficient reasonable doubt that Heaney was aware of the accident when he left the scene.

In the aftermath of the accident and arrest last year, Heaney was placed on leave from the Southgate Police Department before being dismissed from the department following an internal investigation.

Heaney is scheduled for sentencing May 3.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

“It’s a substantial amount of money,” Mayor Joseph Kuspa said of the award, administered through Wayne County as part of the federal Housing and Economic Redevelopment Act. “This is the first time Southgate qualified.”

Under the grant, Southgate will use $515,000 to purchase and rehabilitate abandoned or vacant properties. Once complete, the county works with residents who fall below 50 percent of the area’s median income toward home ownership.

Kuspa announced the grant acquisition at Wednesday’s city council meeting, and said the target group of the grant is for seniors and veterans, and that once the specific properties have been identified, application information will be made available on the city’s web site, www.southgatemi.org.

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)

Grusecki will take over effective July 1 from Interim Superintendent Nancy Nagle, who was asked last year to fill in for retiring superintendent David Peden. Nagle’s early days on duty included the announcement that general education bus service would not be available for 2011-12 due to budget cuts, which set the tone for a challenging year that included privatized custodial service.

“There was a lot of controversy and disappointment at the beginning,” Nagle said. “There were some pretty rough times, but people settled in because they know we had no choice.”

For Grusecki, Southgate seemed a different world than he’d experienced with the Arenac Eastern School District. A native of the northern Lower Peninsula, Grusecki serves as superintendent and principal of the district and school he attended north of Bay City. At Arenac, Grusecki wears — as all staffers do — multiple hats in the small community, and he wondered if a different atmosphere would greet him at one of southeast Michigan’s largest districts.

“When I went down [for the interview] I felt extremely comfortable,” Grusecki said. “Almost like these are the same type of people, just a lot more of them.”

Those people, staff and administrators, face the same challenges whether Downriver or elsewhere in Michigan, and Grusecki said the biggest challenges are similar. State mandates, reduced enrollment and budget deficits to balance remain the key while focusing on education.

“After the legislators get off their [Spring] break we hope to have some definitive answers,” Grusecki said. “All districts, no matter where, will struggle and make cuts.”

Even prior to a July start date, Grusecki will be involved in administration decisions including hiring a special education director and new high school principal. Nagle said that Grusecki was asked to join the search process to better acquaint him with the candidates.

In some respects, Nagle said that Grusecki’s transition should be simple, as union contracts are set through 2013.

“He’s going to be in a lot better shape than he would in some places,” Nagle said. “We’ve got a good team in place, and he can get a feel for it and make his own plan for improvements.”

As for the new office space, Grusecki said that bringing together the school district under the same roof as city administration offers more advantages than flaws.

“It’s a good thing where they’re going,” Grusecki said. “Having all the entities together like that all in one place; we need to work together.”

(James Mitchell can be reached at jmitchell@bewickpublications.com.)