Alfred Khattar, according to assistant prosecuting attorney Scott Ehlfeldt, was “the most accountable in this case,” the July 2011 abduction of a 90-year-old man from Regency Health Care, 12575 Telegraph. There were “puppets” under his control, Ehlfeldt said, but Khattar called the shots and his directions were followed by at least two other men, including his son and co-defendant, Ted Tomes.

Darrell Howard, 50, pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment in October, 2011 for his participation in taking Floyd Pickrell from the nursing home. The abduction was captured by security cameras which revealed two men hoisting Pickrell over a wall. Howard was sentenced in November to 2.5 to 15 years in prison by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Carole F. Youngblood.

Last week’s trial was the third for Khattar and Tomes: In October 2011 and again in February a hung jury resulted in a mistrial.

Tomes, 25, was declared not guilty of all charges last week after testifying that he was mislead by his father, with whom he’d only recently forged a relationship.

During testimony, Tomes explained that Khattar left his family not long after his birth, and eight years ago the teenage Tomes sought him out.

“I was curious,” Tomes said. “Every child should know his father.”

A sporadic relationship followed, and Tomes contacted his father occasionally while working and studying at Eastern Michigan University. Usually, Tomes made the trip to a Taylor coffee shop owned by Khattar, where Floyd Pickrell was a frequent customer.

Tomes said that last year his father asked him to help the aging man, known as “Pickle” to his friends, as he was free to leave Regency Health Care but needed a place to stay for a few days, perhaps a week.

Tomes agreed and drove Pickrell to a motel in Ypsilanti not far from his work and fraternity house.

Red flags began waving, Tomes said, when his father assured him he wasn’t “doing anything wrong”” and also to wrap his cell phone in aluminum foil when they discussed Pickrell.

Doubts turned to certainty when, the second night after taking Pickrell away from the nursing home, Tomes said they were watching TV in the hotel room.

“I think that’s me,” Pickrell told Tomes, who watched news reports of an all-out search for Pickrell.

“I didn’t understand what I was seeing,” Tomes said. “I was scared to death.”

Tomes testified that he tried calling Khattar but did not make contact. He checked out of the hotel, and prepared to take Pickrell back to Taylor.

Asked by Ehlfeldt why he didn’t call the police, Tomes said he, “wasn’t in (his) right

mind” and that he “absolutely should have” called the authorities.

Instead, officers with the Wasthenaw County Sheriff’s Department and Taylor Police showed up at the hotel, having been alerted by a hotel employee who recognized Pickrell from the newscasts.

“I did it because it was my dad and I should have been able to trust him,” Tomes said. “Clearly I was wrong.”

Ehlfeldt emphasized in his closing arguments that Khattar was the “mastermind” of the abduction. Investigators said that Khattar had until recently been a guardian of Pickrell until a court order removed Khattar from that authority. Khattar then planned to kidnap the elderly man for financial gain.

The jury found Khattar guilty of unlawful imprisonment, conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment, and third- and fourth-degree vulnerable adult abuse.

Khattar is scheduled to be sentenced June 6.

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

Taylor Police Cmdr. Mary Sclabassi said that an interracial couple on Bailey Street were targeted last week with threatening messages scrawled on a door and window, a pink noose left on the front door, and several threatening telephone calls the night before from a private number.

The couple, a 25-year-old black man and his fiancee, a 22-year-old white woman, told police that the telephone calls threatened that he would be killed.

The woman told police that she recently had a disagreement with a co-worker at a Detroit club, and that the woman made racist comments to her.

Police collected evidence and are investigating, and ask that anyone with information call 734-287-6611.

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

After submitting a plan last month to Michigan Treasury officials for eliminating a projected $5 million deficit over five years, state auditors responded with an April 23 letter requesting further details on proposed revenues. City administration has until May 23 to answer state questions.

Mayor Jeffrey Lamarand said that variances of more than 20 percent between one year’s revenue and projections for the next raised questions in Lansing. Taylor’s submitted plan predicts a spending decline of nearly $20 million and revenue projections falling by about $12 million. In spite of a deficit for the current fiscal year, based on the submitted numbers the city’s debt will be eliminated within five years.

“They’re looking to see if there are any inflated revenues,” Lamarand said. “My concern is that they’re not addressing our full problem. This may only be the first phase of their evaluation.”

Lamarand said last week the city’s budget and finance department will prepare supportive documents for state review, and that the city’s financial struggles are far from over. Next week’s city council meeting will likely include a proposal to borrow funds from internal sources — temporarily shifting funds within departments in order to meet payroll — but that the search for long-term solutions continues.

“We’re trying to attract cash flow,” Lamarand said. “If (the state) is just looking to see if we inflated revenues in order to show a balanced budget, it may just lead to further problems. I’m sure that’s what they’re trying to account for and prevent.”

For more than a year the city struggled with a shrinking budget, loss of jobs and reductions in service, with countless debates held between elected officials and administrators. City Council Chair Cheryl Burke said the state review of budget projections may be a long-needed wake-up call for an objective look at hard numbers free of personal bias.

“It’s sad that friends might get laid off,” Burke said. “But the community’s been laid off for three years. We can’t look at faces and names, we have to look at the math.”

Burke said that state officials will review a multi-year backlog of city finances, which may tell a story that some don’t want told.

“They asked for the history. I love that they’re doing that,” Burke said. “They will see the pattern that’s been in place for 10 years. The reality is that when we run out of money it will be an obvious kick in the pants.”

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

Beth Chirillo, 42, was arraigned April 24 before 23rd District Court Judge William J. Sutherland on one count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more.

Prosecutors and police investigators allege that Chirillo stole more than $200,000 from J&J Digital Solutions, a Livonia photocopying firm that was located in Taylor during the period of investigation.

Embezzlement is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $50,000 or three times the amount embezzled, whichever is greater.

According to reports, Chirillo was the first employee hired by J&J, and accepted multiple responsibilities including payroll; at one point Chirillo was listed as Human Resources director. Allegedly, Chirillo began awarding herself sales commissions of thousands of dollars although she was not a sales person.

Investigators began looking into reported regularities about a year ago, and said that Chirillo more than doubled her salary through fraudulent means, provided her family with cellular phones paid for by the company; and accepted cash payments for copy machines turned in to be recycled.

Chirillo, who is married to a Southgate police officer, was released on $10,000 personal bond. A preliminary examination is scheduled in 23rd District Court for May 21.

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

As of last week, more than 60 teams and nearly 400 participants raised more than $30,000 for the American Cancer Society, and plans for the remaining weeks before the event include “Rockin’ for the Relay,” hosted by the Rockers Team.

A night of classic rock is on tap at the Taylor Eagles Hall, 23900 Goddard, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday. Tribute bands include Sons of Detroit, The Nighmare (Alice Cooper), Katmandu (Bob Seger) and Rock City Voodoo (Stevie Ray Vaughan). Doors open at 6 p.m., and music and dancing continue until 11 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, $15 in advance available at www.netpix.com.

Plans for Relay For Life Taylor continue to be finalized, and certain traditions held at all Relay events include a Survivor’s Lap, Luminaria Ceremony at dusk with candles lit in honor of a cancer victim or survivor, and the FIght Back Ceremony in which participants make a personal stand in the fight against cancer.

For more information on the Rockers fundraiser and Relay For Life Taylor 2012, go to www.relayforlife.org.

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

By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — The decision to sell the Taylor Sportsplex for $6 million was approved by a close vote of city council Tuesday, a 4-3 decision that reflected mixed opinions on the sale.

“It’s in the best interest of the city,” Mayor Jeffrey Lamarand said. “I think it’s a catalyst; there’s not really a downside to us.”

Lamarand presented the plan to sell the sports center for $6 million to JRV Consulting, which operates the center under contract to Taylor. Included in the proposal was the sale of 14 acres south of the Sportsplex for likely development as a hotel and restaurant.

Dissenting councilors John Delo, Rick Sollars and Dennis Stapleton supported the idea of the sale, but said last week’s vote was premature and that further assessment of the complex and property value was needed.

“This is a purchase agreement that poses more questions than answers,” Delo said. “I’m certain someone didn’t just walk into the mayor’s office last Thursday. There must have been time for an appraisal to be considered.”

Delo said that too much of the plan relied on projects that have not yet been confirmed, including commitments from a hotel or restaurant chain.

Lamarand said the purchase will spur development and bring revenue to the city, however the price tag does not impact the looming $5 million debt, for which a 5-year elimination plan was submitted to state officials earlier this month. The $6 million from the sale would, by requirement, pay down the city’s existing Tax Increment Finance Authority debt. There will, Lamarand said, be tax revenues realized from both the Sportsplex and development sparked by the sale.

“This is a win-win,” Lamarand said. “Not only will Taylor pay down a significant portion of debt, JRV will move their corporate offices from Ohio to Taylor.”

Under the terms of the agreement, plans for a hotel and restaurant must be in place within two years.

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

Some, including Council Chairwoman Cheryl Burke and Mayor Jeffery Lamarand, were uncertain if the submitted plan will work.

The final plan was approved April 5 and provided to the state by Monday’s final deadline. The decisions made in the final hours, Lamarand said, “placed the city at greater risk of financial hardship.”

In January, state auditors told city council members that a projected budget deficit of $5 million needed to be brought in line. If not, the state was prepared to initiate emergency financial management.

Multiple, lengthy meetings failed to reach a compromise among elected officials, who requested a deadline extension. State officials provided a final cutoff date of April 9 for a plan to eliminate the deficit within five years.

Rather than the anticipated department cuts and possible layoffs, the approved plan outlined an elimination of a projected $5 million deficit through an increase in tax revenues and anticipated reduction in police and fire pensions.

The revised plan was approved during a special meeting held April 5. Councilman Rick Sollars proposed the revised budget and explained that, by identifying additional revenues, staffing can remain at current levels for the foreseeable future. Adjusting projections for court costs and a potential grant for fire department staffing, Sollars said the plan does not predict any more job losses.

“I can’t tell you there will won’t be any municipal layoffs,” Sollars said. “But there is additional money put back in trying to get them back to the levels they are at now.”

Sollars said that revised projections forecast a decrease in the taxable values of most homes, which would adjust millage income favoring the city.

Council chair Cheryl Burke opposed the plan, and said it relied on uncertain income.

“I’m not clear where all the revenue comes from,” Burke said. Burke and council woman Jill Brandana voted against the approved measure.

Lamarand said Monday that the plan did not make the necessary cuts to reverse a growing gap between income and expenses.

“By waiting until the 11th hour, City Council has left the city no choice but to submit the (debt elimination plan) that was approved this evening,” Lamarand said. “I must follow the legal process even though I believe the changes adopted in the council’s version of the plan fails to address the city’s deficit in any way.”

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

Taylor Fire Chief Bob Tompos said the house was empty when the fire started. The family was doing some restoration work to include sanding; the five children were staying with relatives and their mother was away for about two hours when the fire started at about 7 p.m. April 7.

“We’re not sure how it started,” Tompos said. “At some point a fire started. It was smoldering when we got there. There were no visible flames. It didn’t really flare up until the doors opened.”

Tompos said that fire marshals were investigating the cause, which may have been electrical in origin.

While the children were safe, the fire cost the family their 13-year-old pet dog, which likely died from smoke inhalation or a heart attack.

“Unfortunately, the 13-year-old dog died,” Tompos said. “We even tried to resuscitate” the animal, found in an area consumed by heat and smoke.

Tompos said the response time by his department was matched by Allen Park, which sent a crew to the bordering neighborhood near Ecorse and Pelham.

In spite of the department’s best efforts — one firefighter nearly fell through a burning floor — the interior and belongings were thoroughly destroyed. A neighbor and TCF Bank have set up an account to help the mother, Lynn K. Dobert, replace lost clothing for three girls, ages 13, 12 and 6, and two boys ages 9 and 6. Anyone wishing to donate clothing or money is asked to contact Fifth Third Bank, 9691 Telegraph, 313-292-5048.

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

After weeks of meetings, study sessions and public debate, a five-year strategy for repairing Taylor’s finances was approved Thursday by the City Council.

“It shows at the end of five years a surplus of revenue,” Treasurer Lynn Cleary said Friday. Cleary said it is believed that the submitted plan will meet state requirements, and emergency management takeover will not be enacted.

In January, state treasury officials reviewed the struggling city’s finances, and asked for a plan to eliminate a growing deficit. A January audit revealed a $1.7 million deficit for the fiscal year ending June 2011, and a projected 2012 deficit in excess of $5 million.

A February deadline for a revised, five-year budget plan was extended while city officials negotiated with employee unions, eliminated positions — including two with the Department of Public Works — and debated wholesale city ordinance changes including the elimination of pensions and benefits for part-time elected officials.

A proposed request for a Headlee Amendment override was also considered and approved, but was later cancelled during the lengthy study process.

Thursday, the council approved a plan for submission to the state treasury by a 4-1 vote, with Council Chair Cheryl Burke dissenting; council women Suzanne Weycker and Jill Brandana were not present for voting.

Cleary said the revised plan included shifting revenues within various department budgets, and council approved a number of amendments addressing benefit packages. Details of the plan were not available by press time.

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