WAYNE COUNTY, MI- Guess it’s a matter of priorities. The same Michigan judge who dismissed a pro-Trump voter fraud suit apparently took time off from releasing Wayne County, MI., inmates accused of violent crimes, all in the name of COVID-19.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny, on November 13th, dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by witnesses of possible voter fraud at the TCF Center in Detroit claiming the witnesses were “not credible.”
In one particular case, a statement from a whistleblower from Dominion Voting Systems, Melissa Carone, was found to be “not credible” by Kenny.
Kenny denied a request to stop canvassing and certification of the county’s election results, whereby he dismissed sworn affidavits of six GOP poll challengers and a Detroit City Clerk employee.
Kenny also denied a request by poll challengers for an independent audit of the county’s results, claiming that state law covers the audit process. More on that in a minute.
Eight months ago, according to The Detroit News, Kenny said that he would begin to release inmates in response to the coronavirus outbreak while claiming at the time that those accused of violent crimes would stay locked up.
However, as the News discovered, Kenny has since released at least 35 Wayne County Jail inmates who were locked up in connection with violent crimes, having been either accused or convicted, a review of jail records found.
Among those released were four men convicted of criminal sexual assault and 14 others who had been convicted of assault. One of the sex offenders is back in jail after he got out initially and raped three women at knifepoint.
The News found dozens of other inmates who, although they are currently charged with or were convicted of nonviolent crimes, have previously been convicted of violent crimes and have been released due to COVID-19.
The outlet reached out to Kenney for comment, however, he refused to return calls. They said that in March, Kenney told the paper he didn’t plan to release anyone accused of violent crimes.
At the time, Kenny said:
“Those who are charged with serious, violent felonies, who were not given a bond or able to post bond, their circumstance is unlikely to change,” while adding that those facing drunk driving or domestic violence charges would have those situations “worked out,” but would likely remain in jail.
Between March and September, however Kenny released at least seven inmates who had been convicted of domestic violence and were either serving out their sentences in the jail or awaiting transport to prison.
In one such case, Kenny released a man after he’d pleaded guilty to domestic violence and assaulting a pregnant woman—which occurred while the suspect was on probation for a previous felony assault. That man also had a drug conviction as well as numerous probation violations.
The move to release prisoners was criticized by Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who attributed the release of prisoners to a spike in homicides and non-fatal shootings this year.
“This isn’t just happening in Detroit,” he said.
“Cities across the country have seen violent crime go up. It’s not rocket science—when you let violent criminals out of jail, you run the risk of having more violent crime. If anyone thinks releasing these violent offenders back into the community isn’t having an effect on crime, they’re sorely mistaken.”
In a case of “you’ve got to be kidding me,” assistant prosecutor Maria Miller said that while her office isn’t recommending violent criminals be freed, she said that:
“Judge Kenny is ultimately the person determining who will be released. Prosecutor Worthy believes that Judge Kenny has been very responsible about not releasing violent criminals.”
Chief Craig disputed that. “This judge needs to do more diligence when it comes to deciding who gets released,” he said. “I don’t see how you can justify letting someone out who has multiple violent convictions on their record. Then, if the crime rate goes up, people won’t be asking the judge about it—they’ll come knocking on my door.”
So, this is the man, Kenny, who made the decision to disregard sworn affidavits of individuals who alleged voter fraud in Wayne County, where the results of Michigan likely swung the race in that state from President Trump to Biden. Clearly, this man lacks judgment.
In one case, former Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck, an aerospace engineer and poll challenger, related, via a sworn affidavit, that he had seen evidence that Dominion Voting Systems voting machines were allegedly connected to the internet.
Kenny totally disregarded Colbeck’s statement, instead focusing on a Facebook post Colbeck had previously made where he alleged that Democrats would use COVID as a cover to commit election fraud. Kenny said this undermined his credibility as a witness.
In his opinion, Kenny wrote, “No formal challenges were filed. However, sinister, fraudulent motives were ascribed to the process and the City of Detroit. Plaintiff’s interpretation of events is incorrect and not credible.”
Kenny, who used COVID as an excuse to release violent felons into the community also used the coronavirus as an excuse for excluding Republican poll challengers from the Great Lakes Justice Center.
“GOP attorney Zachery Larsen’s affidavit addressed the issue of the GOP poll challengers who were locked out of the process after they left the counting room for lunch. Judge Kenny claimed that Democrat poll challengers were also locked out and that the decision to lock out the poll challengers was related to COVID and was a capacity issue.
“I was a poll challenger at the TCF Center and after the doors were locked, we lost about 40% of our GOP poll challengers. Democrat poll challengers and the Democrat agitators whose job it was to attack and distract GOP poll workers, had food and water brought into the counting room and didn’t have to go anywhere to eat lunch.
“The majority of the Democrats were still in the room while GOP poll challengers had to go to another floor in the TCF Center to get food and water. Upon learning that the GOP poll challengers were locked out, paid election workers and Democrat poll challengers and Democrat agitators erupted in cheers.”
Kenny has been the chief judge of the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County for 24 years. Maybe he should think about retiring. He’s clearly overmatched in his position.
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