Former Detroit Deputy Chief of Police and Legal Advisor Pleads Guilty to Bribery Conspiracy

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-detroit-deputy-chief-police-and-legal-advisor-pleads-guilty-bribery-conspiracy

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Former Detroit Deputy Chief of Police and Legal Advisor Pleads Guilty to Bribery Conspiracy

A former Deputy Chief of Police for the Detroit Police Department, Celia Washington, 57, of Detroit, pleaded guilty today to conspiring with Gasper Fiore to commit bribery, in connection with the corruption of towing permits in Detroit, Acting United States Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch announced today.
(snip)

While serving as a Deputy Police Chief and the legal advisor to the Chief of Police, Washington’s responsibilities included overseeing the Detroit Police Department’s permitting, licensing, and use of private towing companies. During the plea hearing today, Washington admitted to accepting $3,000 in cash from tow company owner Gasper Fiore. On December 20, 2017, Fiore pleaded guilty to bribing Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds in connection with a Clinton Township towing contract. Washington admitted that she knew that Fiore was using the cash bribe to seek to influence her in the selection of tow rotations in the City of Detroit for Fiore’s towing companies. Under the city’s towing rotation, private towing companies are called by the police to tow cars that are seized by the police or had been stolen. When she accepted the bribe, Washington was aware that Fiore was violating the City of Detroit’s rules prohibiting a towing company owner from having more than one company in the rotation for a particular police precinct or district. After she accepted the $3,000 cash bribe from Fiore, Washington assisted in issuing a police towing rotation list that continued to allow Fiore to violate the city’s towing rules and that significantly benefited Fiore’s companies. Although Washington had claimed that the $3,000 in cash from Fiore was a “loan,” Washington admitted during her guilty plea that she kept the money and had spent some of it when she knew Fiore was seeking to bribe her in connection with the city’s tow rotations.

The bribery conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
(snip)

[TexasTowelie]

1. Another article with more details:

Lamb Chops, Libido and Ding Dongs -- the Strange, True Life of Gasper Fiore

A two-year getaway to a federal penitentiary might just be what the doctor ordered for Detroit towing titan and convicted briber, Gasper Fiore.

If FBI wiretap transcripts of Fiore's phone conversations are to be believed, it's apparent that the crooked car hauler made his money the hard way. His life as an influence peddler and deal broker was exhausting, infested with a vomit of mooches, plate-pickers, couch-surfers, cheap-suited-councilmen and free-drink Freddies.

Thumbing through sealed court documents obtained by Deadline Detroit after they were mistakenly unsealed before being re-sealed, a reader might realistically believe Fiore will be surrounded by a better class of people behind bars.

Take the example of City Councilman Gabe Leland. He's right there on page 56 of the transcripts. Leland dated Jennifer, one of Fiore's daughters, while voting for a series of city contracts that made the family millions of dollars.

Read more: http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/19087/leduff_lamb_chops_libido_and_meal_moochers_%2D%2D_the_strange_life_of_gasper_fiore#.WlgQXHlG3RZ