michigan

Faced with orders to appear before a vindictive and unconstrained county judge - 'Jailin Judge' Prentis Edwards - tomorrow (Thursday) the Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) had a morning, Wednesday, of emergency meetings of its board of directors, senior executives, and lawyers.

A state court of appeals has overthrown the jailing of two top officials of the Ambassador Bridge, Matty Moroun and Dan Stamper by Wayne County Court judge last month.

The depth of Michigan DOT senior officials' determination to destroy the reputation of the Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) people, and their animus, is reported in a lawyer's letter from 2009. The lawyer Kenneth C Harrison was working at the time for Walter Lubienski who owned strategically located land in the middle of the planned expanded plaza area and ramps of the Gateway project.

The Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) has released an annotated commentary on a Michigan DOT Question & Answer statement on the long running Gateway Plaza controversy that has generated so much heat in Detroit. This has seen expensive demolitions, demands for more demolitions and rebuilds - all located on the private land of the bridge company.

Several of our readers have expressed sadness at the prospect of Jailin Judge Edwards being taken off the Ambassador Bridge case in Detroit MI. They say their day often gets off to a great start with peels of laughter, and you-won't-believe-this coffee machine banter after reading about the latest antics of the Jailin Judge there in Detroit.

One suggested they could do with a Jailin Judge in her hometown in Texas.

It is one of the most fundamental tenets of English common law and of American justice that the accused have the right to know the evidence against them, and to dispute it - but not in the court being conducted by Judge Prentis Edwards in Wayne County District Court in Detroit. Two Ambassador Bridge men Manuel 'Matty' Moroun and Dan Stamper were sent to jail January 12 on the basis of a secret report.

Michigan DOT won the latest round in the longrunning court battle over the US Gateway plaza project. Wayne Circuit Court Judge Prentis Edwards, without hearing any new evidence on the state of construction, reiterated previous rulings he'd made that the bridge company was in contempt of court for not followings orders he'd made on demolitions and construction in the Gateway area.

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is asking for a court order transferring control of the Ambassador Bridge approaches and plaza area to a court-appointed receiver.

A proposed new Canada-Michigan sponsored toll bridge downriver of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit continues to lack support in the state legislature. Enabling legislation was rejected today by a key senate committee in which bridge promoters had invested great hopes.

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) continued to insist in court in Detroit this week that the Ambassador Bridge company executives are defying court orders to remove non-conforming structures and should be jailed for contempt of court. Wayne County Judge Prentis Edwards sent bridge company president Dan Stamper to jail in January for contempt.