This story originally aired January 15, 2009
INTRO: A Detroit man is facing up to 5 years in prison for selling stolen scrap metal— 400 thousand dollars worth. This is the biggest case so far for the new police copper theft task force. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports from 36th District court..
In 2007, Mark McCloud was jailed and convicted of selling stolen scrap metal. He was paroled in June of ‘08 and given a tether. In December he was arrested again for selling stolen scrap metal and charged with 7 other offenses. He’s an habitual offender. He was convicted on gun and drug charges when he was 20. He’s now 34. Dennis Doherty is prosecuting McCloud for Wayne County.
“The people have probable cause to believe the defendant is guilty of selling stolen scrap metal as a second hand dealer.”
Police obtained records from SLC Recycling in Warren. The scrap yard shows Mark McCloud sold them $400,000 of scrap metal in just over a year. Prosecutors want McCloud to stand trial in the higher court. His attorney Corbett O’Meara is trying to prove that while illegal activities were happening in one place McCloud was somewhere else.
“He seems like a pretty suspicious shady character. But there’s not probable cause. And just because the Detroit police department thinks you’re shady doesn’t mean this court should bind you over.”
GPS satellites tracked the tether on McCloud’s ankle. He owns a boarded up house on Mackenzie, near the Dearborn line. Prosecutors allege he would come to the house then sell scrap the same day. Sgt Dennis Ramell is a deputy sheriff who monitors parolees by their tethers. Defense attorney O’Meara tried to discredit him.
“You don’t what methodology was used in mapping every single house in Wayne County do you? You don’t whether or not they actually went and found out where each house is on each lot do you? And how big each lot is do you? You have no idea how accurate this is do you? Well I have to trust it. Exactly. Thank you.”
Omeara is 6 foot 2 and about 250 pounds. He loosened his tie and never buttoned his blue blazer. He had moved in and out of the courtroom several times waiting for the McCloud case to start. He joked with District Court Judge Katherine Hansen. His voice filled the room. O’Meara argued that the sherriff doesn’t control the GPS monitoring system. The sheriff relies on a private company for that. And since the sheriff doesn’t gather that information every day, the numbers on the data sheet are disconnected from this court case.
“If these showed that he had been over on Mackenzie 200 yards from the house he lives in, that would make it likelier that he committed a crime over on Mackenzie. But none of these records show that.”
O’Meara also questioned Detroit Police lieutenant Derrek Hassan on the witness stand. Hassan heads the Copper Theft Task Force. O’Meara steers the witness with questions to get yes or no answers. Then he makes his conclusion and sits down.
“You witnessed people knocking on the boards covering the windows or the doors to gain entrance to the house right? Yes. Did you find any documents in Mackenzie that indicated that had Mr. McCloud’s name on it. Other than city records, no.”
O’Meara argues that police can’t prove this particular Mark McCloud was scrapping. He says anyone could be scrapping there. It doesn’t matter if McCloud owns the house. O’Meara used the same technique for another subject. Lieutenant Hassan testified he found a handgun under the mattress at a house on Monica Street. That’s 2 blocks away where McCloud admits he lives.
“The point and time when he was arrested the day before had you had the house under continuous surveillance? No. Do you know therefore whether other people were coming and going from this house from that 18 hour period. I do not. But you know that he was locked up for 18 hours before you found this gun. Yes. I have no further questions.”
This was a preliminary exam. The judge is supposed to decide whether there’s enough evidence to put the defendant on trial.
Finding evidence is the cops’ job. But anyone can hear testimony near 7121 Mackenzie Street. It’s a brown bungalow on a corner lot. It’s boarded up. A man walks by with a shovel in his hand and beer on his breath. He says his name is Donald. He says he was in Mark McCloud’s scrap house when McCloud wasn’t there. Another time he ran away from McCloud.
“ ….they come to this house right here.”
Back outside 36th district court downtown. Defense Attorney Corbett O’Meara looks at the big picture. How thousands of scrappers are using Detroit’s buildings.
“I’ve watched the neighborhoods collapse and become moonscape wastelands and if somebody wants to make some economically viable use of something that’s been abandoned by the establishment in America as they leave Detroit then God bless them. There’s no jobs here anymore. As long as they’re not stealing it from somebody who’s using it, let them take it from an abandoned building.”
Even if he’s just putting on a show, O’Meara’s defending the man police call the largest copper thief in city history. So together they’ll profit from Detroit getting torn apart.
