Detroit police bust street racers, students struggling to catch-up on learning, state AG race heats up

TUESDAY NEWS HIT - Jurors are returning for a second day of deliberations in the trial of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Jurors asked for a definition of "weapon" Monday but otherwise gave no indication of the progress of their work.

"We’ll do the same drill" Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said.

Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are charged with a kidnapping conspiracy. Three of them also face additional charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, namely an explosive.

The judge consulted prosecutors and defense lawyers before explaining how to define "weapon."

"Something that can be used to injure, kill or destroy someone or something," Jonker told the jury. "So if that helps — I hope — great. If it doesn’t, just let us know."

The trial has lasted 16 days, including 13 days of testimony. The jury heard hours of closing arguments and instructions Friday.

Prosecutors said the conspiracy against Whitmer was fueled by anti-government extremism and anger over her COVID-19 restrictions. With undercover FBI agents and informants embedded in the group, the men trained with a crudely built "shoot house" to replicate her vacation home in September 2020, according to testimony.

There is no dispute that the alleged leaders, Fox and Croft, traveled to Elk Rapids, Michigan, that same weekend to see the location of the governor’s lakeside property and a nearby bridge. Harris and Caserta have been described as "soldiers" in the scheme.

Another man, Ty Garbin, who pleaded guilty, said the goal was to get Whitmer before the fall election and create enough chaos to create a civil war and stop Joe Biden from winning the presidency. Much of the government’s case came from secretly recorded conversations, group messages and social media posts.

Defense lawyers attacked the government’s investigation and the use of a crucial informant, Dan Chappel. They claimed Chappel was the real leader, taking direction from the FBI and keeping the group on edge while recording them for months.

"There was no plan," Croft attorney Joshua Blanchard told the jury.

Croft is from Bear, Delaware, while the others are from Michigan.

Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the plot, though she referred to "surprises" during her term that seemed like "something out of fiction" when she filed for reelection on March 17.

She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case.

— Courtesy of the Associated Press

Detroit police crack down on street racing in first major bust of the year

Detroit police seized cars and made arrests at a street race last weekend at a rec center parking lot on the west side. It was the first bust of the year of a major drag racing event in Detroit - and an indication of what's to come. All participants were caught as three were arrested and 20 spectators were ticketed. Twelve cars were also impounded.

One spectator was run down by a fleeing car, but was hospitalized and is expected to recover. "You have inexperienced drivers with high power vehicles in a small confined area, and could lead to very bad things happening," Cmdr. Brian Harris said. "The recklessness of the drivers placed everyone at that event in danger.

Video courtesy of the Metro Detroit News, shows a purple Dodge Charger and his buddy in the two-tone Mustang accelerating away from Detroit police which busted the drag racing and stunt driving crew. Everyone involved is in their late teens to mid-20s. And of the 23 people that were arrested or ticketed – only two of them were from Detroit. 

The rest, from the suburbs outside the city and from as far as Saginaw. "When you come here to create crime, or you come here to endanger the citizens of Detroit and then go back to the suburbs and sell that false narrative that Detroit is lawless - and that’s not the case," Harris said.

Students struggle to catch-up on learning

Students of color and those in 9th grade in Michigan are more likely to be held back in school, a new report assessing learning loss and retention found. It's alarming and it's concerning, but, according to Dr. Daveda Colbert at Wayne RESA, it's not new. 

"Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for retention. They have been for years," the superintendent said. But even with the historical barriers that minority students face, the pandemic likely exasperated problems in Michigan schools. A lack of equal access to technology only further impaired learning for those confined to a virtual environment.

Dr. Colbert believes the growing number of ninth graders being retained is connected to the pandemic. "So if you were a 7th grader in March of 2020, you are today, a ninth-grader in your second semester," she said. "During your eighth grade you probably for the most part, were not in school." Yet, the superintendent does not believe retention is the answer to getting students back on track.

"Retention ranks, like, 148 out of 150 in terms of being an effective practice," Colbert said. "Students who are retained are more likely to be withdrawn, exhibit hyperactivity, and display symptoms of depression."

Detroit becomes largest city to challenge 2020 census numbers

Majority-Black Detroit has become the largest U.S. city to challenge its figures from the 2020 census following a national head count in which the U.S. Census Bureau acknowledges that a higher percentage of African Americans were undercounted than last decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Leaders of Michigan’s largest city, which is more than three-quarters Black, had questioned the results of the 2020 census since last December when they released a report suggesting that more than 8% of the occupied homes in 10 Detroit neighborhoods may have been undercounted.

Detroit filed its challenge late last week, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a letter to the Census Bureau, Mayor Michael Duggan said insufficient resources and not enough census takers were devoted to the count in Detroit, resulting in an undercount of unoccupied homes that could amount to tens of thousand of residents being overlooked.

"The Census Bureau now has an obligation to set the record straight," Duggan said. The 2020 census data showed Detroit with 639,111 residents, while estimates from 2019 put the city’s population at 670,052 residents. A drop of 31,000 residents would be "really implausible," Jeffrey Morenoff, a University of Michigan sociology professor who helped conduct a study on the undercount for the city, said when the report was released in December.

– Courtesy of the Associated Press 

State AG Nessel calls Trump-backed challenger DePerno 'loose cannon'

Former President Donald Trump spent his Michigan visit on Saturday touting various candidates for state office. That included an endorsement in the race for state attorney general. Trump's pick for the GOP nomination for state attorney general, Matt DePerno was front and center at the former president's Macomb County rally over the weekend.

Incumbent Democrat Dana Nessel was asked what would the state be like if DePerno replaces her. "I think it's going to be a scary place," she said. Nessel fears DePerno would neglect some 40,000 cases her office is now working on and he should not use the office for something else. "Don't use it as a way to investigate the enemies of Donald Trump," she said.

"I think he is a loose cannon," Nessel said. The former president latched onto DePerno, in part because he fought to overturn the election in favor of Trump claiming the voting was rigged. "To have those people spreading misinformation and to be distorting what really occurred, it tells me that these are individuals that don't understand the law - or don't care about the law," she said.

Nessel also believes in part that GOP rhetoric has boosted death threats against female officer holders in this state. "I think this is only a handful of people," Nessel said. "We don't see the same level of death threats against men who hold elected office. I think it is part of the narrative circulated by the Republican Party."

What else we're watching

1. Monroe police have arrested a man following a homicide investigation when a victim was found with a knife wound in his neck. He was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. 
2. Detroit's Campus Martius is in the running for the best public square in the U.S. Currently, the feature is ranked fourth in total votes in the competition. Learn more here. 
3. The long-awaited return of the Anchor Bar in downtown Detroit has finally arrived. The popular site for Tiger's Opening Day will resume its festivities when it reopens at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
4. The Great Lakes Water Authority will have an update on improvements made to the surrounding infrastructure ahead of the next season of wet weather Tuesday. It will also have steps on preparing for potential flooding. 
5. General Motors says it and Honda have teamed up to coproduce millions of affordable electronic vehicles. The production will begin in 2027. 

Live on FOX 2

Daily Forecast

The next three days won't offer a lot of nice weather to look forward to. Conditions will be gray, mild, and possibly a little wet with chances for showers all three days. The temperatures will actually take a turn down before warming up next week.

Agents rescue smuggled woman from duffel bag in burning car

Shocking new footage shows the moment Texas troopers and Border Patrol agents rescued a woman who had been smuggled across the border, and was trapped in a duffel bag, from a burning car.

Agents had started the pursuit of a human smuggler on March 24 near Laredo, Texas. The pursuit was soon joined by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The smuggler crashed the car, which immediately caught on fire, and bailed out of the car.

He was then immediately apprehended by troopers, and told them that there was a woman who had been smuggled in the back of the car. She was zipped up in a duffel bag.

"She's in the bag," the smuggler said in footage from one of the officer's bodycams.