Lawsuit claims Mayor Mike Duggan doesn't live in Detroit

Kat Stafford | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Robert Carmack explains private eye video of Duggan Robert Carmack explains his private eye video of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. The video has been altered.

A Detroit businessman behind secret recordings aired last week of Mayor Mike Duggan made a new controversial claim in a lawsuit filed Monday: The mayor doesn’t reside in the city of Detroit.

Robert Carmack, a central figure in the federal government’s bribery case against Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland, filed his lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court, alleging the city attempted to charge him an exorbitant amount of money, more than $41,000, to obtain security footage from the Manoogian Mansion.

Carmack asserts the security footage could support his claim that the mayor is not living at the mansion at 9240 Dwight St., the official residence of the mayor of Detroit. According to the city charter, all elected officials — including the mayor — are required to be residents of Detroit and must “maintain their principal residence” in the city throughout their tenure in office.

Carmack's attorney, Andrew Paterson, told the Free Press a private investigator hired by his client has "intel" that proves Duggan resides in the suburbs.

"It is apparent that Mayor Mike Duggan and his hired guns are once again trying to keep the taxpayers of the City of Detroit in the dark," said Paterson in a statement to the Free Press. "In attempt to keep his unethical conduct a secret, Mayor Duggan has once again violated Michigan's Freedom of Information Act by hiding information that the citizens of the City of Detroit have a right to see. Charging exorbitant fees to gain access to public information is just Mayor Duggan's way of preventing the truth from being revealed that he once again is not a lawful resident of the City of Detroit."

Also read: Meet Robert Carmack, the guy agitating Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

More: Mike Duggan secretly followed. Then video aired at city hall

More: Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland arraigned on bribery charges

But Duggan Chief of Staff Alexis Wiley rebuffed Carmack's claims in an interview with the Free Press.

"This conversation is silly," Wiley said Monday night. "The mayor lives at the Manoogian and has since he took office."

Wiley argued Carmack had the opportunity to reduce the cost of his FOIA by limiting the scope of his request.

"Mr. Carmack requested video for 30 days from 13 cameras," Wiley said. "He was offered, and still has the opportunity, to limit his FOIA request to one camera at the entrance and his bill would be one-thirteenth of what it would be for 13 cameras. If he was truly interested in the truth, he would have asked for the one relevant camera angle, which would clearly show the mayor living at the Manoogian Mansion."

Citing the FOIA, Carmack requested: Security footage from the mansion from January 2014 to August 2018, a list of all police special protection officers who work at the residence, how much they’re paid and their time sheets for the same period.

Paterson said in the filing his client believes the city is "intentionally providing false information with respect to the hours and days that the security cameras record at the Manoogian Mansion.”

According to a copy of the FOIA request and responses obtained by the Free Press, Detroit Assistant Corporation Counsel Jack Dietrich told Carmack on Sept. 12 that the footage is recorded on a DVR and that it would cost $130 per hour to download it. Dietrich also said it would cost $27 plus $10.12 an hour in benefits for a city employee to review the video to determine what needs to be exempted.

The city denied Carmack’s request to receive a list of the executive protective unit officers because they are “plainclothed officers and identifying records are exempt from disclosure.”

However, the city granted Carmack’s request for time sheets and pay slips of the officers, but said the Detroit Police Department estimated it would require 10 hours of staff time at an hourly rate of $35.99, plus benefits for a total of $680.40.

Carmack responded on Sept. 17 that he still wanted to receive all of the security video, which the city said would cost him $41,609. .

But in a follow-up email on Oct. 9, Dietrich said that only a 30-day period of video was actually available and that the city doesn't have recordings prior to then. According to Dietrich, the Manoogian has a 13-camera system, where one camera records continually and the other 12 cameras record on motion. The cameras have a limited storage capacity.

“The number of days in storage at any given point varies widely, on days of high winds, the motion cameras record much more extensively, for example,” Dietrich wrote. “As of today, the recording data goes back to late July.”

For a 30-day window, the city is trying to charge Carmack $20,000.

In the court filing, Carmack alleges that he has spoken with “certain individuals who have personal knowledge” of the police security detail and security video recordings at the mansion and they informed him the video is kept continuously and not only in a 30-day window.

Paterson is also asking the judge to rule the city charged Carmack too much to produce the videos "to prevent the plaintiff from obtaining the security videos.”

Paterson states that surveillance conducted over numerous months by Carmack’s private investigators has "made clear" that Duggan and his family do not continuously or regularly live at the mansion.

Paterson wants the names of the police officers protecting the mayor so he can potentially subpoena them for depositions.

The allegations are the latest twist in a nasty legal battle between Carmack and the city. It came to a tipping point last week when Carmack broadcast surveillance video of Duggan on two giant video monitors affixed to the back of a truck parked outside city hall during rush hour.

Duggan is seen in the video — of which the Free Press obtained a version — driving a Ford Taurus and entering and exiting the car at various locations.

On three occasions, according to the annotated production, the video showed a woman arriving at the same location between one and four hours earlier in the day.

Duggan arrived at the location without his personal protection unit in view, staying on three different occasions for between one and two hours, according to the video. The 15-minute video identified the woman and implied Carmack's allegations of an extramarital affair, although nothing in the video provides documentation of those allegations. The Free Press also has not independently verified the accusation.

In a statement last week, Duggan and his wife, Lori Maher, called Carmack an angry litigant and condemned Carmack's intent to "create a negative judgment on the state of our marriage."

"In the end, their surveillance failed to uncover a single misdeed in the management of the city,” Duggan and Maher said. “When you elect a public official, you have every right to pass judgment on their performance in office. But you don’t get the right to pry into their personal lives, or demand information on their marriage. At least that’s how we feel and why we don’t answer questions about ours."

Last week's stunt came nearly a month after Carmack was named a key witness in Leland's bribery case.

Carmack told the Free Press last month that he wore a recording device for the FBI in its investigation of Leland, who was indicted Oct. 4 on bribery charges.

Kat Stafford is the Detroit government watchdog reporter for the Free Press, covering city issues and the community. Contact Kat Stafford: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.

Staff writer Joe Guillen contributed to this report.