DETROIT — The words corruption and Detroit are used in conjunction more regularly than most residents would prefer.

Another case accusing a former Detroit Police Department leader is coming down the pike.

William Rice of Detroit, the former head of the Detroit Police Department Homicide Division, appeared in court Tuesday amid allegations of corruption while he worked behind the thick walls of the department headquarters on Beaubien in Detroit.

Wayne County's 36th District Judge William C. McConico is hearing testimony to determine whether Rice, a retired lieutenant from the Detroit Police Department, will stand trial in Circuit Court on charges related to 18 crimes, including operating a criminal enterprise, drug dealing, drug possession and mortgage fraud.

Rice's girlfriend and co-defendant Cheryl Sanford appeared in court beside him Tuesday. She and is also charged with the same crimes said to have occurred from 2006 to 2011.

Wayne County Prosecutor Christine Kowal said this was at least the 13th day of testimony in the preliminary hearing.

It was a rather uneventful day in court that featured two witness for the prosecution, both who work in forensics with the state police.

Jurgen Switalski, the director of the State Police Crime Lab in Northville, testified to the testing or identifying more than 100 pills confiscated during the investigation as hydrocodone, a regulated and addictive synthetic opioid, and other pills identified as generic Xanax or containing codeine.

The court heard testimony from about 11:20 a.m. until noon Tuesday before taking an hour-and-a-half lunch break. The hearing was scheduled to resume from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The defense plans to recall two of the prosecution's witnesses, Special Agent at US Housing and Urban Developmen Matthew Nutt and a state trooper, says Rice's defense attorney, Tiffany McEvans, at the next hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. on Dec. 4.

As the beginning stages of Rice's court battle unfold,

about Arthur Bell, a man who claims he was imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit.

Convicted of the 1988 slaying, Bell began seeking his case file in 1994 under the Freedom of Information Act, but he was told the file was lost, an occurrence that attorneys have said happens frequently within the Detroit Police Department but even more so when Rice was in charge,

Losing case files isn't the only blemish on Rice's career.

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