Judge won't lift gag order in Wayne County jail case

DETROIT – Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans Friday upheld a gag order in the case charging misconduct in the stalled construction of the new Wayne County Jail.

Saying the defendants in the case deserve the right to a fair trial, she declined a Detroit Free Press motion to lift the order. Evans said the case is unique because it began with grand jury proceedings that are conducted in secret.

"We don't have the safeguards that one would have if this case were to be litigated at a court of lower jurisdiction," Evans said.

Free Press attorney Herschel Fink said the jail project demands transparency.

"The public certainly wants to know if this is due to mismanagement, incompetence or possible criminal activity," Fink said.

He called the order an unconstitutional prior restraint on the media's ability to gather news and said he'd never seen an order so broad in his decades of practicing First Amendment law. He plans to appeal the ruling.

The case charges willful neglect of duty by Carla Sledge, the county's former chief financial officer, Steven Collins, a top county lawyer, and Anthony Parlovecchio, who served as owner's representative on the job. Sledge and Collins face additional charges of misconduct in office.

The jail project was originally expected to cost about $300 million but was halted last year amid cost overruns that pushed estimates closer to $400 million. The county has yet to decide how to proceed with jail space.

County commissioners rejected an idea to relocate the jail at the former Mound Road Correctional Facility on Detroit's eastside. The project stands unfinished at the corner of Gratiot and St. Antoine.

Collins' lawyer, James Thomas, argued that Evans' order was proper to ensure a fair trial; Robert Moran of the prosecutor's office agreed.

Sledge's lawyer, Harold Gurewitz, said he appreciated the judge's order but understood Fink's concerns.

Evans did agree to allow public access to the court file in the case, which she had closed in the belief that grand jury transcripts would be placed in it. After Moran explained that the transcripts, which include hearsay and other testimony that might not be admitted at trial, wouldn't be place in the file, she agreed to open it.

John Wisely is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press.