Judging Our Dearborn Judge

To Whom It May Concern,

As a lifelong Dearborn resident, as a parent, and as an adamant voter, I felt compelled to speak out on Dearborn’s judicial race. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly from this city, but I’ve lived in Dearborn’s historic district for over 40 years. It doesn’t take much to realize which candidate I’m voting for on November 4th.

We’ve all received the mailers, and like anything else we read during these campaigns, we take accusations with a grain of salt, but it’s our duty to be active citizens. I’ve read Mayor O’Reilly say Dearborn can’t afford to keep Judge Somers, and that’s true. I don’t always agree with the Mayor, but at the end of the day, Somers will cost this city almost $2 Million in lawsuits, and it could have been avoided. From a city financial standpoint, no, Dearborn can’t reelect Judge Somers, who I believe has done his share of good for this city, but has overshadowed that with clearly multiple bad decisions. We have to remember that it’s multiple lawsuits, and they’ve already been decided that Judge Somers is guilty of violating due process rights, when Judges need to be held to a higher standard. I would’ve given Judge Somers the benefit of the doubt in one lawsuit, but not three.

After losing a lawsuit for over $400,000 because of employee abuse by Judge Somers, the Dearborn Police Department bragged in a Press & Guide article that they were able to cover the cost of the lawsuit by increased revenue through traffic enforcement and the fines that were incurred. So we, the citizens, paid off Judge Somers first lawsuit because Police Officers just gave out more traffic tickets to our children and us. We literally paid for that lawsuit.

On one of the mailers I received, it said that Judge Somers was given a “Not Qualified” rating by the Detroit Bar Association, and gave his opponent Guerriero an “Outstanding” rating, so I looked it up online, and it ended up being true. I’ve heard the rumors that Judge Somers used his seat on the bench to promote his religious views, but we can all hope that it’s untrue. Another court employee, Sharon Langen, received $150,000 in her lawsuit settlement against Somers in 2012 after Somers demoted her and hired a man to replace her. Fact. Yet, Judge Somers has attacked Guerriero publicly for harassing a woman 20 years ago, but I don’t know how much of that I really believe. I read an article saying that this woman was fired a few years ago, but if Guerriero did, how could he have been appointed by the Governor to be a Judge? I can’t believe something like that would make it through an investigation.

I believe in informed voting, knowing all the facts, and basing decisions on that. It’s not about what we’re told, it’s about facts, and so I encourage everyone to look up the facts. We have roughly 4 days before Election Day, which is plenty of time to research the candidates. In my opinion, Dearborn can no longer afford Judge Somers.

Yours,

Stephen McCafferty