Kerfuffle Erupts When Patterson Called a 'Drunkard'

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OAKLAND COUNTY, MI – A Detroit city official and his aide apologized Wednesday over a kerfuffle that erupted over a scurrilous comment made about Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

An aide, posting as Detroit City Councilman George Cushingberry Jr., called Patterson a “drunkard” in a Detroit News comment thread on a story about a sickout at Cass Technical High School, has also apologized to Patterson.

“I thought George was a friend,” Patterson told WDIV-TV, “but you really figure out who your friends are over time.”

Patterson said Cushingberry is “going to get a chunk of coal from me next Christmas.”

The Cushingberry aide, Richard Clement, took responsibility for the comment on the “Friends of George” blog.

“Mr. L. Brooks Patterson will be receiving a phone call and a personal visit from (Clement) apologizing for offending him by calling him a drunkard in social media,” the post read. “The comments made by me in response to the trolls insulting the integrity and leadership of Councilmember Pro Tem George Cushingberry Jr. in social media with unprofessional names was inappropriate at a personal level.”

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• Oakland Exec Patterson Says He Didn’t Tell Detroit to ’Drop Dead’

Patterson pleaded guilty in 2003 to careless driving after police stopped him in his county-issued Cadillac for weaving in traffic. “I wasn’t charged with drunken driving,” Patterson told the television station. “He knows that.”

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard reportedly said at the time that “no one is above the law,” The Oakland Press reports.

Cushingberry’s record isn’t spot-free, either. Officers found alcohol and marijuana in his vehicle in an alcohol-related traffic stop, according to a report from the Detroit Office of the Inspector General.

The marijuana belonged to a passenger, who had a valid medical marijuana card, and police determined that Cushingberry was not drunk or impaired, and that a bottle of liquor found in the vehicle was old and hadn’t been consumed the night of the traffic stop.

» Photo via Wikimedia / Creative Commons