DETROIT (WXYZ) — Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington denies giving special treatment to a man he appointed a reserve deputy that provided him with free merchandise valued in the thousands of dollars.
The man spoke to 7 Action News on the condition that he not be named, fearing a story could prevent him from serving another law enforcement agency in the future.
Text messages and recordings support many of his claims, while contradicting some of the sheriff’s. The man acknowledges that Washington will know who he is.
"Did you get this badge because you were qualified for it, or because you gave the sheriff the right gifts?” asked Channel 7’s Ross Jones.
“In my mind, because I gave the sheriff the right gifts,” he said.
After first denying that the sheriff appointed the man at all, his office later acknowledged that Washington swore him in last February. A spokesman insisted that the merchandise played no role and presented no ethical concerns.
The man, who has since been kicked out of the program, believes he lost his badge because his gifts to the sheriff slowed down.
The sheriff’s office says otherwise: that he was removed from the program after failing to report contacts with other police agencies.
What are reserve deputies?
In Michigan, police agencies rely on reserve deputies and officers to assist real police officers. While reserve deputies aren’t licensed by the state, you’d never tell by looking at them.
In Wayne County, they assist real deputies on special raids, help with crowd control at big events or provide escorts. They are appointed by the sheriff, wear sheriffs uniforms and always carry their gun.
Unlike some states, Michigan does not license or regulate reserve deputies or officers. Each department is given broad authority to determine who they certify and what training, if any, they receive.
In this case, the reserve deputy was appointed first under Sheriff Benny Napoleon, then—years later—by Sheriff Raphael Washington. In both cases, he said he got his badge not by going through normal channels, but by going straight to the top.
RELATED: Wayne County sheriff defends soliciting cash for mother's birthday
“According to rumors out there, this is the best way,” he told Channel 7’s Ross Jones, saying he approached the sheriff at a fundraiser in July of 2022, asking to return to the reserve deputy program.
“What I did is I approached him with a deal,” he said.
He said he offered to provide the sheriff with free merchandise that he could use to promote himself. In return, he hoped the sheriff would make him a reserve deputy.
Text messages show that he offered Washington custom mugs with his face and name, phone charging pads that touted the sheriff's “Honesty, Integrity and Experience” and personalized pens, too.
The sheriff’s reply: “Love it…how much?” The man said he’d donate them.
“I gave them to him so he could use them for his campaign, or whatever he would want to use them for,” he said.
Gifts valued in the thousands
In text messages, he said he had 1,000 mugs made along with 2,000 pens and 300 phone chargers.
He declined to say their total value, but 7 Action News obtained quotes for similar merchandise, which could cost north of $10,000.
He delivered the first batch to the Sheriff himself. Text messages confirm a meeting on November 23. He says they met outside Oakland Mall in Troy, with the sheriff driving a department vehicle.
Two hours after their meeting came an e-mail from the sheriff’s assistant, asking that the man fill out a form for a background check.
“You fill out your name, ID, things like that and then they run a background,” he said. “And that’s all I did."
A background check should have revealed a high number of police contacts through the years: at least 9 separate police reports alleging fraud, larceny, intimidation, trespassing and more.
Only one case led to criminal charges. Ironically, it stemmed from his time as a reserve officer with another agency.
Highland Park police kicked him out of their program for poor attendance, documents show, and when he failed to return his equipment, he was charged with larceny. The case was later dropped.
But all that didn’t prevent his candidacy from moving forward. As he tried to stay in the sheriff’s good graces, texts show he continued offering him more personalized merchandise.
In a February 2023 text exchange, he sent the sheriff a photo of more boxes of mugs.
“Do you still want them?” the man asked.
“I’m sure we can use them…yes!,” the sheriff replied. “Have you heard from Jaafer? You’re in…talk back to him.”
Jaafer is a reference to Wayne County Undersheriff Mike Jaafer, and the sheriff provided him with his phone number.
Less than a week later, records show he was sworn in as a reserve deputy.
“On the surface, it looks like a clear example of some sort of a quid-pro-quo,” said Carron Pinkins the former chair of the Wayne County Ethics Board, which governs the conduct of the county’s elected leaders.
Pinkins reviewed the texts between the sheriff and the special deputy.
“Even if you were going to say this wasn’t a quid pro quo, you’ve got a person that’s giving gifts, specifically to influence this person in this position to give him something.”
Until recently, the sheriff’s office listed all the requirements to become a reserve deputy on its website. But when 7 Action News began asking questions about the man’s appointment, they removed the requirements from their website
They included a 16-week training academy. In Wayne County, that’s taught at Schoolcraft College.
But neither Schoolcraft College nor training academies used by Oakland and Macomb County’s reserve deputy programs have no record of the man going through any training academy.
He says that’s because he never did.
The only training he’s ever had, he said, happened with Highland Park police a decade ago, and lasted just a few days.
The department current’s chief, James McMahon, tells 7 Action News that the program was “a horror show,” that he disbanded it over concerns that reserves were being trained inadequately, or in some cases not at all.
The program made news in 2018 after it certified a convicted felon, and no longer exists.
Sheriff: No quid pro quo
Sheriff Raphael Washington refused to be interviewed for this story. After first offering an on-camera interview with the head of the county’s internal affairs department, Reid Chakrabarty, the county later reversed course.
“We will not be granting an interview by anyone from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office,” spokesman Ed Foxworth said.
By phone, Foxworth initially claimed that the Washington never appointed the man in the first place, saying that he only entered the reserve program under former Sheriff Benny Napoleon.
“This isn’t under Sheriff Washington,” Foxworth said. “And I think that’s what’s being presented, as though Sheriff Washington had responsibility for bringing (him) on. He came in under Benny Napoleon.”
But records show the man was re-appointed by Washington February 9, 2023. The county later said he had been removed from the reserve program under Napoleon, but declined to say why.
Foxworth said that in 2018, while serving under Sheriff Benny Napoleon, the reserve deputy donated items to help memorialize a fallen deputy killed in the line of duty. They included a wooden flag, and mugs with the fallen deputy’s name and picture.
He said the gifts provided to Washington played no role in his appointment. In fact, he said the sheriff never used them.
“We never handed out a single one," Foxworth said.
But the sheriff’s own words tell a different story.
Sheriff asked for more
In July 2023, Washington called the reserve deputy in anticipation of a campaign fundraiser he was preparing for, asking for more merchandise.
“Yeah, I need some mugs,” Washington says on the recorded call. “I’m having a fundraiser birthday party at the end of August and I’m doing some VIP bags.”
“I don’t have enough mugs, because I really save them for my seniors and stuff and for people I want to give something to, you know?” the Sheriff said. “Now I got to come up with about 50 to put in these VIP bags, for those that (are) going to be contributing like $500.”
Washington held a campaign fundraiser the following month in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood. Campaign finance reports do not disclose the merchandise as an in-kind contribution.
Pinkins, the former head of the Wayne County Ethics Board, said the donated items presented a benefit to Washington's campaign.
“Any politician…who’s running for office knows about expenses. And something like that could shave off a lot of expenses,” Pinkins said.
The reserve deputy said he delivered more boxes of mugs to sheriff’s headquarters on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, and said he threw in a birthday gift for Washington, too: a brand new vacuum cleaner valued at $250.
“It was his birthday, I wanted to keep him happy,” the man said. “If I keep him happy, in my mind, that’s the only way to keep my status.”
But two months later, his status as a reserve the program would end. He believes it’s because his gifts to the sheriff slowed down.
But Chakrabarty, the head of the the sheriff’s internal affairs division, said otherwise. That month, he said he became aware of additional police contacts that the reserve deputy had had with outside agencies, but failed to share with the sheriff’s office.
None of the contacts led to criminal charges, and most stemmed from disputes with the mother of his child. Still, Chakrabarty says they should have been reported.
But for Washington, currently the subject of an ethics complaintover cash gifts he solicited on Facebook for his mother, the gifts offered and accepted could lead to more questions and scrutiny.
“He was giving these gifts…the sheriff was comfortable receiving them, and then he began to accept them and began to solicit them himself,” Pinkins said.
“This is all problematic.”
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.