DETROIT (WXYZ) — For the second time in three months, Sheriff Raphael Washington fended off a complaint filed against him with Wayne County’s ethics board.
The complaint, filed by former sheriff’s deputy Reginald Crawford, stems from thousands of dollars in promotional merchandise that the sheriff accepted — and later requested —from a man who sought a badge from his office.
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Back in February, the ethics board voted not to hold a hearing on a separate ethics complaint against Washington.
It stemmed from a Facebook post that requested cash gifts for his mother on her birthday. The board voted not to investigate the matter by saying Washington made the request as a son, and not an elected official who rules bar from asking for cash gifts.
Washington never disclosed how much money, if any, was raised.
This most recent ethics complaint stems from a man that provided Washington with hundreds of custom mugs with his face and name, phone charging pads that touted his “Honesty, Integrity and Experience” and personalized pens, all to promote himself.
He spoke to 7 News Detroit on the condition that he not be named.
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The man said he provided the gifts to the sheriff in the hopes of being appointed to the Wayne County sheriff reserve deputy program.
Months after first offering the sheriff the items via text message, the man was appointed a reserve deputy.
The man did not go through the training that other appointees were required to attend.
When 7 News asked Washington about the gifts, his spokesman told us he that never even used them. The sheriff did not know, at the time, that WXYZ possessed a recording of him asking for more.
“Yeah I need some mugs,” the sheriff said in the recorded phone call from 2023.
“I’m having a fundraiser birthday party at the end of August. And I’m, I’m doing some VIP bags… I don’t have enough mugs. Because I really, I really save them for my seniors and stuff and for people I want to give something to, you know?”
This recording was played before the ethics board at a recent meeting.
Washington also accepted a brand-new vacuum cleaner from the man that was valued at $250. After our story aired in February, Washington had two of his security guards return it — used — to the man’s house.
The complaint against the sheriff made by Crawford—a former sheriff’s employee and frequent critic of Washington’s, cited WXYZ’s reporting.
But it did not include the man at the center of it. Significantly, he would not agree to appear before the board, which does not have subpoena power.
“We can’t subpoena a witness in before the board,” said board chairman Philip Thomas. “We can ask that they come in, but we have far less authority to bring people before us than a criminal court or a civil court.”
Without a witness with firsthand information, the board said, they voted not to hear the complaint.
“It would be my recommendation at this point without any further information from Mr. Crawford that he has failed to meet the standard of proof, and that this matter should be dismissed,” said the board’s attorney.
Washington’s lawyer, criminal defense attorney Todd Perkins, argued that the gifts were campaign donations, and therefore were not subject to the county’s ethics ordinance.
But none of the gifts were reported to the Wayne County Clerk as in-kind campaign contributions, which the law requires.
Perkins did not return calls seeking comment on the board's decision.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.