Sometimes you can't top a headline. And when you can't, you can't.
Half of the eight mayoral hopefuls on Detroit’s primary ballot next week have been convicted of felony crimes involving drugs, assault or weapons, a Detroit News analysis shows.
Three were charged with gun crimes and two for assault with intent to commit murder. Some of the offenses date back decades, the earliest to 1977. The most recent was in 2008.
Detroit's mayoral primary is non-partisan, but you can guess their political sympathies.
First-time contender Donna Marie Pitts, 58, has multiple felony convictions dating back to 1977, according to court records in Wayne and Oakland counties.
In 1977, Pitts was convicted of receiving and concealing a stolen 1977 Oldsmobile. She was sentenced to a year of probation.
A decade later, she was charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder and two firearm offenses in connection with two separate shooting incidents on March 24, 1987, Detroit Recorder’s Court records say.
According to transcripts, Pitts was involved in a shootout with the owner of a collision shop and auto clinic on Greenfield in Detroit in a dispute over a repair bill.
In September 1987, a jury convicted Pitts of the lesser offense of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, less than murder, in the shooting involving the shop owner as well as a firearm offense. Jurors acquitted Pitts of charges connected to the incident involving the officer.
Pitts was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, plus two additional years for the firearm offense. She served about four years and eight months and was paroled June 1, 1992, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
If elected, she said she will combat “discrimination and racism” and advocate for an overhaul of the justice system.
Thank goodness. Pro-crime policies should be administered by actual criminals.
Fellow candidate Danetta L. Simpson has a 1996 felony conviction out of Oakland County for assault with intent to murder.
The incident stemmed from a complaint made by a woman who’d been living with the father of two of Simpson’s children. The woman alleged she’d received threatening phone calls from Simpson and court records say a confrontation later ensued in which Simpson fired a gun. No one was injured.
In court transcripts, the woman accused Simpson of pulling up in a van and screaming at her to come outside. She said Simpson then pointed a gun at her and fired, striking part of a doorway about two feet from where the woman was standing, court records say.
Detroit's democratic future looks bright.