Mike Cox won't pursue removal of Charlie Beckham
Didn't he learn his lesson about what happens when he doesn't investigate things in the City of Detroit?
Attorney General won't pursue removal of Bing aide
Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News
Detroit --Attorney General Mike Cox won't pursue the removal of convicted felon Charlie Beckham from Mayor Dave Bing's administration, despite a law that called his appointment into question.
Cox wrote to Agnes Hitchcock, leader of the grassroots Call 'Em Out Coalition, on Tuesday, rejecting her request to remove Beckham, who pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges and went to prison in the 1980s. Cox didn't cite a reason for the rejection.
John Sellek, a spokesman for Cox, couldn't be reached for comment. Hitchcock declined comment.
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Beckham, who is the city's chief administrative officer and served as Bing's campaign manager, served two years in federal prison after he was found guilty of illegally taking $16,000 from a sludge-hauling company named Vista. He was then the director of the city's Water and Sewerage Department under former Mayor Coleman A. Young.
He lauded the attorney general's decision and called Hitchcock's challenge "peculiar" and "suspect."
Beckham said he believes political enemies are backing the Call 'Em Out group because the filing to Cox's office was a "well-researched document" with transcripts and background from his trial in 1984.
Beckham said he knew of the 1931 law when he ran for mayor in 2001. The law "forever disqualifie[[s)" "any executive, legislative or judicial office" who accepts bribes. Beckham said he was aware of it when he ran for 2001 and "we didn't get one legal challenge."
"I've served three mayors since that time," said Beckham, who also was an appointee under former mayors Kwame Kilpatrick and Kenneth Cockrel Jr. "So there was no strong legal basis for the attorney general to take a look at it. We're confident that we have a good, strong legal position."
Tom Barrow, the Nov. 3 opponent to Bing and a frequent critic of Beckham, called Cox's decision "absurd" and politically motivated. Cox is running for governor as a Republican. "You have a statute which is clear, and now this person [[Cox) wants to run for governor, is not going to weigh in," Barrow said. "Mr. Bing knows full well what the statute says."
Barrow said he's upset that Cox "doesn't even give a reason" for failing to pursue the case.
"Detroiters are fed up with this politics and self-serving law enforcement here," Barrow said. "It is clear to everybody what the statute says."
Hitchcock, in her Sept. 29 letter to Cox, asked for a speedy decision so she can "petition the Wayne County Circuit Court as quickly as possible."
Beckham said that anyone who wishes to challenge him in court to "bring it on. They need to bring their A game. We're ready for it."
lfleming@detnews.com [[313) 222-2072
