Three Bricks and a Driver, A 13 year old case.

Matthew Levanduski is on trial June 2017 due to being the driver of an automobile carrying three kilos of cocaine. The story is he stopped at the Brighton Shell gas station April 2004, it is said, to get gas. He attempts to receive a wire transfer from Western Union; it is said, to pay for the gas. The Western Union often goes down there at the Shell Station and Mr. Levanduski becomes agitated not receiving his money, agitated enough to frighten the clerk. She calls the police. The police shortly show up. They find out that there are two passengers in car, man in front and woman in the back. The passenger in the front, Richard Rodriguez, has an outstanding warrant for arrest. Woman in the back had a handgun in her purse. The police searched the car and in the trunk found two bricks of cocaine under clothes and one on the left side of the trunk of car. There was a substantial amount of cutting agent as well. That makes the cocaine go farther. My estimate of the street value is a couple hundred thousand dollars. They also find a hand gun in the purse of the female in the back seat.

But the case is 13 years old. Why the delay? My guess is the case was turned over to the Feds and they never pursued it. I wasn’t able to find out.

Livingston County is charging the defendant with three counts: 1) possession with intent to deliver and distribute, 2) possession and 3 possession of a weapon.

The prosecution’s case was simple. Arresting police officers, the City of Detroit DEA, the clerk at the Brighton, Michigan Shell Gas Station were called to testify. Although it was funny the clerk had to be reminded of the police report to refresh her memory of the incident; she couldn’t identify the defendant in the court room. The Senior Forensic chemist was interviewed by phone to confirm that the bricks were indeed cocaine.

Mr. Levanduski gave a signed and dated short written statement to the City of Detroit DEA, stating he was aware of the cocaine and the gun.

For the defense’s case Matthew Levanduski testified in his own behalf. He’s a tall man, 6’ 5”, in his thirties. He had met Maggie at a party, where she presented the courier proposal. Mr. Levanduski testified that he drove the passengers for a fee, since they didn’t have a valid license. She was planning to pick up her brother-in-law in Chicago. Upon arrival at Chicago the brother-in-law doesn’t show up and they turn around. At some point he gets suspicious and discovers the cocaine in the trunk. Maggie comes up to him and points a gun at him. He understandably felt threatened, especially since he says they knew where he lived. They drove back whereupon they were arrested.

Mr. Levanduski under oath stated he had been interrogated at length by the City of Detroit DEA, not realizing he’d be under indictment, he gave his simple statement regarding his awareness of the presence of the cocaine and gun.  He didn’t include the threat he was under by the passengers. In other words he was an unwitting dupe to drug delivery. He hadn’t expected to be arrested by the Feds and it appears a case wasn’t made against him.

 I had several conversations with his uncle and father who were present at throughout the two day trial. He had his own business (lawn care? construction?) in Florida for some years after this incidence.

So initially I’m sympathetic to his situation.

However, the prosecutor pokes some holes into his story. First he didn’t have a valid driver’s license. It was suspended in March 2004, a month before his did the chauffer job. He did get a driver’s license from Ohio later even though he lived in Grand Rapids. We find out that he had $225 in his wallet at the time he says he was trying to get money through Western Union to pay for gas. Prosecutor speculated that he was anticipating being paid for his courier job and got agitated when it didn’t arrive. In addition Brighton is way out of your way, if you’re coming back from Chicago to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Why were they in Brighton, Michigan? In addition Mr. Levanduski had ample opportunity to alert the police that he was being essentially held against his will by the couple. However, he didn’t bother to tell them. And finally prosecution asked jury to compare the writing in the note book that was found in the car with the writing in the statement provided to the City of Detroit DEA; they matched in some elements.

The jury verdict surprised me. The prosecution provided no evidence of communication between him and the couple in the car or making drug deals whether text or phone. There was no finger printing or DNA of the bricks to match the defendant. Simply, the very large amount of the cocaine was presented as evidence of large scale dealing. That we can agree, but his connection to it is less clear. The jury convicted on possession to deliver and distribute the heavier charge and acquitted on the possession and gun charge. I thought possession would be the charge, since it seemed unclear he had intent to control and deliver the bricks.

In retrospect I’m guessing that it might have been the notebook hand writing that they matched with the signed confession.

This is where it gets uncomfortable. Typically in the court room there are few people in the gallery. I often am the only on-looker in the court room gallery. In this case two gentlemen attended the court proceedings and invariably they’ll ask who I am. Then a conversation starts and we end up talking through the trial in recess. This time I felt bad because I relayed my optimism of a possible acquittal to his father and uncle and the defense attorney for that matter. As already stated in contrast the jury chose the harshest charge to incriminate the defendant to my dismay.

Attack by Mask Man, Appropriately named Savage.

A 19 year old woman was working the reception desk of a Hartland, Michigan Motel Best Western at 5:30AM on June 4, 2016. On her shift she’s been washing bedding and such and just finishing fixing the free breakfast. She’s only been on job for a week and third day on her own. It’s still dark. Sun isn’t up for another half hour. There’s someone at the locked front door.

Instead of going to the audit room that had the video screen of the front door with buzzer to allow entry, the new employee walked up to the locked front door. She saw a man with a ski mask on. For many of us we might have hesitated to allow him entry. She thoughtlessly and yes, foolishly opened the door for the masked man, turned her back on went back to the receptionist desk. The masked man walked through the lobby and it appears went to the bathroom.

Shortly thereafter, our masked man comes back and goes behind the receptionist desk and points a pistol at the receptionist, Lindsey*. He orders her to empty the money drawer and asks for her purse. They both go back to the audit room where the purse is. He orders her to lie down on the floor, whereby he peppers sprays her face.  This as you’d expect gives her searing pain in her face and eyes. This will wear off in an hour or so.

The masked man takes her wallet and car keys and walks out to her parked car and drives off. Once she felt good enough, Lindsey first calls her manager who doesn’t answer then calls 911. Sounds like Lindsey needed more training. Not her fault.

The robbery and car-jacking of the 2006 gray Chevy Impala are reported. When asked the color of the assailant she says she saw tan skin but he wasn’t black, she knew that. There were 16 security cameras at the motel including the parking lot. He was identified as an African-American. The black masked assailant shows up in many of them and we can see him drive off in the Chevy Impala.

About six hours later there’s a report 80 miles away of a masked driver in a gray Chevy Impala driving erratically. Then a woman with a couple of her kids beeps her horn after him; he slows down to menace her and she got a real good look at him. She calls 911. Flat Rock police locate a gray Chevy Impala parked at a CVS Pharmacy strip mall.

The rookie police officer parks behind the car; he sees he’s wearing a black mask. He steps up to ask for the standard driver’s license and registration. The officer has a body camera. We see that seated in the car, the driver, a black male, is immediately uncooperative. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid”, he says, acting like he’s been interrogated for little good reason. He says he doesn’t need to provide license and registration, since he’s parked and not driving. He doesn’t provide an answer how he got in the parking lot in the first place. You would naturally assume he’d been driving. The officer threatens arrest, but I suppose it’s not illegal to sit in a car with a black mask on.

Officer calls for backup. Another Flat Rock police officer shows up in a minute. He speaks to the black male from the other side of the car and basically in a much less threatening tone allows the driver a free pass, saying he’d not done anything illegal. The rookie tells black male he’ll be arrested if he tries to drive. Both Cops leave. One question, did you run the license plates? No.

As the rookie police officer ran the automobile’s license plates, they find out that the car had been stolen so they round back to the CVS Pharmacy parking lot. The car is empty and they go store to store in the strip mall. Finally they find the suspect in the Smoke Shop on his phone. He’s arrested.

He’s identified as Broderick Savage (formerly Siewerth(sp?)). In the car we find Lindsey’s wallet and backpack and the keys were left in the backpack. Also located were pepper spray, mask and some money about $321, said to be similar to the amount at the motel.

Evidence at trial was the security video and the body camera video of the arresting officers. We find out as well that the hand gun was a hand gun sized and shaped BB gun painted black to give it appearance of being a hand gun. This gun did not function. The jury was instructed that it was not necessary for it to function to still be a chargeable offense. The charge was the use of…well a BB gun in a robbery and carjacking.

The most dramatic testimony was Lindsey’s. She was traumatized by the incident and in fact never worked at the motel again. She broke down several times in her testimony. This truly was a shock that she’s yet to recuperate from.

The defense attempted to argue that the robbery and carjacking at the hotel were two separate incidents. The man caught in the car in Flat Rock was not the same man who had committed the crimes in Hartland. He was simply a victim of circumstance. But coincidences were far too much to reasonably dismiss.

I find out he had two priors and girlfriend lived nearby. That’s how he got there without car. And then needed the victim’s car.

The defendant was convicted on all counts of armed robbery, auto theft and assault with dangerous weapon.   

Sentencing has been postponed as of the writing of this blog.

*named changed to protect witness.