A lot of this case is built on the credibility of witnesses. You know what it is you look for to determine if a person is telling the truth. 

We have seen argumentative witnesses, witnesses who don't answers questions or spin it sideways. This is what you use to determine whether they are a truthful person. 

I'm going to start with the State Arts grant. It seemed to be a bit of an overkill. It was funded when Governor Engler wanted his budget passed so he allocated money throughout the state of Michigan. 

Kwame was democratic leader of the house. When I talked about politics like sausage, it's not pretty, it's a fact of life. 

I'm going to say a lot of bad things about Derrick Miller. He said that it was never intended that Carlita was going to participate as a contractor in those grants. That it was after she was approached for the grant. miller was important to Carlita. He had nice things to says about her and the school. That she was helpful and that peer mediation and conflict resolution is useful. 

Yes, Sherrard School did not work out. Yes, Carlita got paid first half. Thought when Donna Williams was testifying there was smugness in downplaying Carlita. She acknowledged that Carlita was at meetings. She said different things in the grand jury. 

Carlita put an honest effort in and went to meetings. she was highly motivated and concerned about what was done. She made the effort. 

When Carlita said she understood that the grant was reinstated, Williams said that she thought that Carlita was trying to get more money. When someone comes in good faith, like Carlita, who said she would do it for free and then Williams said "I knew she wanted the money."

That made me wince. hope it made you wince too. 

Dan DeGrow and Mary Lanoy testified that it might have been an ethical problem but it wasn't a legal one. they funded Vanguard for the second half. 

there was no crime here as relates to the state grants. 

Carlita couldn't buy money or food with money she earned from grants. It's expected that you draw a wage or salary. I thought there was a certain amount of smugness in that. 

We're charged with racketeering offense. Everyone hears RICO and says "Oh, my gosh," what is that. My take is that the interesting part is that it takes otherwise innocent conduct, talking to a friend, making a decision to award a contract to a friend, and look the beyond conduct to a purpose. 

I'm going to talk about other intentions, higher intentions borne out of cross examination. 

Ferguson works out in the cold and he has to pull up sewers no one wants to be around. That's hard work. You heard that he did hard work. You heard that mostly in cross examination. 

If you worked for the city of Detroit, you probably wanted someone who could do the work and do it quickly. 

Kwame as special administrator had to report not just to constituents but to Judge Feikens. 

In addition, we are all sensitized to contracting process in Detroit that gave equalization credits to minority and Detroit-headquartered businesses. If you were mayor of Detroit, you would want that. 

Unemployment is high and there is a reason for that. The businesses that feed people have moved out of the city. 

So preferences were giving to businesses that were headquartered here. They would get a leg up in the bidding businesses. 

If you have people working and living here, that generates money and revenue. 

So when government shows you that contractor lost bid as lowest bidder before equalization credits, that is very misleading. You may be lowest bidder but have someone else with equalization preference over you. 

"There is a higher purpose that just saving money," says Thomas. 

Telling story about being a swimmer in high school with Tom Ryan who became prosecutor as well. Says he watches people who are not Tom get the benefit of a reduced plea for not going to trial. So went to Tom to solve the case but didn't do it. Went to office and wrote an angry letter. think because tom knew me, he bent over backwards and because I was his friend I suffered. 

you can't deny your family. You can't deny your friends. To the extent that the government wants him to treat bobby differently, that doesn't hold water.