More bribery detected in Detroit; this time at the 36th district court. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced felony forgery charges against former 36th district Court Clerk Annette Bates, and former Clerk Charles Fair, charged with $20,000 in bribes for dismissing more than $40,000 in traffic tickets and fines. Bates and Fair are each charged with two counts of felony forgery after a joint investigation between the Michigan Department of Attorney General and the FBI’s public corruption task force charged that over a two-year period the duo forged the dismissal of $40,000 in traffic tickets, fines and citations in the name of 36th district court judges, unbeknownst to the judges. In exchange for the dismissals, Bates and Fair are charged with taking approximately $20,000 in bribes. Long time acquaintances, Fair and Bates allegedly worked together with Fair funneling requests for dismissal to Bates who would then dismiss the tickets from the record, each taking a cut of the fee.
