At 1:30pm today on the ninth floor of the Federal building in Judge Thomas Rose’s court room, a gallery of Higgins supporters sat and watched a Federal Prosecutor flail around for almost an hour- trying to corner an insurance expert into saying that Brian Higgins had committed mail fraud.
There is only one problem, this was a Daubert hearing, not a trial.
For those of you who don’t speak legalese- “A Daubert hearing is a trial judge’s evaluation of whether or not an expert’s testimony and evidence are admissible. Daubert hearings occur when the validity of an expert’s testimony is challenged due to the methodology used to form their opinion.”
Brent Tabacchi, the Federal Prosecutor, tried to put on a show of “Gotcha” by questioning, over and over, if a lawyer, with something close to 30 years of experience with insurance claims, if this qualified as mail fraud. The problem is, the insurance fraud issue isn’t a federal crime- it’s a civil one, and Tabacchi doesn’t work for Navistar Mortgage or for Assurant insurance. He works for the public- and his job is to protect us from criminal behavior.
The expert just kept talking about the “Four corners of the contract”- the literal responsibilities involved in the mortgage and insurance contracts. Tabacchi couldn’t seem to understand that when the insurance company gives you money to fix something- like hail damage to your car, you can fix it- or pocket the money and drive around with a lumpy car. It’s not a crime to not fix it- unless the bank is pissed about it’s collateral, but even then, it’s a civil matter.
Unfortunately for Tabacchi, as much as he’d like to make Brian Higgins out to be a criminal mastermind, his evidence all comes from a very shady government Confidential Informant, a loser who used to work for Steve Rauch incorporated. Marshall left SRI and set up two different companies- United Demolition and Drywall Wizard, both of which do consistently shitty work. So shitty, that even after he somehow got the city to give him a demolition contract, the city judged his business as incompetent and banned him from doing more work.
The FBI and the DOJ should be investigated for committing misprision of a felony- for hiding the fact that Williams was a proven felon when he stood for office in November of 2017- before winning and resigning and they did nothing to reveal that.
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Source: 18 U.S. Code § 4 – Misprision of felony | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute [1]
But, apparently that’s above my pay grade.
Marshall sold the FBI a dog and pony story about how he could bring Steve Rauch down and started collecting a check to bring this “culture of corruption” down. He’s the guy who handed Roshawn WInburn bags of cash to help steer contracts and he’s the one who built the patio for Commissioner Joey Williams in exchange for that contract. Higgins was along for the ride- trying to build yet another empire of government contracts like the one he used to have with the City of Chicago removing dead bodies. That multi-million dollar contract went away- when the City of Chicago awarded it to a registered sex offender- but, that’s another story.
The real crime that’s taking place here is the millions spent on an investigation that apparently only charges Black folks. Steve Rauch, the only white person charged in this “Operation Demolished Integrity” got off with a $15,000 fine- chump change. Williams only did 3 months in prison of a one year sentence. Roshawn has yet to report for his 6 month stint- and Clayton Luckie did about four months- but, he was already a convicted felon, so no new ground broken there. No other white people were charged. No one from the City Managers office, CityWide Development or even purchasing or the Human Relations Council who supposedly did due dilligance and approved these vendors. Unsealed warrants named the dead former County Recorder Willis Blackshear as a suspected bagman- but that’s it. Whaley, who is the queen of pay to play [2]– is still running around talking about DeWine’s corruption- while her own involvement is supposed to be ignored.
The part that can’t get ignored is that it’s now Oct 6, 2021, and Higgins was first indicted with Williams, Winburn and Luckie on April 30, 2019. Over two years- and nothing.The final court date is now scheduled for Jan 10, 2022 at 9am.
In the meantime, the fact that Judge Rose allowed this dog and pony circus to occur in his courtroom today is almost an embarrassment. Higgin’s attorneys got up- asked a few short questions to clarify his expertise (the purpose of this whole hearing) and then Tabacchi took a final stab asking if the Expert had seen the video and audio recordings of Higgins doing something that he considered naughty- and if he would then think that Higgins had committed mail fraud. There’s only 2 problems with this- he didn’t actually present or enter those recordings into the record, and it’s not for the insurance expert to rule on them. That’s for the judge.
As a taxpayer, you should be wondering why all this effort is going into a transaction between an insurance company, a mortgage company and a man who’s had his reputation ruined, while a deadbeat CI is probably still on the FBI payroll.
Today, I also appealed the FBI denial of my FOIA request for the Joey Williams tapes, FBI FD-302 reports, the plea agreements – etc. It will take another month or so before I can file in Federal Court to get those released. In the meantime, why can’t I get Brent Tabacchi or Montgomery County Prosecutore Mat Heck to lift a finger to help collect the $70K judgement I have against a felon who was convicted in Montgomery County for stealing $3K from a Service Disabled Veteran- which she had to pay back- and I’m left with trying to find out where she is working every other month so I can attempt to garnish her pay? If you know where Jennifer Selhorst AKA Jennifer Woodard [3] is working- please let me know.