A Wayne County judge recused herself from a police major’s lawsuit and indicated it’s unlikely any Wayne County judge could preside over the suit.
Circuit Court Judge April Drake filed her recusal from Richmond Police Department Major Adam Blanton’s lawsuit against Prosecutor Michael Shipman. Drake served as chief deputy prosecutor with Shipman prior to being appointed to replace Judge David Kolger in Circuit Court.
Blanton, an assistant chief and the department’s public information officer, filed the lawsuit seeking to have his name removed from the Wayne County Brady-Giglio list of officers who could potentially be impeached by defendants when testifying in court. The Brady and Giglio rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court require prosecutors to disclose to defendants any dishonesty, criminal conduct, bias, misuse of force or mishandling of evidence that could impeach an officer.
Shipman last fall placed Blanton on the local Brady-Giglio list after Blanton made statements Shipman said are untrue, including a statement connected to the Allen County murder case of Dominique Mejae Washington in the killings of Christina M. Dixon, 40, and Matthew J. Johnson, 41. Another is connected to a YouTube prankster who attached himself to a pole near Richmond’s Red Lobster restaurant.
The city of Richmond hired Indianapolis law firm Bose McKinney & Evans through a professional services agreement to handle Blanton’s lawsuit, according to a city statement released to WWN through city attorney A.J. Sickmann.
“Unfortunately, Adam’s placement on this list interferes with the Richmond Police Department’s ability to do its work on behalf of Richmond’s citizens and the administration does not feel that Adam’s placement on this list is justified by the facts,” the statement read. “As such, the Richmond Police Department identified funding to be utilized to remedy this issue. This was a necessary action to ensure the efficient operation of the Richmond Police Department, which includes safeguarding against similar future decisions against RPD officers.”
In an email to WWN, Shipman wrote that taxpayers should not bear the cost of “what will be expensive litigation.”
“Limited city tax revenue should be directed toward important issues such as blight, crime and improving city employee compensation,” Shipman wrote.
A version of this article appeared in the January 22 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.