A controversial local activist known for filing several lawsuits has joined the bizarre feud between collision shop owner Robert Carmack and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
In a lawsuit filed today in Wayne County Circuit Court, union activist Robert Davis claims that the city of Detroit law department ignored a public record request sent on Nov.14 seeking city records related to Carmack’s allegations against the mayor.
Through his lawyer Andrew Paterson, Davis sent the request via U.S. mail to the law department’s fifth-floor offices on Woodward Avenue. Three weeks later, he says, he received no response.
When Paterson asked Jack Dietrich, the city’s public records coordinator, about the lack of a reply, he says he responded: “Don’t know where he sent it to. We didn’t receive it. You can email me a copy and we will process it.”
Duggan spokesman John Roach denied that the city ignored the request.
"This is yet another baseless lawsuit and clear abuse of the legal system," said Deputy Corporation Counsel Chuck Raimi. "Mr. Davis has filed more than a dozen FOIA requests to the city of Detroit since 2015. The city’s law department has responded to all of them. Every single FOIA Robert Davis has filed since 2015 was emailed, except the one he claims the city didn’t respond to. Bottom line, we never received the FOIA and don’t believe Robert Davis ever mailed it. We expect that this lawsuit, like the others, will be dismissed."
The lawsuit is just the latest strange turn in a saga that led Duggan last month to ask Michigan State Police to open an investigation into Carmack, saying the businessman threatened to release embarrassing information if he didn’t settle lawsuits Carmack filed against the city.
In November, Carmack told reporters that he had hired a private investigator to follow Duggan for months to determine whether he lived in the city. Instead, Carmack said, the P.I. saw Duggan making visits after work hours to a Novi condominium where a woman also lived.
Carmack has suggested, but offered no proof, that the two are engaging in an affair.
