An Ann Arbor-based law firm has asked Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to launch a grand jury investigation into the sale of Eagle Elementary School in West Bloomfield Township.
The school — located at 14 Mile and Middlebelt roads — was sold to the Islamic Cultural Association in November after the sale was approved about a year ago by Farmington Public Schools.
According to its website, the Islamic Cultural Association was “founded by a group of families who hoped to establish an Islamic community that modeled their beliefs and values.”
The association purchased the Franklin Building, 32220 Franklin Road in Franklin, in 1987, and has established multiple schools there.
“The ICA has continued to grow and expand, offering its members an Islamic environment where they can feel at home and raise their children with hearts at ease,” the website states.
In a letter written to Schuette, the Thomas More Law Center wrote that “a fog of corruption has indeed enveloped the Farmington Public Schools ... and that this fog of corruption can only be pierced by a grand jury investigation and the use of other investigative tools in the law enforcement arsenal of the Attorney General’s Office,” according to a press release from the law center.
The organization claims that the Islamic Cultural Association has ties to terrorist organizations.
“By agreeing to sell Eagle Elementary to the ICA under these suspicious circumstances, Farmington Schools sacrificed the interest of their children and taxpayers to bring into their community an organization with ties to terrorist organizations,” stated Richard Thompson, president and chief council of the Thomas More Law Center.
In a press release, Farmington Public Schools Superintendent Susan H. Zurvalec calls the letter to the attorney general “another effort by the same group of individuals that has already tried to stop the sale of Eagle Elementary School through litigation and lost.”
When the school was sold for $1.1 million, two area residents filed a lawsuit “claiming they would be negatively affected because they live near the property and that stopping the process would allow one of the plaintiffs to bid on the property,” the district’ statement reads.
“The trial court ruled the plaintiffs have no standing to bring the lawsuit, and the plaintiffs then appealed the ruling.”
The school district claims those same people appear to be behind the investigation request.
The lawsuit is still under appeal, meaning the district cannot access the $1.1 million “that could have been used for the teaching and learning of students,” the statement reads.
“These baseless and unfounded allegations disparage our board, district and staff who work so diligently on behalf of our students. In addition, it costs the district time, money and energy that would otherwise be focused on our core mission,” Zurvalec stated.
The Thomas More Law Center also accuses the school district of “exclusively negotiating behind closed doors in apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act, for many months with their favored buyer, the Islamic Cultural Association,” while telling other interested parties that the school was not for sale.
“Our letter to the Attorney General focused on a catalog of suspicious circumstances dealing with corruption that can best be resolved by a citizens grand jury,” Thompson stated.
“A grand jury with the power to subpoena witnesses and compel testimony would insure that the guilty are brought to justice and the innocent exonerated.”
Thompson was earlier Oakland County’s elected prosecutor, a position he held for eight years. He was most famous for his many failed attempts to prosecute and convict suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was later convicted by Thompson’s successor, David Gorcyca.