Your week in metro Detroit: A message from M.L. Elrick, back at Freep
Good morning, Free Press subscribers,
I was pretty sure disgraced former lawmaker and perennial deadbeat Brian Banks wasn't going to show up at the lawyer's office where he had been ordered to appear so debt collectors could ask where he stashed all of the money he owes them, but I went there anyway.
One reason is because Banks doesn't take my calls. I've been busting the 8-time felon for nearly a decade, so the lies he tells others don't get very far with me. And he doesn't like that.
Nicholas John "Don't Call Me Bobak" Hathaway also doesn't return my calls. I think he's still mad that my reports in 2020 exposed how he ditched the name he was born with (Bobak) for his wife's name (Hathaway) as part of an apparent attempt to win a judgeship by bamboozling voters into thinking he was one of the famous Hathaways who never seem to lose a judicial race in Wayne County.
But it's all OK, because I gave up trying to be liked by the time I graduated from high school in 1985.
It's more important to me to ask the hard questions that get the answers you deserve.
That's why plenty of public officials try to avoid me, but many of my neighbors tell me to "stay on 'em" when I bump into them at Aldi on Sunday after church.
A lot of folks recognize me because I was the investigative reporter at Fox 2 from 2012 to 2020, and because I ran for Detroit City Council in 2021. I'm at the Free Press now because I'm a better reporter than I was a politician. And while I've worked in television, done some radio and host the ML's Soul of Detroit podcast, I've spent most of my career at the Free Press. I started in college back in 1989 as a part-time clerk in the Lansing bureau. In 1999, I came back for a full-time job as obituary writer and night cops reporter. Along the way I became the world's foremost expert on the early life of Eminem, covered the rise and fall of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and marched with Detroit Will Breathe throughout the summer of 2020.
Now I write the "On Guard" column that appears every Sunday. We created it so I could continue holding public officials accountable and sharing the insights I've gained from 30 years on the job.
By the way, Banks didn't make his appointment.
And "Hathaway" is running for judge again.
Thank you for supporting watchdog journalism! If you know someone who wants to help me keep an eye on officials who put self service before public service, please encourage them to subscribe.
That way we can make things better – together!
— M.L. Elrick
"On Guard" columnist, mlelrick@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A message from M.L. Elrick, back at Freep
