Broken leg, legal breaks kept fugitive Metro Detroit drug dealers from jail
Robert Snell
The Detroit News
Detroit— Carlos Powell, one of the biggest drug dealers in Metro Detroit history, got bond and went on the run thanks to a bum leg.
Court records pinpoint exactly how the Macomb County man managed to avoid being jailed two years ago pending trial in a massive drug conspiracy case.
The records also reveal Powell, his brother and a friend, all of whom disappeared before their jury returned guilty verdicts Monday, have a history of running from police, violating probation or committing crimes while free on bond.
The back-story emerged Tuesday while a team of fugitive hunters searched for the three fez-wearing drug dealers, who face up to life in prison and $10 million fines.
The U.S. Marshals Service, meanwhile, offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest of each man.
The Powell brothers said in court filings that they wear fezzes because it is considered a religious headdress. They are purported members of the Moorish Science Temple of America and, according to court filings, not subject to U.S. laws.
Temple official Kenny Martin El of Greensboro, N.C., would not say Tuesday whether the group had helped the men flee or if he knew their whereabouts.
“We don’t want to elaborate on that,” he told The News. “They are in their skin, wherever they are.”
Before Carlos Powell showed up for his arraignment in federal court on Feb. 1, 2012, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Cares was going to urge a judge against issuing bond.
But the leader of one of the largest heroin rings in Metro Detroit history walked into federal court in downtown Detroit on crutches and a broken leg.
“Due to defendant’s incapacitation, the government agreed to a bond for defendant as long as it included GPS location monitoring and a curfew,” prosecutors wrote in a later court filing.
So Powell turned in his passport and promised U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon that if he ever fled and got caught, he would pay $50,000 — less than half the value of the Bentley Continental owned by Powell, who stockpiled millions in cash at his Washington Township home.
Powell cut his ankle tether Monday and disappeared after learning his jury had reached a verdict, court officials said.
The decision to grant such a small bond to Powell — a decision former federal prosecutor Keith Corbett called a “joke” — and Powell’s disappearance Monday sparked a round of finger pointing as a team of fugitive hunters searched for Powell, his brother Eric Powell and friend Earnest Proge.
After getting bond in early 2012, Carlos Powell wasn’t done getting in trouble but still managed to stay out of a federal prison while awaiting trial.
On June 18, 2012, Powell was arrested for driving without a license and failing to report an accident in West Bloomfield.
Unlike federal court, the West Bloomfield judge ordered Powell to spend 29 days in the Oakland County Jail.
His brother Eric Powell, meanwhile, had a lengthy rap sheet that included a conviction for fleeing and eluding.
Despite the record, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub released Powell on $10,000 unsecured bond and placed him on home confinement.
Between 1995 and 2003, Eric Powell was on probation for various offenses, including three drug convictions, and violated probation five times, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors pointed to his rap sheet in May 2012 when his defense lawyer unsuccessfully tried to relax bond conditions.
“During the course of this investigation, significant evidence was gathered that Eric Powell is a large-scale drug trafficker with access to very large sums of money,” prosecutors wrote.
Friend Earnest Proge, meanwhile, got a $10,000 unsecured bond from Majzoub despite leading state police on a 10-mile high-speed chase during the drug investigation.
On Sept. 17, 2010, undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents spotted Eric Powell loading three suitcases into a Ford Flex at a home on Stricker Avenue in Eastpointe.
Powell drove to a warehouse and met Proge and a second man.
Proge left in the Ford Flex, heading west on Interstate 94. The DEA agents called Michigan State Police and asked a trooper to stop Proge.
“Proge fled from MSP and engaged multiple police vehicles in a high-speed chase,” Cares wrote in a court filing.
Proge eventually stopped the car and was arrested.
Agents looked inside the Ford Flex and found the suitcases. Inside, they found more than $2.25 million wrapped in heat-sealed plastic bags.
Agents examined the plastic and found a palm print. It belonged to Eric Powell.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy, who presided over the trio’s nearly two-week trial, was outraged Proge and the others were granted bond.
“I think it’s outrageous. Who gave them bond?” he asked prosecutors in court Monday. “Did you appeal that to me?”
Prosecutors shook their head no.
Before demanding prosecutors issue bench warrants for the trio’s arrest, the judge railed against the three missing drug dealers Monday after learning they had disappeared before the jury returned with a verdict.
“Absolutely outrageous,” the judge said.
From The Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140514/METRO01/305140028#ixzz31g3R57Pt
