Drug accusations jeopardize future of legendary Detroit recording studio
By ROBERT SNELL
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Detroit Legal Issues Real Estate Entertainment City of Detroit Crime/Courts Mike Duggan Detroit 2.0
Here is a sampling of albums and songs recorded at United Sound Systems Recording Studios:
John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillun"
Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On"
Bob Seger, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"
The MC5, "Back In The U.S.A."
Isaac Hayes, "Shaft"
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Freaky Styley"
Rolling Stones/Aretha Franklin, "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
Aretha Franklin & The Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doin' it For Themselves"
Source: United Sound Systems
Correction appended
A landmark Detroit recording studio threatened by the I-94 widening project is in jeopardy again because the historic venue was bought with alleged drug money, according to federal court records.
United Sound SystemsRecording Studios, where Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger and Motown Record Corp. founder Berry Gordy recorded hits, factors into a bizarre case involving coast-to-coast manhunts, a $3 billion highway project and two alleged drug dealers, including one who had hair and eyebrow transplant surgery while hiding from federal agents, according to court records.
The federal court records chronicle a troubled chapter for the nation's oldest independent recording studio. The studio drew attention last year when Detroit City Council designated it a historic district. This means it would require city approval before the venue could be demolished to accommodate the widening of I-94.
Dwayne Richards: Trial set for June 7 in federal court in Ann Arbor.
Late last month, federal prosecutors asked a judge to have the Midtown property forfeited to the government because the studio allegedly was purchased with money from alleged drug dealer Dwayne Richards, according to a court filing. Richards, 44, who owned Detroit record label Big Hommie Records, was a fugitive for four years before being caught in metro Detroit in January.
The legal fight could give the Justice Department a prime piece of Midtown real estate and remove an obstacle slowing progress on the federally funded I-94 project. The project is being redrawn to potentially preserve the recording studio. But if the feds win, the Justice Department could simply sell the land, or give it to the state.
"If that place comes down, it will cut the heart out of the Detroit music business," said Royal Oak businessman Ed Wolfrum, the studio's chief engineer from the late 1960s through early 1970s.
Federal prosecutors are not using drug allegations as a ploy to seize the property for the I-94 widening project, said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
Michigan Department of Transportation officials acknowledge the United recording studio, preservation efforts and Midtown's resurgence have complicated and delayed the widening project.
"We just don't know if we need the property or not," MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said. "We never made an offer, primarily because we're still refining the design to minimize the impact in Midtown."
United Sound Systems is a two-story red brick home with a large rear studio addition at the corner of Antoinette Street and Second Avenue, north of I-94 in Midtown. The studio was established in 1933 and evolved from a venue that produced advertising jingles into a musical factory that hosted jazz greats, blues musicians and rock stars through the 1980s and 1990s.
Singer Marv Johnson recorded "Come to Me" at United in 1959, the first single released by Gordy before he opened Motown's headquarters, Hitsville U.S.A., less than two miles away.
By 2009, the studio had fallen into disrepair and foreclosure.
Family ties
The federal drug case, meanwhile, dates to November 2012 when alleged drug dealer Richards was charged in federal court with conspiring to distribute cocaine. Richards, however, disappeared, triggering a years-long manhunt.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents soon learned Richards was the cousin of a second fugitive accused of distributing drugs in Detroit, a California man named Mark Jones.
Jones had been shipping cocaine from California to Richards in metro Detroit since 2000, according to court records. Jones also disappeared that same year, but the drug investigation intensified in April 2011 when Indiana State Police troopers pulled over a car hauler. Inside, investigators found 40 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside a 2007 Mercedes-Benz and a 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom bound for a Detroit-area customer.
Fugitive alleged drug dealer Mark Jones had hair and eyebrow transplant surgery while hiding from federal agents, according to court records. The inset image on the left was taken before his transformation.
Something was missing, however. The car hauler was built for three.
Inside the car hauler, investigators found paperwork for the missing car, a 2003 BMW 745i registered to Jones, the fugitive alleged drug dealer, prosecutors allege.
The Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz were sold through luxury car broker Marc Laidler of Los Angeles, court records show.
After finding drugs inside the luxury cars in 2011, investigators analyzed Laidler's bank records and discovered more than $253,000 in cash deposited in Michigan, court records allege.
In January 2011, Laidler bought cashier's checks totaling $42,700 payable to Fine Touch Dermatology in Redondo Beach, Calif., according to court records. The checks included the notation "Shawn Burman" — an alias for Jones, the Califorinia fugitive who had been missing for 11 years, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Beck. The services purchased were hair and eyebrow transplant work, Beck wrote in a court filing. "These records included photographs which confirmed that the patient Shawn Burman was in fact Mark Jones."
After the surgery, Jones would stay missing for four more years until federal agents caught him near Los Angeles last fall. Jones, 51, is awaiting trial in a separate drug case in Mississippi.
Meanwhile, cooperating witnesses told agents that Richards was involved with or owned a music studio in Detroit, court records allege. The studio: United Sound Systems.
One witness said Richards' money was used to buy the studio, prosecutors alleged.
Property records show Richards' cousin Danielle Scott, a 43-year-old Redford Township resident who worked for the U.S. Postal Service, bought the foreclosed studio property for $20,000 in May 2009.
Another witness said Richards' wife Chynita, 39, oversaw day-to-day operations, booked artist recordings at United "and that drug transactions have taken place in the building."
Music wasn't the only other business venture for Dwayne Richards, prosecutors alleged. He was among the investors of the 2012 movie comedy "House Arrest."
Two years after the film was released, United Sound Systems reopened in 2014. One witness spotted Dwayne Richards inside, renovating the studio, prosecutors said.
In September 2014, MDOT officials met with Scott to talk about the I-94 widening project and the process for possibly buying or moving the studio, MDOT's Morosi told Crain's.
And, in May 2015, Chynita Richards and Scott testified in front of a City Council committee regarding the historic district designation.
"We really didn't know what we were getting into by reopening United Sound Systems recording studios," Chynita Richards told City Council members. "United Sound is such a gem in Detroit because we have so many hits that were recorded there."
Wolfrum, the studio's former chief engineer, visited the studio and said the new owners ripped out, in some cases, pioneering, innovative equipment that helped create United's sound.
"It's sort of wrecked now," Wolfrum said.
An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect date for when MDOT officials met with Scott to talk about the I-94 widening project.
In the shadows
The historic designation won't necessarily save the studio from being demolished for the I-94 project, said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.
"If the federal government wins, they can do whatever they want with the property," Henning said. "That said, I think (U.S. Attorney) Barbara McQuade is very cognizant of the interests of the city, and I doubt she would want to wade into a fight by doing something that would get the city of Detroit mad."
When City Council approved the historic designation, a federal investigation involving the studio site continued in the shadows.
After analyzing Scott's bank accounts and flagging more than $33,000 worth of cash deposits and checks, federal agents and the U.S. Attorney's Office reached a conclusion.
"It appears that Dwayne Richards, a known cocaine trafficker, used Danielle D. Scott to try to conceal the movement of money and property that are the proceeds of his drug trafficking activities by purchasing" the studio, the prosecutor wrote.
Scott has not been charged with a crime. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The federal investigation reached a breakthrough in January when Dwayne Richards, the alleged drug dealer and fugitive, was finally located and arrested in metro Detroit.
He is being held without bond and set for trial June 7 in federal court in Ann Arbor. If convicted, Richards faces up to life in prison.
There is a strange continuity in the studio's history if the government's drug allegations are true, said Wolfrum, the former United Sound Systems chief engineer.
"My gosh, if you look at the history of that place, there were always nefarious characters," he said. "I worked with (singer) George Clinton there. Hell, there isn't anything he didn't put in his body."
